The Chicago Council on Foreign Relations said it is absorbing the Mid-America Committee for International Business and Government Cooperation, hoping the move will streamline efforts to draw prominent figures to speak to Chicago business executives.
Six members of The Mid-America Committee’s executive committee will join the board of the Chicago Council, the groups said in a statement.
The combination “will offer a strong single platform to the leaders of the Chicago business community for interaction with national and international leaders and discussion of critical economic and business affairs,” said John W. Madigan, chairman of the Chicago Council and chairman and chief executive of Tribune Co.
Council President Marshall M. Bouton said the combined groups started presenting events this week under a new name–Mid-America Committee of the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations.
The council’s corporate program was started in 1974 to sponsor events for business leaders, including speakers, panels and conferences.
Both the Mid-America Committee and the council have brought business and political leaders to speak to chief executives of large Chicago-area companies.
Bouton said the council had more of a focus on foreign policy than the Mid-America Committee, which he said tended to focus more on general business and political themes. He said the combination will “put the two approaches to programming together in what I think will be a much stronger single offering to the business community.”
“There has been a sense among business leaders in the city that having two organizations that overlapped so much in their activity was not really in the interests of the city,” Bouton said.
Council and Mid-America Committee leaders approved the new arrangement on April 8. The move follows the council’s incorporation in February of Global Chicago, a group with similar aims.
Carl Swanson, who was president and chief operating officer of the Mid-America Committee, has become the group’s executive director for corporate and leadership programs. Swanson could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
The Mid-America Committee was formed in 1966 and led by Thomas H. Miner. Miner will serve as a consultant to the new group.
