Founded by Peter G. Peterson, a businessman, investment banker, author, and politician. He served in the Nixon administration as United States Secretary of Commerce from 1972 to 1973. Peterson also served as Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York from 2000 to 2004. He is the co-founder of The Blackstone Group, an alternative asset management and financial services company. He is the author of "The Education of an American Dreamer: How a Son of Greek Immigrants Learned His Way from a Nebraska Diner to Washington, Wall Street, and Beyond." Peter G. Peterson has committed to The Giving Pledge, and has pledged to give away at least half of his wealth to philanthropy