Wall Street Journal CEO Council to Convene Global Business Leaders in Unprecedented Discussion of Issues Facing Incoming Obama Administration

• Press Release
• Source: Dow Jones & Company
• On 1:42 pm EST, Monday November 17, 2008

 Rahm Emanuel, Chief of Staff for President-elect Obama, to Participate

  Treasury Secretary Paulson and Former Treasury Secretaries Rubin and
                  Summers to Address Economic Issues

WASHINGTON, Nov. 17, 2008 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Wall Street Journal is assembling a group of more than 100 global business leaders and CEOs, U.S. Senators and members of Congress for an unprecedented discussion of four urgent issues: finance and the U.S. economy, energy and the environment, health care, and America's role in the global economy.

The meeting will be held Nov. 17-18, 2008 here at the Four Seasons Hotel. The Journal's CEO Council will identify what it believes are the most urgent priorities for the incoming administration and the new Congress.

Addressing the Journal's CEO Council on Tuesday night will be Rahm Emanuel, the newly-appointed chief of staff for President-elect Barack Obama.

The meeting will open with a dinner session that includes U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson, Jr., and two former U.S. Treasury Secretaries, Robert E. Rubin and Lawrence H. Summers.

``There is good reason for the collective corporate mind to be concentrated,'' said Robert Thomson, editor-in-chief of Dow Jones & Company and managing editor of The Wall Street Journal. ``The coming of a new administration and the extraordinary financial upheaval are affecting virtually every company and every employee around the world. For the world's leading executives to gather in one place at this time is genuinely remarkable.''

To address the issues in depth, the group will work within four task forces, each facilitated by a top Journal editor. The task forces are charged with identifying and ranking the most urgent priorities within each issue area. The members of The Wall Street Journal CEO Council come from diverse industries and together are responsible for nearly six million jobs and more than $2 trillion in revenue.

Some of the nearly 100 CEOs who will be participating in the first annual CEO

Council meeting include:

 * Jeffrey L. Bewkes, president and chief executive officer, Time
   Warner Inc.
 * Lloyd C. Blankfein, chairman and chief executive officer, The
   Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
 * Angela F. Braly, president and chief executive officer, WellPoint
   Inc.
 * Stephanie A. Burns, chairman, president and chief executive
   officer, Dow Coming Corporation
 * Carlos Ghosn, president and chief executive officer, Nissan Motor
   Co., Ltd., and President and CEO, Renault S.A.
 * Paul S. Otellini, president and chief executive officer, Intel
   Corporation
 * Eric Schmidt, chairman and chief executive officer, Google Inc.
 * Frederick W. Smith, chairman, president and chief executive
   officer, FedEx Corporation
 * Sir Martin Sorrell, chief executive officer, WPP Group plc
 * William C. Weldon, chairman and chief executive officer, Johnson
   & Johnson
 * Yang Yuanqing, chairman, Lenovo

The following Journal editors will be moderating the panel discussions throughout the two-day meeting: Jeffrey Ball, environmental news editor; John Bussey, Washington DC bureau chief; Laura Landro, assistant managing editor; Alan Murray, deputy managing editor; Gerald Seib, executive Washington editor; Robert Thomson, managing editor; and David Wessel, economics editor.

Also participating in The Wall Street Journal CEO Council meeting will be Senators Max Baucus (D. MT), Jeff Bingaman (D. NM), Maria Cantwell (D. WA), and Charles Schumer (D. NY), and other special guests.

A wrap-up of the CEO Council's first meeting will be covered in a Journal Report to be published on Nov. 24.

For more information and a list of participants at The Wall Street Journal CEO Council, please visit http://ceocouncil.wsj.com.

About The Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal, the flagship publication of Dow Jones & Company is the world's leading business publication. Founded in 1889, The Wall Street Journal has a print and online circulation of more than 2 million, reaching the nation's top business and political leaders, as well as investors across the country. Holding 33 Pulitzer Prizes for outstanding journalism, The Wall Street Journal provides readers with trusted information and knowledge to make better decisions. The Wall Street franchise has more than 760 journalists world-wide, part of the Dow Jones network of nearly 1,900 business and financial news staff. Other publications that are part of The Wall Street Journal franchise, with a global audience of 3.8 million, include The Wall Street Journal Asia and The Wall Street Journal Europe. The Wall Street Journal Online at WSJ.com is the largest paid subscription news site on the Web with 10.9 million users each month. In 2008, the Journal was ranked No. 1 in BtoB's Media Power 50 for the ninth consecutive year. The Wall Street Journal Radio Network services news and information to more than 310 radio stations in the U.S.

The Wall Street Journal logo is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=2641

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