Eisenhower Convenes Business Leaders to Create Public Affairs Council for Political Mobilization

President Dwight D. Eisenhower convenes a meeting of business executives in 1954 to encourage creation of a national organization making business people from both parties active participants in the political process, launching what becomes the Public Affairs Council. The organization is initially incorporated as the Effective Citizens Organization (ECO), explicitly designed to mobilize corporate executives for political involvement in their communities and the electoral system. At the time, the concept of corporate “public affairs” is only beginning to emerge, initially meaning legislative monitoring and corporate community involvement, with only a handful of companies maintaining formal public affairs programs in the 1950s.

The Eisenhower-initiated organization evolves throughout the 1960s as the interrelationship between business and government grows more complex. In 1962, ECO relocates from New York City to Washington, D.C., positioning itself at the center of federal policymaking. In 1964, the organization offers its first series of conferences and roundtables, including the inaugural Public Affairs Training Seminar (PATS), providing public affairs professionals their first opportunities to learn groundbreaking approaches being developed for corporate political engagement. The organization formally changes its name to the Public Affairs Council in 1965, reflecting the broadening definition of “public affairs” to encompass political involvement, lobbying (government relations), political action committees, corporate community involvement, issues management, grassroots advocacy, and public relations.

By 2024, the Public Affairs Council boasts a diverse membership of over 750 organizations—including Fortune 100 companies, nonprofits, associations, consultancies, and universities—representing nearly 13,000 individuals working in public affairs. The organization holds more than 100 conferences and workshops annually, including the largest national conferences on corporate and association grassroots, political action committees, and corporate philanthropy. The growth from a handful of corporate public affairs programs in the 1950s to thousands today demonstrates the systematic expansion of business political infrastructure that Eisenhower’s 1954 initiative helped catalyze. The Public Affairs Council’s founding reveals that a Republican president and war hero actively encouraged business political mobilization more than 15 years before the Powell Memo, contradicting the narrative that business lacked political organization before 1971.