The BABC is the largest transatlantic business network, with over 20 chapters and more than 2500 member companies, including many of the world's largest multinationals, based in major business centers throughout North America and the United Kingdom.

 

Companies can gain access to the benefits of membership in this network by joining one of the BABC's chapters - all of which are independent British-American business organizations that participate in the BABC to provide their member companies with a broader transatlantic business network and additional member benefits including marketing, networking and business inteligence opportunities.

 

The BABC also offers our members access to a broad range of other services including:

  • its J1 Visa program, enabling member companies to bring qualified employees into the USA;
  • extensive business databases providing detailed financial, descriptive and ownership information on the top 300,000 companies in 38 European countries and the top 350,000 US and Canada-based companies;
  • a range of marketing opportunities to promote their goods and services to other member companies throughout the BABC network;
  • a range of money-saving opportunities to take advantage of the discounts offered by other BABC member companies on their goods and services;
  • regular business/economic updates (“Investment News’), prepared and circulated by the BABC for its member companies;
  • regular policy updates (‘Policy Focus’), also circulated by the BABC for its member companies, summarizing major policy developments in Brussels, London and Washington, DC, and policy initiatives taken on behalf of the BABC’s member companies. 
 
The BABC works closely with both the UK and US Governments, in the promotion of our mutual interests in the promotion of transatlantic business, and of the interests of our member companies. 

 

BABC INTERNATIONAL ADVISORY BOARD

Chairman: Sir Martin Sorrell, WPP
Sanjiv Ahuja, Orange Group
Gerard J. Arpey, AMR Corporation/American Airlines, Inc.
Lionel Barber, Financial Times
Sir John Bond, Vodafone
David Brennan, AstraZeneca PLC
Martin Broughton, British Airways
Lord Browne of Madingley KCMG, BP plc
Anthony Burgmans, British Airways
Sir William Castell, GE Healthcare
James E Cayne, Bear Stearns Companies Inc.
Jonathan Chevenix-Trench, Morgan Stanley International Limited
John Connolly, Deloitte
Andrew Cosslett, InterContinental Hotels Group plc
Sir Andrew Crockett, JP Morgan Chase International
Crispin Davis, Reed Elsevier Group plc
Ian Davis, McKinsey & Co.
Samuel A DiPiazza Jr, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
Edward Dolman, Christie’s
William Emmott
Timothy P Flynn, KPMG LLP
Chris Gibson-Smith, London Stock Exchange
Tom H Glocer, Reuters Group plc
Michael Golden, International Herald Tribune & New York Times
Michael Grade CBE, ITV
Peter Grauer, Bloomberg L.P.
Stephen Green, HSBC Holdings plc
Robert Greifeld, NASDAQ
Sir Thomas Harris, Standard Chartered Bank
Steve Holliday, National Grid plc
Huw Jenkins, UBS Investment Bank
Michael Jordan, Electronic Data Systems Corporations
Peter R. Kann, Dow Jones & Company
Larry Kellner, Continental Airlines
Michael Klein, Citigroup
David Komansky, Merrill Lynch and Co., Inc.
The Hon. Philip Lader, Morgan Stanley International
Richard Lambert, Confederation of British Embassy
Kenneth D. Lewis, Bank of America Corporation
Sir Francis H. Mackay
Graham Mackay, SABMiller plc
Sir David Manning, British Ambassador to the USA

 

June, 2007 - A message from David Kay, incoming President of the British American Business Council:

 
"Dear BABC Colleagues:
 

I am honored to have been elected at our recent Board of Directors Meeting in Los Angeles on May 19 to serve as the BABC's President for the coming year.

 

I look forward very much to working with you all to continue to build our organization, which is now clearly established as the largest and most effective business network.  I know that your Regional Representatives will be in touch with you to make sure that there is an ongoing flow of information between all chapters/ affiliates and our Executive Committee.  Communication is essential in an organization such as the BABC and our Regional Representatives will play an important role in solidfying the network.

 

The BABC made major progress during the term of my predecessor, John Hancock -- particularly in improving the consistency of our performance throughout the organization. It is important that we continue to raise our standards if we want our member companies -- and the UK and US Governments - to invest their time, trust and resources with us.  
 
In order to maintain our strong membership, it is essential that we focus on “member value” throughout the organization. This is a priority for me over the coming year, so I would ask you all to continue to play your part in improving, and making the most of, our collective assets (including our Online Membership Directory and Online Calendar), and in promoting the BABC and its benefits to your own membership. A new concept is our 'Patron' status, which offers an exclusive opportunity for additional visibility with our membership as a whole. The Secretariat will be re-issuing to you information on the Patron status, for onward distribution to your own membership, if you so wish; and will be happy also to re-send our other marketing flyers, if you would like us to do so.   
 
I look forward very much to staying in touch with you over the coming months and to seeing you at our Workshop in New York on September 29 and 30 -- I do hope you will be able to join us for this, as it is a tremendous opportunity to share ideas on how to grow and strengthen our organization, and most importantly, get to know each other a little better. Also, I would like to invite you, your Board and your membership to our next Annual Transatlantic Business Conference from April 23-25, 2008 in my own home town of Chicago.
 
Please feel free to share this message with your Board members and/or post on your website, if you feel this would be appropriate and helpful.
 
Very best wishes.
 
 
David Kay

President"

 

The BritishAmerican Business Council: Policy Work
 
The BritishAmerican Business Council, through its chapters in London and Washington, DC, is actively engaged on policy issues on behalf of all its member companies.
 
Our overall objective is to promote open, competitive, markets for our members on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as to achieve specific policy goals that advance our members’ interests. 
 
Using our privileged relationships with the US and UK governments, we engage in a regular dialog about specific issues of interest to our members with key decision-makers in Government. We also periodically take formal positions on particular issues of key importance, when this is both appropriate and helpful.
 
Such initiatives have included:
 
·         In July 2007, in response to concerns expressed by our members, we wrote to the UK Secretary of State for Transport to outline our members’ mounting concerns with Heathrow, and called for a number of short and longer-term solutions.  These included abolishing the ‘no two bags’ policy for carry-on luggage; provision of sufficient security personnel to ensure safety and reduce waiting time; provision of sufficient space for travelers to wait in all terminals; and improved maintenance of travelators as well as improved signage.
 
·         In response to a consultation by the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) about the EU’s Unfair Commercial Practices (UCP) Directive, we submitted a paper laying out our members’ concerns that the proposals relating to misleading packaging would not be effective, and suggested measures to remedy this. 
 
·         At the request of the UK Treasury, we submitted a position paper for consideration at the 2007 EU-US Annual Summit, which took place in Washington, D.C. on April 30,2007. In it, we supported EU and US efforts to create a transatlantic economic partnership and urged progress to be made on the following issues: the WTO Doha Development Round, technology transfer and the International Traffic Arms Regulation (ITAR), and the promotion of regulatory and standards cooperation.
 
·         At the request of the UK Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, we responded to the report by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) on the Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme (PPRS), expressing serious concerns about the impact of specific aspects of the proposals. We look forward to engaging in further discussion with the Department about this.   
 
·         In response to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) consultation on the EU’s proposals to widen the scope of its Television Without Frontiers Directive, we expressed our members’ concerns that the close economic relationship between the US and UK could be damaged by these proposals as they could lead US companies to invest outside the EU (and therefore outside the UK) in countries with less stringent regulation. We also expressed concern about the impact on innovation that increased regulation of the audio-visual media sector would have as technology was still rapidly evolving.
 
·         In a letter to the UK Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, we took issue with the proposed codification of directors’ duties contained in the Companies Bill, warning of thenegative impact this would have on future US investors because of the lack of clarity in the text.
 
·         In response to members’ concerns about proposals under consideration in the House of Representatives to impose a $1500 training fee on L-1 company transferee visas, we wrote to the Chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives, arguing successfully that this fee would impact negatively on international commerce and job creation and business investment in the US.
 
·         Earlier, we were similarly successful with our representations over two successive years to the key Committee Chairmen in the Senate and the House of Representatives, when we urged an extension to the deadline for the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) as the majority of countries using the VWP program were unable to meet the original deadlines: the deadline was accordingly extended on two separate occasions, for an additional year. 
 
In addition to this formal dialogue with governments, the BritishAmerican Business Council’s chapters in London, Washington, DC, and New York, also hold regular forums for informed discussion between members and senior US, UK and EU Ministers and officials.