Shortly after his time as U.S. Secretary of State from 1973 to 1977, Dr. Henry A. Kissinger was appointed by David Rockefeller, then chairman of Chase Manhattan Bank, to serve as vice chairman of the Bank’s International Advisory Committee.
Created in 1965, the International Advisory Committee (IAC) consisted of well-respected business professionals from all over the world, whose purpose was to advise the Bank on international, social, and political developments. Kissinger became chairman of the IAC in 1978, a position he held until 1981 when he was appointed Counselor to Chase Manhattan Bank on international matters.
He continued to serve as a valuable member of the IAC, when Rockefeller retired from the bank and became IAC chairman, through the 2000 merger of Chase Manhattan Bank and J.P. Morgan & Co., until his death on November 29, 2023 at 100 years of age.
Throughout the years, Kissinger remained active with other JPMorgan Chase predecessors. He was the keynote speaker at the Bank One Economic Forum in 1989 in Milwaukee, where he spoke about the transition of communist countries to democratic countries in Eastern Europe. In 1991, he received an award from Manufacturers Hanover for his service with the New York City Refugee Employment Project. Kissinger traveled with Bill Harrison, then JPMorgan Chase Chairman and CEO, in 2004 to China where the two leaders met with key clients, government officials and business leaders.
Much more recently, Kissinger had been a part of a September 2023 roundtable meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Manhattan alongside Asset & Wealth Management CEO Mary Erdoes.
