Lieutenant General Leslie Richard Groves, Jr. (17 August 1896 – 13 July 1970) was a United States Army Corps of Engineers officer who oversaw the construction of the Pentagon and directed the Manhattan Project that developed the atomic bomb during World War II. As the son of a United States Army chaplain, Groves lived at a number of Army posts during his childhood. He graduated fourth in his class at the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1918 and was commissioned into the US Army Corps of Engineers. In 1929, he went to Nicaragua as part of an expedition whose purpose was to conduct a survey for the Inter-Oceanic Nicaragua Canal. Following the 1931 Nicaragua earthquake, Groves took over responsibility for Managua's water supply system, for which he was awarded the Nicaraguan Presidential Medal of Merit. He attended the Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, in 1935 and 1936, and the Army War College in 1938 and 1939, after which he was posted to the War Department General Staff.

Robert R. Furman (1915–2008) was a civil engineer who during World War II was the chief of foreign intelligence for the Manhattan Engineer District directing espionage against the German nuclear energy project. The depth of his involvement during the war was only revealed in the few years before his death.

As a civil engineer he was a key figure overseeing the construction of The Pentagon building and later in life founded Furman Builders Inc.

He was born on August 21, 1915, in Trenton, New Jersey. He attended Princeton University and graduated in 1937 with a degree in civil engineering.

In December 1940, Furman was activated as a member of the United States Army Reserve and assigned to the Quartermaster Corps construction division where he oversaw day-to-day construction of The Pentagon. He was overseen in this work by Leslie Groves. When the building was completed in 1943, Groves was reassigned to the "Manhattan Project" and brought his aide, Furman, with him. In August 1943 Furman was put in charge of an intelligence effort formed by Groves in response to concerns of the atomic bomb project scientists about the German nuclear effort. As director of intelligence Furman was responsible for ascertaining the progress the Germans were making, a series of operations with the intent to place all uranium in Europe into allied hands, and at the end of the war rounding up German atomic scientists and keeping them out of the Soviet Union. He also participated in missions on the front lines, including a daring commando raid into Belgium to seize a sample of German uranium under sniper fire. In July 1945, he personally escorted half of the uranium necessary for the atomic bomb Little Boy to Tinian.

Bernard Mannes Baruch (/bəˈruːk/; 1870–1965) was an American financier, stock-market speculator, statesman, and political consultant. After his success in business, he devoted his time toward advising U.S. Presidents Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt on economic matters and became a philanthropist.

Bernard Baruch was born in Camden, South Carolina to Simon and Belle Baruch. He was the second of four sons. His father Simon Baruch (1840–1921) was a German immigrant of Ashkenazi Jewish ethnicity who came with his family to the United States in 1855. He studied medicine, became a doctor, and served as a surgeon on the staff of Confederate general Robert E. Lee during the American Civil War. He was a pioneer in physical therapy. His mother's Sephardic Jewish ancestors (likely from Amsterdam or London) came to New York as early as the 1690s, where they became part of the shipping business.

In 1881 the family moved from Camden to New York City, where Bernard and his brothers attended local schools. He studied at and graduated from the City College of New York.

Alan Friedman (born April 30, 1956) is an American journalist and media executive.

Friedman was educated at New York University (NYU) (B.A. Politics and History), the London School of Economics (International Relations) and the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (M.A. International Economics and Law).

Friedman worked in the administration of President Jimmy Carter in the role of Presidential Management Intern. He began his professional career working for the staff of Hon. Bella Abzug (D-NY) and of Hon. Donald Fraser (D-MN).

From 1979 to 1993 he worked for the Financial Times of London, as a columnist on bonds, a banking correspondent and a foreign correspondent in Italy and the United States. His professional relationship with the International Herald Tribune and RAI made way, in 1999, to a joint venture for the co-production of the weekly programmes World Business/Pianeta Economia (Planet Economy), produced by FBC.

He was recognized as the journalist who led the report on the Iraqgate scandal in 1991 that connected the CIA with the supply of non-U.S. origin weapons to Saddam Hussein.