George Pratt Shultz (born December 13, 1920) is an American economist, statesman, and businessman. He served as the United States Secretary of Labor from 1969 to 1970, as the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury from 1972 to 1974, and as the U.S. Secretary of State from 1982 to 1989. Before entering politics, he was professor of economics at MIT and the University of Chicago, serving as Dean of the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business from 1962 to 1969. Between 1974 and 1982, Shultz was an executive at Bechtel, eventually becoming the firm's president. He is currently a distinguished fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution.

George Shultz was born in New York City, the only child of Margaret Lennox (née Pratt) and Birl Earl Shultz. He grew up in Englewood, New Jersey.

In 1938, Shultz graduated from the Loomis Chaffee School in Windsor, Connecticut. He earned a bachelor's degree, cum laude, at Princeton University, in economics with a minor in public and international affairs. His senior thesis examined the Tennessee Valley Authority's effect on local agriculture, for which he conducted on-site research. Shultz graduated with honors in 1942.

Jonas Gahr Støre (born 25 August 1960 in Oslo) is the Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs, having been appointed to Jens Stoltenberg's second cabinet on 17 October 2005. He represents the Norwegian Labour Party.

Støre is the son of ship-owner Ulf Jonas Støre and Unni Gahr. He attended Berg School in Oslo followed by naval officer training at the Royal Norwegian Naval Academy. He later studied political science at the Sciences Po in Paris. He enrolled as a PhD student at the London School of Economics, but withdrew after a few weeks, as he decided not to pursue an academic career.

He started his professional career as a teaching fellow in the Harvard Negotiation Project at Harvard Law School in 1986. This was followed by a position as researcher at the Norwegian School of Management (1986–1989) and special adviser at the Norwegian Office of the Prime Minister from 1989 to 1995. He was Director General for International Affairs at the Office of the Prime Minister from 1995 to 1998, and he subsequently held the position of ambassador in the Norwegian Delegation to the United Nations Office at Geneva.

Robert Michael Gates (born September 25, 1943) is the 24th Chancellor of the College of William and Mary and a retired civil servant and university president who served as the 22nd United States Secretary of Defense from 2006 to 2011. Prior to this, Gates served for 26 years in the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Council, and under President George H. W. Bush as Director of Central Intelligence. Gates was also an officer in the United States Air Force and during the early part of his military career, he was recruited by the CIA. After leaving the CIA, Gates became president of Texas A&M University and was a member of several corporate boards. Gates also served as a member of the Iraq Study Group, the bipartisan commission co-chaired by James A. Baker III and Lee H. Hamilton, that has studied the Iraq War. He was also the first pick to serve as the first Director of National Intelligence (DNI), but he declined the appointment in order to remain President of Texas A&M University.