A committee (or "commission") is a type of small deliberative assembly that is usually intended to remain subordinate to another, larger deliberative assembly—which when organized so that action on committee requires a vote by all its entitled members, is called the "Committee of the Whole". Committees often serve several different functions:

A committee that is a subset of a larger committee is called a subcommittee.

Where the larger group has a name other than "committee" - for example, "Board" or "Commission", the smaller group(s) would usually be called committee(s), not subcommittee(s), and might go by an entirely different name, or substitute "Commission" for "Committee". For example in the sciences, the "International Commission on Stratigraphy" (ICS) a standing working committee is doing organizational work establishing uniform naming and benchmarks in the geologic record and timeline since 1974, all under the auspices of the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS). It is technically the "International Stratigraphy Committee" (ISC), which has limited executive committee powers to impanel other subcommittees (also called commissions) to resolve certain matters involving the Geologic time scale—its deliberations and those of its subcommittees must be adopted by the IUGS which meets in a committee-of-the-whole or Congress, every four years or so to deliberate on the subcommittee recommendations and officially adopt or not-adopt such.

Sunil Gulati (born July 30, 1959) is the current president of the United States Soccer Federation and a member of Economics faculty of Columbia University. He was formerly President of Kraft Soccer for the New England Revolution in Major League Soccer, and is a special advisor to The Kraft Group and the Kraft family.

Elected in March 2006, Gulati is one of the most influential figures in the development of US soccer over the past 30 years. Former USSF president and Major League Soccer founder Alan Rothenberg called Gulati "the single most important person in the development of soccer in this country.". Gulati served as USSF Vice-President for six years and played a key role in major USSF decisions for many years prior to his election as president. In February 2009, Gulati announced that US Soccer will bid for the right to host the World Cup in 2018 or 2022. He chaired the World Cup USA Bid Committee Board of Directors.

In practice, the USSF has a full-time professional staff in Chicago to handle the federation's day-to-day business (in addition to training/development facilities in Florida and California). This provides Gulati with the ability to maintain a parallel, full-time career in academia. He is currently in his second stint as a highly regarded lecturer in economics at Columbia University, having previously served on the Columbia Economics Faculty from 1986 to 1990. At Columbia, Gulati teaches Principles of Economics, Global economics and Sports Economics. Sports economics often heavily over-subscribed, with students known to camp out overnight to secure a place.

Narendra Damodardas Modi (Gujarati: નરેન્દ્ર મોદી; born 17 September 1950) is the current Chief Minister of the Indian state of Gujarat. Born in a middle class family in Vadnagar, he was the third of six children born to Damodardas Mulchand Modi and his wife Heeraben. He has been a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) since childhood also having interest in politics since adolescence. He holds a master's degree in political science. In 1998, he was chosen by L. K. Advani, the leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), to direct the election campaign in Gujarat as well as Himachal Pradesh.

He became Chief Minister of Gujarat in October 2001, promoted to the office at a time when his predecessor Keshubhai Patel had resigned, following the defeat of BJP in the by-elections. His tenure as chief minister of Gujarat began on 7 October 2001, and he is the longest serving Chief Minister of the state of Gujarat. In July 2007 he became the longest serving Chief Minister in Gujarat's history when he had been in power for 2063 days continuously. He was elected again for a third term on 23 December 2007 in the state elections, which he had cast as a "referendum on his rule".

Amihai "Ami" Ayalon (Hebrew: עמיחי "עמי" איילון‎, born 27 June 1945) is an Israeli politician and a former member of the Knesset for the Labor Party. He was previously head of the Shin Bet, Israel's secret service, and commander-in-chief of the Navy. He came in second to Ehud Barak in a Labor party leadership election in June 2007, and was appointed a Minister without Portfolio in September 2007.

Ami Ayalon was born in Tiberias and grew up in kibbutz Ma'agan. His parents moved to British Mandate Palestine in the 1930s. His mother came as a young girl to study in Jerusalem; his father, Yitzhak, emigrated illegally from Romania, and was one of the founders of Ma'agan, where he worked until retirement as a carpenter. Ayalon graduated from Bar-Ilan University with a Bachelor of Arts in 1980. In 1992 he received a Master of Public Administration from Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. In 2010 he received a Master of Studies in Law from Bar-Ilan University. He is married and the father of three.