John Whitehead

Whitehead was an Eagle Scout and recipient of the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award. He was longstanding Co-Chairman of the Board of the Greater New York Councils, Boy Scouts of America. The National Council of the Boy Scouts of America recognized his service with the Silver Buffalo Award in 2015. He was the Chairman of the Financial Services Volunteer Corps (FSVC) from July, 2005 into his death in February 2015. He was also an Advisory Board member for the Partnership for a Secure America, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to recreating the bipartisan center in American national security and foreign policy.

In 2012, Whitehead was awarded the Freedom Prize for the second time. He was also a member of the Steering Committee of the Bilderberg Group.

In 2011, John C. Whitehead was awarded the Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom.

On November 12, 2008, Whitehead said at the Reuters Global Finance Summit that the United States economy faces an economic slump deeper than the Great Depression and that a growing deficit threatens the credit of the country.

Whitehead was Co-Chairman of AMDeC Foundation, a 28-member organization of leaders in biomedical research and technology in New York State. Whitehead, along with Academic Medicine Development Company (AMDeC) President, Dr. Maria K. Mitchell, secured funding and infrastructure support for next-generation research for New York's renowned academic medical centers. In 2006, Whitehead was one of the most notable Republican donors to the campaign of Joe Lieberman during his independent re-election campaign for the United States Senate.

In 2005, Whitehead published a memoir, A Life In Leadership: From D-Day to Ground Zero.

In 2004, he received the David Rockefeller Bridging Leadership Award from Synergos.

Whitehead was a board member and head of the investment committee of the Getty Trust. He retired from that position in 1996 following a substantial portfolio loss from the use of stock options for a so-called "collar".

"In 1995, he donated $10 million to Harvard Business School to start the John C. Whitehead Fund for Not-for-Profit Management. In 1997, Seton Hall University in New Jersey, with Mr. Whitehead's financing, the School of Diplomacy and International Relations at Seton Hall University was also named after him. He received an honorary LL.D. from Bates College in 2004, and an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from The City University of New York upon the recommendation of Macaulay Honors College in 2009.

In 1986, he received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.

Whitehead served as United States Deputy Secretary of State in Ronald Reagan's administration from 1985 to 1989 under George Shultz, and was awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal by President Reagan. In 1996, he was the Campaign Chairman for Michael Benjamin who ran for a seat in New York's 8th congressional district.

Whitehead started his career at the New York investment bank of Goldman Sachs as an associate in the investment banking division. He quickly became a partner in the firm. He rose to become Chairman over a total of 38 years at the firm and retired in 1984 as Co-Chairman and Co-Senior Partner.

John Whitehead was born on June 2, 1948 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA as John Cavadus Whitehead.

In 1947, he received an MBA degree from Harvard Business School.

Whitehead graduated from Haverford College in 1943 and served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, where he commanded one of the LCDP landing crafts at Omaha Beach, in the D-Day landing invasion of Normandy.

John Cunningham Whitehead (April 2, 1922 – February 7, 2015) was an American banker and civil servant, a board member of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation (WTC Memorial Foundation), and, until his resignation in May 2006, chairman of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation.