Bay Area Council and Silicon Valley Leadership Group Exploring Partnership to Establish Nation’s Most Influential Business Group

The Bay Area Council and the Silicon Valley Leadership Group – two of California’s leading business associations – yesterday (March 5) announced we are in partnership discussions to create the nation’s most influential business association representing the world’s most dynamic economic region.

At the direction of their respective Board leadership committees, Council President and CEO Jim Wunderman and Leadership Group CEO Ahmad Thomas have formally launched a process to create a new, unified organization. The association, if finalized and approved, would bolster and accelerate California’s business competitiveness, innovation, and investment agenda. Major thanks to Council Chair Kristina Lawson, Managing Partner for Hanson Bridgett, and SVLG Chair Jed York, CEO of the SF 49ers, for their strong leadership in initiating and spearheading the early discussions that led to yesterday’s announcement.

Read the press release>>

Combining the two groups will leverage hundreds of innovative businesses and key regional stakeholders including our major universities, to advocate at all levels of government for the needs of Silicon Valley’s leading technology companies and the Bay Area’s diverse employers. As well, serve as the leading steward of this great region and the 7.8 million residents who call it home.

The two business groups have strong track records of historic achievements across the region – from promoting economic development to infrastructure modernization to investments in housing, education, and health care. With a merger, the business community has an extraordinary opportunity to come together and set a course that will take California and the nation into the next era of innovation and job creation.

In the months ahead, we will be engaging with numerous stakeholders across the region and the state, including our respective memberships, our incredible staffs, our elected officials, and so many others, to solicit input to further shape the vision for what this new organization can deliver for the Bay Area. Our goal is to have the new unified organization in place over the next year.

The story was covered in the San Francisco Chronicle, SF Business Times and San Jose Mercury News, among other publications.