Andrew Kakabadse is professor of international management development at Cranfield University. For his recent book "Bilderberg People," co-authored with Nada Kakabadse and Ian Richardson, Kakabadse interviewed a number of past attendees in order to understand how the network of global influence works.
"The people we talked to are quite genuine. Mostly they don't understand the conspiracy bit, because they say when you go there what you find is people of all sorts of varying views. But the fact that they've been invited is indicative of the position that they've reached in life," he said.
CHRIS MATTHEWS, MSNBC: "Yeah, but he says his wife knew. He laid it out on her." JOHN FEEHERY, Republican strategist: "Which is a terrible, terrible mistake." MATTHEWS: "Well, maybe she's partly responsible if she knew about it?"
" . . . Jeff Bezos, Founder and CEO of Amazon.com, Chris R. Hughes, Co-founder of Facebook, Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman of Google, Craig J. Mundie, Chief Research and Strategy Officer at Microsoft Corporation, and Reid Hoffman, Co-founder and Executive Chairman of LinkedIn.
That alone should be enough to focus the attention of the mainstream media.
Alas, apparently, no, that is not enough to perk their collective interest.
Then lets factor in that also in attendance are the Vice President of the European Commission, the President of the European Council, the Director General of the World Trade Organization, the President of the European Central Bank, the President of The World Bank, and the Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Programme."
"Other mainstream reports, however, were more friendly to Bilderberg critics. "It's a shame the attendees are still so phobic of attention, seeing as how this year there's shaping up to be more press interest than ever. People and the media have finally started noticing this quiet little conference at the centre of the storm," noted a piece in the U.K. Guardian, pointing out that the cabal played a crucial role in the creation of the European Union."