Reply #6: Standard & Poor's (S&P) is a division of the McGraw-Hill Companies...

[indurancevile]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McGraw-Hill

Key people Harold W. McGraw III
(Chairman, President and CEO)

Harold Whittlesey "Terry" McGraw III (born 1948)<1> is chairman, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of McGraw-Hill Companies and chairman of the Business Roundtable, an association of CEOs of American companies...

McGraw was chairman of the group's International Trade & Investment Task Force from October 2003 through 2006. In that post, he led the task force's efforts to work with CEO groups in other countries and to support free trade agreements.

The group makes up more than a third of the total value of the U.S. stock market, 60 percent of total corporate philanthropic donations in the country and almost half of all private research and development funding in the U.S...

He is a member of the board of directors of United Technologies and of ConocoPhillips; chairman of the Emergency Committee for American Trade (ECAT); and a member of the Business Council. In the past he served as a member of President George W. Bush's Transition Advisory Committee on Trade.<1>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_W._McGraw_III