Caterpillar’s Owens appointed to recovery think-tank

Caterpillar chairman & CEO Jim Owens has been appointed to US president Barack Obama's Economic Recovery Advisory Board.

The group of industry leaders, academics, and Washington insiders has been formed to provide bropad, high-level economic advice to the president.

The group will be chaired by Paul Volcker, who was chairman of the US Federal Reserve from 1979 to 1987 and other members of the Washington establishment in the group include William Donaldson, who chaired the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) from 2003 to 2005.

Other members from industry include General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt and Charles Phillips, CEO of Oracle. Academics in the group include Laura D'Andrea Tyson of the University of California at Berkeley and Martin Feldstein, a professor of economics at Harvard.

Speaking on his decision to create the group using an executive order, president Obama said, "I created this Board to enlist voices that come from beyond the echo chamber of Washington, DC, and to ensure that no stone is unturned as we work to put people back to work and to get our economy moving. We will meet regularly so that I can hear different ideas and sharpen my own, and seek counsel that is candid and informed by the wider world."