Tapping America's Potential

Engineering: Powering America

Business Roundtable Highlights CEO Engineers as Part of National Engineers Week

Steven F. Leer
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Arch Coal, Inc.

Leer earned a BS degree in electrical engineering from the University of the Pacific before going on to hold senior leadership positions in corporate America, including as the Chairman and CEO of Arch Coal, Inc.

Engineering powers America, including American business. Twenty percent of Fortune 500 CEOs have a degree in engineering. In fact, engineering is the most common undergraduate degree among the CEOs of America's largest companies.

Engineers drive innovation and technological change. They design and build the buildings we live in, the roads we drive on, the aircraft we fly in, and the computers, cell phones and electronic devices we now depend on to live our lives. As our Roundtable CEOs illustrate, an engineering degree opens the door to many career paths. The jobs of the future will require creativity and technical understanding. Engineering delivers both.

Business Roundtable is a leader on national innovation policy, which seeks to bolster U.S. economic competitiveness by building America's capacity to innovate. This includes initiatives to encourage more Americans to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). As part of its efforts, the Roundtable was a founding member of Tapping America's Potential (TAP), a business-led campaign with the goal of doubling the number of graduates with STEM degrees by 2015.

Business Roundtable applauds America's engineers-innovation leaders who are powering America's future. For this and other profiles, visit www.tap2015.org. For more on Arch Coal, Inc., visit www.archcoal.com.

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Business Roundtable (www.businessroundtable.org) is an association of chief executive officers of leading U.S. companies with $4.5 trillion in annual revenues and more than 10 million employees. Member companies comprise nearly a third of the total value of the U.S. stock markets and represent over 40 percent of all corporate income taxes paid. Collectively, they returned $112 billion in dividends to shareholders and the economy in 2005. Roundtable companies give more than $7 billion a year in combined charitable contributions, representing nearly 60 percent of total corporate giving. They are technology innovation leaders, with $90 billion in annual research and development spending - nearly half of the total private R&D spending in the U.S.

Tapping America's Potential (TAP) is composed of 16 prominent business organizations that represent the largest and most innovative companies in America. They have set the goal of doubling the number of U.S. science, technology, engineering and mathematics graduates with bachelor's degrees by 2015.

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