Business Roundtable was established in 1972 through the merger of three existing organizations. One was the March Group—made up of chief executive officers—which had been meeting informally to consider public policy issues. John Harper, then Chief Executive of Alcoa, and Fred Borch, then Chief Executive of General Electric, were notable leaders. Another founding group was the Construction Users Anti-Inflation Roundtable, an organization devoted to containing construction costs and headed by Roger M. Blough, then Chief Executive of U.S. Steel. The third was the Labor Law Study Committee, largely composed of labor relations executives of major companies. These groups founded Business Roundtable on the belief that in a pluralistic society, the business sector should play an active and effective role in the formation of public policy.