From a legal point of view, the organization commonly called ‘the Bilderberg Group” is a foundation registered under Dutch law as ‘Stichting Bilderberg Meetings’ (SBM), the office of which is in Amsterdam.

The SBM is administered by a board of trustees composed of four persons: a President, today the Dutch businessman and academic Victor Halberstadt; a Treasurer, today the German banker Paul M. Achleitner; the President of the American Friends of Bilderberg Inc., today Marie-Josée Kravis; and the President of the Steering Committee, today the French financier Henri de Castries. They are supported in their action by a Steering Committee, to which they all belong.

Only members and former members of the Steering Committee can fully be considered members of the Group (and only members in office have the right to vote). According to the Honorary Chairman of the Bilderberg Meetings, Count Etienne Davignon, they numbered 92 in 2015.

The American Friends of Bilderberg Inc. is a foundation created in December 1975 and based in Washington which legally represents the interests of the Group in the United States. A similar group called the Bilderberg Association is a UK-registered charity, which has as its trustees the British members of the Steering Committee — currently Zanny Minton Beddoes (the editor-in-chief of the Economist) and Sir John Sawers (a director of BP and the former head of MI6).