Ira Millstein

Principle embodied: Exemplify the Standard – X-Principle #11

Ira Millstein is arguably the top lawyer in America in the practice of corporate governance. As a senior partner at the law firm of Weil, Gotshal & Manges, where Millstein has worked since 1951, he has been so influential on the topic that not only did he rank number eight on The Directorship 100, a listing of the most influential people in corporate governance, but Yale School of Management named its Center on Corporate Governance after him.

Mr. Millstein is a leading expert on antitrust, government regulation, and corporate governance matters, having counseled over 50 corporate boards. In addition to his active legal practice, Professor Millstein is a board member and former chairman of the Board of Overseers of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Chairman Emeritus of the Private Sector Advisory Group of the World Bank/OECD Global Corporate Governance Forum, and a Board Member of the National Association of Corporate Directors. He previously served as Chairman of the New York State Commission on Public Authority Reform, a Fellow of the Faculty of Government at Harvard University's JFK School of Government, Co-Chairman of the Blue Ribbon Committee on Improving the Effectiveness of Corporate Audit Committees, and Chairman of the OECD Business Sector Advisory Group whose report led to the internationally recognized OECD Principles of Corporate Governance. An Elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he is a frequent lecturer and author of numerous books and articles.

He has counseled numerous boards on issues of corporate governance, including the boards of General Motors, Westinghouse, Bethlehem Steel, WellChoice (fka, Empire Blue Cross), the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS), Tyco International, The Walt Disney Co., the New York State Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the Ford Foundation, The Nature Conservancy and Planned Parenthood Federation of America, among others. Mr. Millstein is a member of the board of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum at the World Trade Center and serves as pro bono counsel to the Board of Directors of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, the agency overseeing the redevelopment of Lower Manhattan. Most recently, he was appointed Chairman of the New York State Commission on Public Authority Reform by Governor George Pataki.

His client list has always included the biggest names in Corporate America: General Motors, Disney, Tyco, American Express, and Westinghouse, among others. At the age of 81, he shows no signs of slowing down. Yale has called him a principal architect of modern international corporate governance. Editor-at-Large Aaron Bernstein sat down with Millstein in his Manhattan office to talk about the evolution of corporate-governance theory.

In addition to his active legal practice, Mr. Millstein is the Senior Associate Dean for Corporate Governance and the Eugene F. Williams Jr. Visiting Professor in Competitive Enterprise and Strategy at the Yale School of Management. In November 2006, the School of Management renamed its Corporate Governance Center in honor of Mr. Millstein, naming it the Millstein Center for Corporate Governance and Performance. Mr. Millstein was previously an Adjunct Professor at New York University School of Law; and Fellow of the Faculty of Government at Harvard University's J.F.K. School of Government.

In 2001, he received the first Award for Excellence in Corporate Governance by the International Corporate Governance Network. Included among his many publications are: The Recurrent Crisis in Corporate Governance (co-author, Palgrave, 2003; paperback by Stanford University Press, August 2004); a trilogy of articles published in The Business Lawyer - "The Evolution of the Certifying Board" (1992), "The Professional Board" (1995), and "The Responsible Board" (1997); The Limits of Corporate Power (co-author, MacMillan, 1981); The Impact of the Modern Corporation (co-editor, Columbia University Press, 1984); The Battle for Corporate Control: Shareholder Rights, Stakeholder Interests, and Managerial Responsibility (contributing author, New York University, 1991); and "Can the Board of Directors Help the American Corporation Earn the Immortality It Holds so Dear?" in The U.S. Business Corporation: An Institution in Transition (contributing co-author, American Academy of Arts & Sciences, Ballinger Publishing Co., 1988).

A graduate of Columbia Law School, Mr. Millstein is a Life Trustee and former Chairman of the Board of the Central Park Conservancy and Chairman of the Chairman's Council of the American Red Cross of Greater New York. He also serves on the Advisory Council of Transparency International, and is a former member of the Yale School of Management Advisory Board. He is a former Chairman of the Antitrust Law Sections of both the American Bar Association and the New York State Bar Association.

To read these articles in their entirety & to learn more about Ira Millstein:

www.weil.com: http://www.weil.com/iramillstein/

Yale School of Business: http://mba.yale.edu/faculty/profiles/millstein.shtml

Directorship.com: http://www.directorship.com/an-architect-of-governance
 

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