Profile: Ira M Millstein

Corporate Governance

Biography: Corporate Governance

Ira M Millstein is a senior partner at the international law firm Weil Gotshal & Manges, where, in addition to practising in the areas of government regulation and antitrust law, he has counselled numerous boards on issues of corporate governance, including the boards of General Motors, Westinghouse, Bethlehem Steel, WellChoice (formerly known as Empire Blue Cross), the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS), Tyco International, the Walt Disney Co, and the New York State Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

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 honour of Mr Millstein, naming it the Millstein Center for Corporate Governance and Performance. Mr Millstein is the chairman emeritus, having served as chairman from 1999 to 2005, of the Private Sector Advisory Group to the Global Corporate Governance Forum founded by the World Bank and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). He served as chairman of the OECD Business Sector Advisory Group on Corporate Governance in 1997 to 1998 and as co-chair of the Blue Ribbon Committee on Improving the Effectiveness of Corporate Audit Committees (sponsored by the New York Stock Exchange and the National Association of Securities Dealers) in 1998 to 1999. In 1997, he was appointed by vice-president Gore and Prime Minister Chernomyrdin to the US - Russia Capital Markets Forum Working Group on Investor Protection. In 1996, Mr Millstein chaired the National Association of Corporate Directors' Blue Ribbon Commission on Director Professionalism. He has also served as: chairman of the board of advisers of Columbia University's Center for Law and Economic Studies' institutional investor project; chairman of the New York State Pension Investment task force; adjunct professor at New York University School of Law; and Fellow of the Faculty of Government at Harvard University's JFK School of Government.

An elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Mr Millstein is a frequent lecturer and author on corporate governance, antitrust, and government regulation. In 2001, he received the first award for Excellence in Corporate Governance by the International Corporate Governance Network. In June 2006, the National Law Journal named Mr Millstein to its list of '100 Most Influential Lawyers in America'.

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 board of overseers of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He is a member of the board of the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD), 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. Mr Millstein is a member of the board of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation, and previously served as pro bono counsel to the board of directors of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. Most recently, he was appointed chairman of the New York State Commission on Public Authority Reform by governor George Pataki.