Gail Harris

Lead Director, Evercore Inc.

Gail Harris is the Lead Director of Evercore Inc., an independent investment banking advisory firm, where she also serves as Chair of the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee and as a member of the Audit Committee. Ms. Harris is also on the Board of Cigna Life Insurance Company of New York, where she is the Chair of the Outside Directors/Audit Committee.

Ms. Harris was a member of the Stanford University Board of Trustees until March 2018, where she chaired the Special Committee on Investment Responsibility, and was a member of the Finance and Audit Committees. Ms. Harris serves on the Dean’s Advisory Council of Stanford Law School and on the Advisory Council of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Ms. Harris is President Emeritus and a current member of the Board of New York Cares, the largest non-profit for volunteering in New York City, which creates and manages volunteer programs for more than 1,200 New York City nonprofits, city agencies and public schools.

Ms. Harris serves on the boards of several private companies, including Straus Newspapers, Inc., a company that publishes weekly newspapers in Manhattan, other parts of New York State, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and Siris Medical, a Redwood City-based company which developed the first artificial intelligence treatment decision support system in radiation therapy.

Ms. Harris began her legal career at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, a leading international law firm based in New York City, in 1977 and was a partner in the Corporate Department from 1984 to 1998. She was Of Counsel to Simpson Thacher through June 2011. Ms. Harris has extensive experience in general corporate and securities work, joint ventures, partnerships, acquisitions and dispositions. During her time at Simpson Thacher, she represented numerous companies in industries ranging from media to finance. Her responsibilities at Simpson Thacher included membership on the New Partners Committee, Co-Chairing the Personnel Committee and, at various times, membership on the Recruiting Committee and Pro Bono Committee. Ms. Harris was the first woman corporate partner at Simpson Thacher.

As a result of her board experience and expertise in corporate governance, Ms. Harris has been a guest speaker on panels and at conferences addressing corporate governance and issues facing directors of public companies.

Ms. Harris received an A.B. with distinction from Stanford University in 1974 and a J.D. from Stanford Law School in 1977.

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