Virtual Mentorship with Boeing Leader, Brett Gerry

Brett Gerry is Boeing’s Chief Legal Officer & Exec. VP, Global Compliance, a position he assumed in May 2020 after serving for a year as the company’s general counsel. Gerry is the company’s senior legal advisor and leads Boeing’s Law and Global Compliance organization.

He is a member of the company’s Executive Council, reporting to the president and CEO. Previously, Gerry served for three years as president of Boeing Japan, based in Tokyo.

He was responsible for the development and implementation of the Boeing strategy in Japan, expanding the company’s local presence, identifying new business and partnership opportunities, and leading government affairs and corporate citizenship programs.

Since joining the company in 2008, Gerry has served in senior positions in the Law Department, including as vice president and general counsel for Boeing Commercial Airplanes, and prior to that as chief counsel to Boeing’s network and space systems business.

Gerry came to Boeing following several senior positions in the U.S. Department of Justice and the White House. His service at the Department of Justice included roles as chief of staff to U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey, acting assistant attorney general supervising the department’s Office of Legal Policy, and a member of the
leadership team that launched the department’s National Security Division, where he served as deputy assistant attorney general.

Before that, Gerry was an associate counsel to the president of the United States, in which capacity he worked on national security and intelligence matters. He also worked in private practice at Boston-based Goodwin Procter LLP and was a law clerk both at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court. Gerry earned a bachelor’s degree in political science and economics from Colgate University, a master’s degree in political science from Yale University and a Juris Doctor from Yale Law School. He has served as an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University and the University of Washington School of Law.

Gerry currently serves as a member of the board of trustees at the Museum of Flight in Seattle, as a member of the industry advisory board for the University of Washington Law School’s Global Business Law initiative, and as a member of the board of directors of the Seattle Shakespeare Company. He has served previously on the board of
directors of the Alliance for Education in Seattle and, in connection with his responsibilities in Japan, on the board of governors of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan, and as co-chair of the U.S.-Japan Business Council Committee on Travel and Tourism.

Bob Hayward is a Capital Markets Partner in the Chicago office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Named a “Notable Gen X Leader” by Crain’s Chicago Business in 2021 and a “Trailblazer in the Midwest” by The American Lawyer in 2022, Bob helps lead the team that has been awarded “Capital Markets Practice Group of the Year” numerous times by Law 360.

Bob provides direct, thoughtful and practical advice to publicly-traded corporations — across all industries — and private equity funds and their portfolio companies in all aspects of securities, M&A, SEC compliance/ disclosure, corporate governance, stockholder activism, executive compensation, crisis management and general corporate matters. He has extensive experience representing companies in IPOs, high-yield and investment grade debt offerings, private financings, joint ventures and public and private M&A transactions.