William H. Donaldson served as the 27th Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Co-founder of the financial firm Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette, he also was Chairman, President and CEO of Aetna Inc., Chairman and CEO of the New York Stock Exchange, and founding Dean of the Yale Graduate School of Management. Previously, he was Undersecretary of State to Henry Kissinger and Counsel to Vice President Nelson Rockefeller. Mr. Donaldson has been a director of numerous publicly held corporations and privately owned businesses and was selected as Businessman of the Year by the Associated Press in 1970.
Currently, Mr. Donaldson is Chairman of Donaldson Enterprises and serves as Chairman of the Financial Services Volunteer Corps, and is a director of the Volcker Alliance. He also serves as Co-Chair of the Lincoln Center Emeriti Trustees, and is a member of the FDIC Systemic Resolution Advisory Committee. He was a member of President Obama’s original Economic Recovery Advisory Board. Over the years, Mr. Donaldson has served on boards of many philanthropic, art and educational institutions, including the Ford Foundation, Lincoln Center for Performing Arts, Yale University and the Aspen Institute.
He holds a BA from Yale University, an MBA with distinction from the Harvard Business School, and is a Charter Financial Analyst. He served as a first lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps in the Far Eastern Theatre (Japan-Korea). Mr. Donaldson, the father of three and the grandfather of three, lives with his wife Jane in New York City and Waccabuc, New York.