Zoë Baird, attorney and president of the John and Mary R. Markle Foundation, and Steven Rattner, deputy chief executive of Lazard Frères & Co. LLC, were elected to the Brookings Board of Trustees at its February 23 meeting.
“Steve and Zoë’s collective expertise in the legal, media, and business arenas will be an invaluable asset to the Board,” said Brookings Chairman James Johnson.
Baird has served as attorney/legal advisor in the Office of Legal Counsel of the U.S. Department of Justice and was associate counsel to President Carter. In 1981, Baird joined the law firm of O’Melveny & Myers, where she later became partner. In 1986, she became counselor and staff executive at the General Electric Company. Until late 1996, Baird was senior vice president and general counsel to Aetna, Inc., where for six years she was responsible for all legal and regulatory affairs and a member of the Chairman’s Management Committee. Prior to joining the Markle Foundation, a New York-based philanthropic organization, in 1997, Baird was senior visiting scholar and senior research associate at the Yale Law School.
Baird earned her bachelor’s and law degrees at the University of California, Berkeley. She has written numerous articles on law and public policy, and lectures widely. She has been researching and writing a book on governmental and business strategies for dealing with global crime issues and new technologies. In 1993, President Clinton named her to his Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, on which she still serves. She also serves on several corporate boards and on the International Competition Policy Advisory Committee.
Rattner worked for the New York Times for nine years, as assistant to columnist James Reston, and later as a correspondent in New York, Washington, and London, where he focused on economic and energy issues. In 1982, Rattner joined the investment banking corporation of Lehman Brothers Kuhn Loeb Incorporated. Rattner later became a managing director at Morgan Stanley, where he founded the Communications Group.
In 1989, Rattner joined Lazard Frères, where he works with clients in mergers, acquisitions, and corporate finance. He founded Lazard’s Communications Group, which has completed more media transactions than any other investment banking firm.
Rattner graduated in 1974 from Brown University with honors in economics and was awarded the Harvey Baker Fellowship.
He is a member of the Brookings Council and a trustee of Brown University, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Museum of Television and Radio. He is vice chairman of the Education Broadcasting Corporation and a director of the New York Outward Bound Center. Rattner serves on the International Competition Policy Advisory Committee, and in 1997, he was appointed by President Clinton to the Commission to Study Capital Budgeting. Rattner continues to write on public policy issues for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Financial Times.