Charles M. Elson

Charles M. Elson is the retired Edgar S. Woolard Jr. Chair in Corporate Governance and founding director of the John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware. His work focuses on corporate governance, boards of directors, executive compensation, securities regulation, and corporate law.

Elson retired from the University of Delaware in 2020. He previously taught law at Stetson University and held visiting appointments at the University of Illinois, Cornell University, the University of Maryland, the University of Cambridge, and the University of Pennsylvania. Earlier in his career, he practiced corporate finance and mergers and acquisitions at Sullivan & Cromwell and later served for nearly three decades as of counsel and a consultant to Holland & Knight. He also clerked for Judges J. Harvie Wilkinson III of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and Elbert P. Tuttle of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Elson is executive editor-at-large of Directors & Boards and a member of the American Law Institute. He has served on numerous commissions and advisory bodies of the National Association of Corporate Directors and was a member of the Standing Advisory Group of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board.

He currently serves on the boards of Enhabit and Blue Bell Creameries and has previously served as a director of companies including AutoZone, Bob Evans Farms, Encompass Health, Sunbeam, and Nuevo Energy. He also serves as a trustee of the Brandywine Conservancy and Museum of Art and the Hagley Museum and Library.

Elson has been recognized by Directorship as one of the most influential people in corporate governance, by Treasury & Risk Management as one of the most influential people in finance, by Global Proxy Watch as a governance “star,” and by Ethisphere as one of the most influential people in business ethics.

Elson earned his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law and his bachelor’s from Harvard College.