James Lawrence

Board Director at AerCap Holdings NV

Mr. Lawrence has been a Director of AerCap since May 5, 2017. He is currently Chairman of Lake Harriet Capital, a private investment firm. Previously, Mr. Lawrence served as Chairman of Rothschild North America and earlier as Chief Executive Officer of Rothschild North America and as co-head of global investment banking at Rothschild from 2010 to 2015. Prior to Rothschild, Mr. Lawrence was Chief Financial Officer of Unilever and he served as Executive Director on the boards of Unilever NV and Unilever PLC. He joined Unilever in 2007 after serving as the Vice Chairman and Chief Financial Officer of General Mills for nine years. Prior to General Mills, Mr. Lawrence was Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Northwest Airlines from 1996 to 1998, and before that Mr. Lawrence was a division President at PepsiCo, serving as CEO of Pepsi-Cola Asia, Middle East, Africa from 1992 to 1996. In 1983, he cofounded The LEK Partnership, a corporate strategy and merger/acquisition firm, headquartered in London. Before that he was a Partner of Bain and Company having opened their London and Munich offices. Prior to that, he worked for The Boston Consulting Group. Mr. Lawrence is currently a Non-Executive Director of Avnet Inc. and Smurfit Kappa Group. His aviation industry experience dates from 1990, and it includes, in addition to being the Chief Financial Officer of Northwest Airlines, serving on the boards of IAG (International Consolidated Airlines Group), Continental Airlines, TWA, Mesaba and British Airways. Since 1990, Mr. Lawrence has served on 16 public company boards, several private company boards and numerous non-profit boards. Mr. Lawrence earned a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Yale University and an M.B.A. with distinction from Harvard Business School.

Timeline

  • Board Director

    Current role