Philip Lader

Ambassador Lader is a Senior Advisor to Morgan Stanley Institutional Securities, as well as the former U.S. Ambassador to the Court of St. James’s and Chairman of WPP plc (including Ogilvy & Mather, J. Walter Thompson, Young & Rubicam, Grey, Group M, Kantar, Hill & Knowlton, and Burson-Marsteller, among other companies in 124 countries).

Ambassador Lader served in President Clinton’s Cabinet and as Administrator of the US Small Business Administration, White House Deputy Chief of Staff, Assistant to the President, and Deputy Director of the Office of Management & Budget. Previously, he was Executive Vice President of Sir James Goldsmith’s US holdings (including America’s then-largest private landholdings) and President of Sea Pines Company (developer/operator of large-scale resort communities), universities in South Carolina and Australia, and Business Executives for National Security.

Also, he is currently a trustee (and Investment Committee Chairman) of RAND Corporation and several foundations, as well as a member of the boards of several privately-held companies, the investment committees of Morgan Stanley’s Global Infrastructure and Real Estate Funds, and the Council on Foreign Relations. He currently or has previously served on the boards of Lloyds of London, Marathon Oil, AES, WPP plc, Songbird (Canary Wharf), and Rusal Corporations, the British Museum, American Red Cross, Smithsonian Museum of American History, St. Paul’s Cathedral Foundation, Atlantic Council, and several banks and universities. He is partner emeritus in the Nelson Mullins law firm and the founder and co-host of Renaissance Weekends (non-partisan retreats for innovative leaders bridging traditional divides).

Ambassador Lader’s education includes Duke, Michigan, Oxford and Harvard Law School, and he has been awarded honorary doctorates by 14 universities. An Honorary Fellow of Oxford University’s Pembroke College and London Business School and Honorary Bencher of Middle Temple (British Inns of Court), he was awarded the Benjamin Franklin Medal by The Royal Society for Arts, Manufactures & Commerce for his contributions to trans-Atlantic relations.