The David and Lyn Silfen Leadership Series is a set of distinguished speaking engagements where we invite prominent industry leaders to speak to us on the subject of leadership. As a student-run venture, in conjunction with the Dean's Office and the Office of Development and Alumni Relations, the Series aims to enhance the shared access to intellectual capital between students and the leaders who drive organizations, societies, and markets forward.
We will be continuing the Silfen Leadership Series with a fireside chat with Pierre, moderated by Jack Tu.
Pierre is McKinsey’s chief legal officer. He leads the legal and public affairs functions and advises the firm’s management team and board. Pierre is the first non-consultant elected a senior partner in McKinsey’s history. In 2022, the Financial Times named him one of the top 20 general counsel worldwide.
Pierre joined McKinsey in 2019 with nearly 30 years’ experience in business, law, government, and academia. He was a partner in the law firm of Cahill Gordon & Reindel and spent nearly two decades in financial services at Credit Suisse, where his roles included managing director and global head of litigation, investigations and employment law, general counsel for the global research division, and head of reputational risk for the Americas. Pierre also served in the U.S. Department of Justice as assistant united states attorney for the southern district of New York. He has been recognized as a leading lawyer by the American Lawyer, Corporate Counsel, the Brunswick Review, Law360, Law,Dragon, the Legal 500, and others. He regularly advises general counsel and other executives on the design and management of corporate functions.
Pierre was a named a “young global leader” of the World Economic Forum (WEF), and he has served on the WEF’s global agenda councils on faith, values in decision making, and the role of business. He is a trustee of the Practicing Law Institute, Touro Synagogue Foundation, and Princeton University’s Julis-Rabinowitz Center for Public Policy and Finance. He served on the board of Columbia Law School’s Center for Israeli Legal Studies, chaired the board of Princeton University’s Center for Jewish Life, and is a recipient of the Anti-Defamation League’s Human Relations Award.
Pierre taught law as adjunct professor at Fordham University, business ethics as lecturer at the Wharton School of Business, and he co-edited a book on alternative dispute resolution in the financial services sector. During the COVID-19 lockdown, he taught a virtual course exploring the relationship between American poetry, religious thought, and blues music. In the Spring of 2023, he will serve as “leader in residence” in the Reuben Mark Initiative for Organizational Character and Leadership at Columbia Law School. Pierre graduated from Princeton University, magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, and received a law degree from Columbia University.
Jack is a second-year MBA student at Columbia Business School, focusing on technology and strategy and serves as the co-president of the InSITE Fellowship program’s New York Chapter. He holds a B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a M.S. in Chemical Engineering from Columbia University.
Before CBS, Jack worked in the technology industry as a semiconductor engineer at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) with experience in front-end processes as well as back-end product integration and design. This past summer, Jack also interned at the Boston Consulting Group in Chicago.
Here at Columbia Business School, it is with a sense of community and respect that we host world-class leaders to share their ideas and experience with the next generation of business innovators.
