Mary B. Cranston served as Chair and CEO of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, a Global 100 law firm, with a sustained track record in driving revenue growth, leading successful mergers, innovating client service models, and streamlining operations that doubled profitability and productivity. She has more than fifteen years of experience as a public company director across the financial payments, biotech, networking, semiconductor, engineering, chemical, and carbon materials industries. Ms. Cranston is a Qualified Financial Expert and has extensive cybersecurity experience.
Mary currently serves as a Director of VISA, Inc. (2007 to present), where she chaired the Audit Committee from 2013 to 2019. She is also a Director of TPG, Inc. (2022 to present), where she chairs both the Compensation Committee and the Conflicts Committee, and of Chemours (2015 to present), where she chairs the Nominating and Governance Committee. She serves as a Director of Fiduciary Trust Company International (2016 to present).
Mary’s prior board service includes MyoKardia, Inc. (2016 to 2020), where she chaired the Audit Committee and the Nominating and Governance Committee; CSAA Insurance (2010 to 2021), where she chaired the Compensation and Governance Committee; McAfee (2018 to 2022), where she chaired the Audit Committee; Juniper Networks, Inc. (2007 to 2015); International Rectifier, Inc. (2008 to 2015); Exponent, Inc. (2010 to 2014); and GrafTech International Ltd. (1999 to 2014), where she served as Lead Director from 2007 to 2014. She also served as Board Chair of Stanford Children’s Hospital and Network from 2012 to 2016 and as a Trustee of Stanford University from 2000 to 2010.
During her tenure as Chair of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman (1998 to 2006), Mary was elected to three successive terms as CEO with P&L and strategic responsibility for $580 million in gross revenues and 2,000 employees in 16 offices worldwide. She launched a six-year national and international expansion program that added seven offices and 400 lawyers, closed two of the largest law firm mergers in history on budget and on schedule, increasing annual gross revenues from $224 million to $580 million, and improved firm profits and profits per partner by over 125%. She also developed a client-team based service model that became the industry standard and increased revenues from the firm’s top 100 clients by 50%.