Charles M. Elson
University of Delaware
Charles M. Elson is the Edgar S. Woolard, Jr., Chair in Corporate Governance and the Director of
the John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware. He is also "Of
Counsel" to the law firm of Holland & Knight. He formerly served as a Professor of Law at Stetson
University College of Law in St. Petersburg, Florida from 1990 until 2001. His fields of expertise include
corporations, securities regulation and corporate governance. He is a graduate of Harvard College and the
University of Virginia Law School, and has served as a law clerk to Judges J. Harvie Wilkinson III and
Elbert P. Tuttle of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth and Eleventh Circuits. He has been a
Visiting Professor at the University of Illinois College of Law, the Cornell Law School, and the
University of Maryland School of Law, and is a Salvatori Fellow at the Heritage Foundation in
Washington, D.C. and a member of the American Law Institute. Professor Elson has written extensively
on the subject of boards of directors. He is a frequent contributor on corporate governance issues to
various scholarly and popular publications. He served on the National Association of Corporate Directors'
Commissions on Director Compensation, Director Professionalism, CEO Succession, Audit Committees,
Strategic Planning and Director Evaluation, was a member of its Best Practices Council on Coping With
Fraud and Other Illegal Activity, and presently serves on that organization’s Advisory Council. He was
Vice Chairman of the ABA Business Law Section’s Committee on Corporate Governance and a member
of its Committee on Corporate Laws. Additionally, Professor Elson served as an adviser and consultant
to Towers Perrin, the international human resource management consultants, a director of Circon
Corporation, a medical products maker and Sunbeam Corporation, the consumer products manufacturer,
Nuevo Energy Company, an independent oil and natural gas producer, the Investor Respons