Lee Hanson is a Vice Chairman and Partner in the New York and San Francisco offices of Heidrick & Struggles. She is a senior member of the Chief Legal Officer practice, having conducted many General Counsel searches for clients ranging in size from Fortune 100 to private equity-backed portfolio companies across a broad range of industries. Her clients have included Accenture, Bank of New York, Colgate-Palmolive, CVS Caremark, Fidelity Investments, General Motors, Harrah’s Entertainment, MetLife, Morgan Stanley and United Airlines, among others. She also devotes a significant amount of her practice to Board of Director recruitment for public companies in a wide variety of industries as well as for mutual fund boards.

In addition to her executive search practice, Ms. Hanson was the Chair of the firm’s elected Global Partnership Council and currently co-Chairs the firm’s Global Promotions Committee. In 2012 she received the John E. Struggles Award, a partner-nominated and selected award, given to the partner who most demonstrates the partnership commitment, client focus and personal integrity hallmarks of our firm.

Prior to joining Heidrick & Struggles, Ms. Hanson spent fifteen years as an investment banker, most recently at Merrill Lynch & Co. and previously at Morgan Stanley & Co. Prior to this, she served as a law clerk to a federal district judge in New York.

Ms. Hanson graduated with a B.A. in economics, summa cum laude, from Yale University and holds a J.D. cum laude from Harvard Law School. She was a Trustee at the Head-Royce School in Oakland, California for nine years, the last two years as Chair of its Board. She also served as Co-Chair of the school’s capital campaign. Ms. Hanson is a member of the Board of Directors of Analysis Group, Inc., an economics and financial consulting firm. She is also on the board of Students Rising Above, a non-profit focused on assisting high-potential, low-income high school students to achieve a successful college career. She was previously Vice President of the Board of the Financial Women’s Association of San Francisco.