William H. Gates, Sr.
Board of Counselors

Bill Gates, Sr. earned his bachelor’s and law degrees from the University of Washington, following three years of U.S. Army service in World War II. He became a partner in the law firm of Shidler McBroom Gates & Lucas in 1964, guiding it through growth and mergers that would eventually establish Preston Gates & Ellis, one of Seattle’s leading law firms.

Mr. Gates is currently Co-Chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the world’s largest foundation with an endowment of $24 billion. He has served as president of both the Seattle/King County Bar Association and the Washington State Bar Association. His other leadership positions in the field of law have included membership in the American Bar Association House of Delegates and the presidency of the National Conference of Bar Presidents. He was named the 1991 University of Washington Law School Distinguished Alumnus, and awarded the 1992 American Judicature Society Herbert Harley Award.

He is known as a champion for causes that have ranged from protecting affirmative action, to providing legal services to the poor to funding law school scholarships for students of color.

Mr. Gates has been a life time advocate for education, chairing the Seattle Public School Levy Campaign in 1971 and serving as a member of the University of Washington’s Board of Regents since 1997.

He has served as trustee, officer and volunteer for more than two dozen Northwest organizations, including the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce and King County United Way. In 1995, he founded the Technology Alliance, a cooperative regional effort to expand technology-based employment in Washington.  

Mr. Gates and his late wife, Mary Maxwell Gates, raised three children: Kristianne, Bill and Libby. Now married to Mimi Gardner Gates, Mr. Gates continues to lend his vision and skill to many civic programs, cultural organizations and business initiatives.
 

Michael C. Gergely, Esquire
Board of Trustees
Board of Counselors

Michael Gergely, Esq. has 25 years of experience in trial litigation and in the general practice of law.  He received his bachelor of philosophy in 1960, his master’s in international politics and economics in 1962, and his doctorate in jurisprudence in 1965, all from the University of Detroit.

In 1966, Mike became assistant prosecuting attorney for Kalamazoo County, working on trial litigation and handling appeals to the Michigan Court of Appeals and the Michigan Supreme Court.  In 1969, he formed what has become Gergely Law Offices and is a member of the American Trial Lawyers Association and the Kalamazoo County Bar Association.

Mike is a successor co-trustee for the John E. Fetzer revocable trust fund, the John E. Fetzer memorial trust fund, and the Inner Light Ministries trust fund.  He was John Fetzer’s personal attorney and attorney for the estate of John E. Fetzer.

Robert MacCrate, Esquire
Board of Counselors

Robert MacCrate is Senior Counsel to Sullivan & Cromwell, New York City.  In 1992, he chaired the ABA Task Force that authored:  Legal Education and Professional Development-An Educational Continuum, and the New York State Bar American Legal Profession-The Place of Multidisciplinary Practice in the Law Governing Lawyers. 

Robert is the emeritus chair of the fund for Modern Courts.  He has been the former president of several organizations including: the American Judicature Society, American Bar Association, American Bar Foundation, New York State Bar Association and New York Bar Foundation.  Robert is a member of the Council of the American Law Institute and emeritus member of the Board of Managers of Haverford College.

He served as Special Counsel to the Department of the Army for the MyLai Investigation in 1969-70.  Robert MacCrate was the former member and chair New York State Crime Control Planning Board, and Counsel to the Governor of New York, 1959 to 1962.

Francis T. Vincent, Jr.
Board of Counselors

Francis T. Vincent, Jr., served as the eighth Commissioner of Major League Baseball from September 13, 1989 to September 7, 1992. Mr. Vincent joined Major League Baseball as Deputy Commissioner under A. Bartlett Giamatti in April 1989.

Prior to joining Major League Baseball, Mr. Vincent served as Executive Vice President of The Coca-Cola Company until July 1988. He joined Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. in July 1978 as President and Chief Executive Officer. In March 1982, following the acquisition of Columbia by The Coca-Cola Company, he was appointed Chairman and CEO of its Entertainment Business Sector. In April 1986, he was promoted to Executive Vice President of The Coca-Cola Company responsible for all its entertainment activities.

Mr. Vincent also served as Associate Director of the Division of Corporation Finance of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. He was a partner in the Washington, D.C. law firm of Caplin & Drysdale from 1968 to 1978 where he specialized in corporate, banking and securities matters. Before joining Caplin & Drysdale, he was an associate in the New York law firm of Whitman and Ransom.

Mr. Vincent received a law degree from Yale Law School in 1963 and is a member of the bar in New York, Connecticut and the District of Columbia. After attending The Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, Connecticut, he graduated cum laude in 1960 from Williams College where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He served as a trustee of Williams for 18 years and received an Honorary Degree in June 1990. He has served as a trustee of Carleton College and as chair of the Hotchkiss Board. Mr. Vincent has also received honorary degrees from Babson College, Colgate University, Central Connecticut State University, the University of New Haven, Kenyon College and Carleton College.

Mr. Vincent is a member of the Board of Directors of Time Warner, Inc. and Westfield Holdings Limited (Australia). Previously he served on the boards of Continental Corporation, Coca Cola Enterprises, Norton Company, Carson Pirie Scott & Co., and Horizon Group Inc. In addition, he has been honored by the Negro League Museum for his assistance to Negro League Alumni.

Lloyd A. Werner
Board of Counselors

From 1995 until July 2000, Lloyd A. Werner held the position of Executive Vice President, Sales & Marketing for CBS Cable. Prior to that, Mr. Werner was Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Group W Satellite Communications from 1983 to 1995. From 1981 to 1983, Mr. Werner served as Senior Vice President, Sales and Affiliate Relations, Group W Satellite Communications.

Mr. Werner was responsible for all Advertising Sales and Marketing, Affiliate (Distribution) Sales and Marketing, Consumer Marketing, and Public Relations for TNN: The Nashville Network, which he and a group of other Group W executives helped originate with the Gaylord Entertainment Company. Mr. Werner was on the CMT acquisition team, and, since 1991, held the same Sales and Marketing responsibilities for CMT as he had for TNN. Mr. Werner was a member of the CMT Board of Directors, while Gaylord and Westinghouse jointly owned CMT.

During the years 1981 to 2000, Mr. Werner helped launch and held overall sales and marketing responsibilities for all other GWSC/CBS Cable projects. From 1989 to 1992, Mr. Werner simultaneously served as President of Request Television, a pay-per-view service in which GWSC owned a 50% interest. Mr. Werner also developed Country America Magazine and served on its Board of Directors.

Mr. Werner has served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Cable Television Administration and Marketing, the Board of Directors of the Cable Television Advertising Bureau and the Board of Directors of the Country Music Association. He was a member of the Academy of Cable Programming task force that created National Cable Month in 1986, and was Chairman of the National Sales Advisory Board of the Television Advertising Bureau and President of the Station Representatives Association.