William Donaldson held a series of eminent positions in private and public life before he was appointed the twenty-seventh chairman of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission by President George W. Bush ‘68m in February 2003.
While at Yale, Donaldson played on the freshman hockey team. After graduating, he served for two years with the Marine Corps in the Far Eastern Theater as a rifle platoon commander and later as aide-de-camp to the commanding general of the First Provisional Marine Air Ground Task Force. After military service, he earned an M.B.A. with Distinction from Harvard Business School in 1958.
Donaldson began his business career in 1959 as a co-founder and CEO of the international banking firm, Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, Inc. In 1973, he served in the Nixon administration as Undersecretary of State to Henry Kissinger and later as counsel and special adviser to Vice President Nelson Rockefeller.
One of the founders of Yale’s School of Management, Donaldson was its first dean from 1975 to 1980 holding a tenured chair as the William S. Beinecke Professor of Management. In 1980, he founded the private investment from Donaldson Enterprises, serving as chairman until he was appointmented chairman and CEO of the New York Stock Exchange, a position he held until 1995. Before his appointment as SEC chairman, he served as chairman, president, and CEO of Aetna, Inc.
