R. William Ide, III

William “Bill” Ide is chairman of The Conference Board Governance Center Advisory Board and program director of The Conference Board Council of Chief Legal Officers.

Mr. Ide is also a Partner in the Atlanta office of McKenna Long & Aldridge, an international law firm. In his practice he focuses on representing boards of directors, audit committees and management with special investigations, crisis management ethics and corporate governance.

Mr. Ide currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Albemarle Corporation (NYSE:ALB) where he chairs the Governance Committee and serves on the Compensation Committee. He also serves as a member of the Board of Directors of AFC Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ:AFCE) where he chairs the Governance Committee and serves on the Audit Committee.

He is also a senior fellow and co-founder of Emory University’s Directors Institute and he chairs the Governance Committee and serves on the Audit Committee of the Clark Atlanta University Board of Trustees. He is General Counsel and Secretary of the EastWest Institute and serves on the Audit Committee.

Mr. Ide formerly served as senior vice president and General Counsel of Monsanto Company (NYSE:MON), a $30 billion life sciences company, Counsel to the United States Olympic Committee and President of the American Bar Association. 

He has lectured extensively and published numerous articles on corporate governance. Mr. Ide received his B.A. degree, cum laude, from Washington and Lee University, J.D. degree from the University of Virginia and M.B.A. degree from Georgia State University.   He was admitted to the Bar in both Georgia and the District of Columbia.