George W. Madison

George W. Madison is Executive Vice President and General Counsel of TIAA-CREF and a member of its Executive Management Team.  Mr. Madison joined the company in 2003, after six and a half years as executive vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary at Comerica Incorporated, where he also served as a member of Comerica's management policy committee and management council.

Mr. Madison was previously a partner in the law firm of Mayer, Brown & Platt in New York (currently known as Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw), practicing banking and structured finance law on behalf of foreign and domestic money center banks.

Before joining Mayer, Brown & Platt in 1987, Mr. Madison was an associate with the law firm of Shearman & Sterling in New York. He also served as law clerk to the Honorable Nathaniel R. Jones at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Cincinnati.

Mr. Madison is a member of the American Bar Association, the American Law Institute, the American Judicature Society and the Association of Corporate Counsel.  He currently serves as chair of the American Bar Association's Committee of Corporate General Counsel, is on the Legal Aid Society's Board of Directors as well as the Executive Committee of The Association of the Bar of the City of New York.

Mr. Madison received the Judge Learned Hand Award from the American Jewish Committee. He is also the recipient of the NAACP's 1997 Invaluable Pro Bono Legal Services Award, the MCCA's 1998 Diversity 2000 Award, the Detroit Metropolitan Bar Association's 2003 Distinguished Service Award, and the 2003 State Bar of Michigan's President's Choice Award. Most recently, Mr. Madison was awarded the 2006 Paul Robeson Distinguished Alumni Award from Columbia Law School.

Mr. Madison holds a B.S. from New York University's Stern School of Business, a J.D. from Columbia Law School and an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School.