Susan Permut

Biography

Susan I. Permut is a recognized thought leader in corporate governance.  She is the former Deputy General Counsel and Assistant Corporate Secretary at EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC), a $25B global technology company, where she worked for 23 years, until the merger with Dell Technologies.  Susan is currently consulting and advising Boards and management of public companies on high profile corporate governance matters.  She is also an adjunct professor at Boston University School of Law, where she teaches corporate governance.

Susan initiated and, over 20 years, developed the corporate governance program at EMC—well before this was common in the U.S. She has deep experience in all aspects of board work, including shareholder engagement, shareholder activism, and compliance. She is often sought out for her expertise within a large network of U.S. and international corporate governance professionals, including institutional investors, public pension and labor funds, issuers, advisory firms and academics.

Susan has extensive experience as a director of and advisor to several organizations.  She currently serves on the advisory boards of both Northeastern University School of Law’s NuLawLab and Elon University School of Law. She is a member of the Board of Advisors of the Society for Corporate Governance (Eastern New England Chapter) and the AJC New England Leadership Board.

Susan previously served on the Board of Directors of the Society for Corporate Governance (National), the Council of Institutional Investors and the Association of Corporate Counsel (Northeast Chapter) and the Board of Trustees of Dean College.  She is past co-chair of the Boston Bar Association Corporate Law Committee.  She was a member of the American Bar Association Task Force on the delineation between the roles of shareholders and boards of directors and on the working group on the advisory vote on executive compensation.

Susan was recognized by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly as an In-House Leader in the Law, was honored by Boston Women’s Business as one of the Top 10 Corporate Lawyers in the region and was chosen as one of the Corporate Counsel 100 United States Rising Stars.  She led the team that won the Corporate Secretary Magazine Corporate Governance Team of the Year award (Large Cap Company), helped lead the EMC legal department to win the National Law Journal Boston Best Legal Department award and helped lead the EMC legal department to be placed on Legal 500’s GC Powerlist Top 100 U.S. In-House Legal Teams.  In 2010, NACD’s New England Chapter recognized EMC’s board of directors as Board of the Year.

Susan was previously an attorney at Damon Corporation in Needham, an associate at Testa Hurwitz & Thibeault in Boston and an associate at Fenwick & West in Palo Alto, CA.

She received a BS from Cornell University and a JD from the University of Pennsylvania.