Ex-SEC chair Jay Clayton joins Apollo board
February 19, 2021
Apollo Global Management has chosen Jay Clayton as the lead independent director of its board, the latest step in a shake-up of the firm's corporate governance in the wake of a recent internal investigation into co-founder and CEO Leon Black's business ties to Jeffrey Epstein.
- The move comes a little less than two months after Clayton ended his term as chairman of the SEC, a role he filled for about three-and-a-half years. Before that, Clayton was a longtime lawyer and member of the management committee at Sullivan & Cromwell.
- In January, the law firm Dechert found Black had paid a much larger sum to Epstein than had previously been known for an array of consulting services. Black announced plans to step down as CEO later this year, to be replaced by fellow co-founder Marc Rowan.
- Earlier this month, Rowan announced a series of changes to Apollo's governance, including plans to add a lead independent director, to make two-thirds of its board independent and to eliminate its existing dual-class share structure.