Gene T. Sykes, investment banker, elected to Stanford's Board of Trustees

By Kathleen J. Sullivan

Gene Sykes begins a five-year term on Stanford's Board of Trustees Feb. 1. (Photo: Mark McQueen)

Gene T. Sykes, co-head of global mergers and acquisitions, and chairman of global technology, media and telecommunications investment banking at Goldman Sachs, was recently elected to the Stanford University Board of Trustees.

Sykes has extensive experience in mergers, acquisitions and strategic transitions, as well as private equity investments in technology, media, telecommunications, health care, aerospace and a number of other industries.

He will begin a five-year term Feb. 1.

"I have known Gene for almost 20 years and have had the opportunity to work with him on a number of other boards, and to observe firsthand how his superb judgment and extraordinary leadership skills have benefited the underlying organization," said Steven A. Denning, chair of the Board of Trustees.

"We are fortunate to have Gene join the Board of Trustees and I expect that his involvement will provide similar benefits to Stanford in the years ahead."

Sykes, who earned a bachelor's degree in government at Harvard in 1980, earned an MBA at Stanford in 1984. He joined Goldman's mergers and acquisitions department in New York in 1984, and joined the firm's Los Angeles office in 1987. He is a member of Goldman's management committee and of the firm's client and business standards committee.

At Stanford, Sykes is an active volunteer for the Graduate School of Business, including admissions and class reunions. He is a past chair of the GSB Advisory Council and former co-chair of the campaign steering committee that guided the GSB through the five-year Stanford Challenge. He also served on the major gifts regional committee for The Stanford Challenge, as well as on the steering committee for Leading Matters Los Angeles.

Currently, Sykes is a member of the Task Force for Volunteer Engagement and co-chair of the School of Earth Sciences Development Task Force. He and his wife, Tracy Moritz Sykes, have supported the GSB and the School of Earth Sciences, where they endowed the Sykes Family Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources Directorship Fund. They have also established a donor-advised fund at Stanford.

Sykes and his wife have four children and live in Los Angeles.

He is a director of Common Sense Media, former chair of the California board of trustees of The Nature Conservancy and former chair of the board of the National Parks Conservation Association. He also has served on the board of the California Governor's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, and as chair of the board of trustees at St. Matthew's Parish School in Pacific Palisades.

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