J. Douglas Gray

Independent Director

Independent director Gray supports Marshall Street Capital’s management team in the development and implementation of the company’s investment strategy, which spans broad, diversified assets.

Gray has more than 30 years of leadership in several sectors, including asset management, investment banking, private equity, strategic and operational consulting and as CEO or president of operating companies.

As CEO of Everett Smith Group from 2006-2015, Gray was instrumental in creating value through strategic growth, market expansion and operational improvements of operating companies in the family portfolio. That success led to profitable divestitures of portfolio companies, a transition into more traditional investments, and the founding of Marshall Street Capital and Claridges Trust Company in 2015. He then served as CEO of Marshall Street Capital from 2015-2016.

Gray is a former managing director and advisory director at Morgan Stanley and was a senior advisor to William Blair & Company. Early in his career, he was president of Swift Independent Corporation, a Fortune 200 company. He also has served as a financial advisor to the Searle family trusts and was a founding partner of the private equity firm GGW Partners, Inc. He was also the managing director at A.T. Kearney management consultants and served as CEO of CSC Index, an international management consultancy.

Gray’s civic involvement spans several decades of leadership roles serving Northwestern University, the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC), Northwestern Memorial Hospital, McGaw Medical Center, Chicago Council on Global Affairs, the Commercial Club of Chicago, the Economic Club of Chicago, Florentine Opera of Milwaukee and many others. Specific in the area of investment leadership, Gray served for many years on the investment committees of several of the above institutions.

Gray holds a degree in economics from Miami University of Ohio and also attended the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. He has an Honorary Doctorate of Human Letters from Huron College in South Dakota.