Susan R. Kilsby (nee Saltzbart, born 1958/59) is an American investment banker and businesswoman. She is the chairman of

Shire Shire is a traditional term for an administrative division of land in Great Britain and some other English-speaking countries such as Australia and New Zealand. It is generally synonymous with county. It was first used in Wessex from the beginn ...

Early life

Kilsby, a native of New Jersey, was born circa 1958/59. She earned a bachelor's degree in Economics from

Wellesley College Wellesley College is a private women's liberal arts college in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1870 by Henry and Pauline Durant as a female seminary, it is a member of the original Seven Sisters Colleges, an unofficial g ...

and a master in business administration from the Yale School of Management.

Career

Kilsby began her banking career at First Boston in the 1980s. She spent most of her career as an investment banker, working for Bankers Trust,

Barclays de Zoete Wedd Barclays () is a British multinational universal bank, headquartered in London, England. Barclays operates as two divisions, Barclays UK and Barclays International, supported by a service company, Barclays Execution Services. Barclays traces ...

and

Credit Suisse Credit Suisse Group AG is a global investment bank and financial services firm founded and based in Switzerland. Headquartered in Zürich, it maintains offices in all major financial centers around the world and is one of the nine global " ...

. While at Credit Suisse she is known for having advised Coca-Cola and Fortune Brands. In 2002, she became the first woman to head a mergers and acquisitions department of any major bank, and she was co-chief executive of European M&A until 2009. She gave up a part-time advisory role at Credit Suisse when she took on the role of chairing Shire. Kilsby has been on the board of

since September 2011 and the chairman since April 2014. She became a non-executive director of BBA Aviation in April 2012, Fortune Brands Home & Security in July 2015, and the first female non-executive director at Goldman Sachs International in May 2016. In October 2019, Kilsby was appointed Senior Independent Director of Diageo plc in October 2019 after serving as a Non-Executive Director from 2018 and Chairman of the Remuneration Committee since 2019.

Personal life

Kilsby met her husband, Richard Philip Kilsby when they were both managing directors at Bankers Trust. They married in 1994.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kilsby, Susan Living people 1950s births Wellesley College alumni Yale School of Management alumni American investment bankers American chairpersons of corporations American women in business Goldman Sachs people Businesspeople from New Jersey 21st-century American women