Biography

Michele Coleman Mayes is the former Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary for the New York Public Library (NYPL). She was at NYPL from August 2012 to February 2024 after serving as Executive Vice President and General Counsel for Allstate Insurance Company since 2007. Prior to Allstate, she served as a Senior Vice President and the General Counsel of Pitney Bowes Inc. from 2003 to 2007 and in several legal capacities at Colgate-Palmolive from 1992 to 2003. In 1982, Ms. Mayes entered the corporate sector as managing attorney of Burroughs Corporation. After Burroughs and Sperry Corporation merged, creating Unisys Corporation, she was appointed Staff Vice President and Associate General Counsel for Worldwide Litigation. From 1976 through 1982, she served in the U.S. Department of Justice as an Assistant United States Attorney in Detroit and Brooklyn, eventually assuming the role of Chief of the Civil Division in Detroit. Ms. Mayes joined the Board of Brookfield Wealth Solutions Ltd. (NYSE: BNT) in August 2023, where she also serves on the Governance and Nominating Committee. She chaired the American Bar Association Commission on Women in the Profession from 2014 to 2017 and has served on the Board of Trustees of the American College of Corporate Governance Counsel since 2019 and as a Director for the Center for Reproductive Rights since 2020, where she is currently Chair of the Board. Ms. Mayes served as a director of Assurant, Inc. from 2004 to 2007, where she also served as a member of the Audit Committee and Chair of the Nominating and Governance Committee. Since March 2021, Ms. Mayes has been a non-director member of the Special Litigation Committee of Exelon Corporation.

Ms. Mayes received a B.A. from the University of Michigan and a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School.