Retired Executive, Associate General Counsel, and Head of Global Litigation & Employment, Collins Aerospace.

Mr. Gerard is an attorney and public company business executive, with a proven 30 year record of partnering with leadership and managing legal matters, as general counsel to companies, recognized for his judgment, integrity, dedication, leadership, & legal acumen. Mr. Gerard successfully managed global litigation, mergers, acquisitions & divestitures, corporate governance & securities matters, transactional, regulatory & contracts matters, employment, labor, benefits & compensation, and corporate risk at Collins Aerospace, a leader in the global aerospace and defense industry, created in 2018 by bringing together United Technologies Aerospace Systems & Rockwell Collins and the subsequent merger with Raytheon Company, delivered by a global workforce of approximately 80,000 employees, over 250 locations, & annual revenue of $28 billion, which together became RTX, a Fortune 100 company with over 185,000 employees & annual revenue of $80 billion. He had similar responsibilities at predecessor entity Rockwell Collins, Inc.

Earlier in his career, Mr. Gerard served as a senior executive at a multinational, publicly traded telecommunications company. Prior to that, he practiced law at Nixon Peabody, a large international law firm, where he counseled corporate clients on divergent commercial issues, and successfully represented multinational corporate clients in high-stakes litigation. He also worked with the United States Courts, where he clerked for the Chief Federal Judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of New York, and in the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Mr. Gerard has been admitted to practice law before the U.S. Supreme Court, U.S. Court of Appeals, & multiple federal district & state courts. He has been an active member of a number of professional organizations, including the Association of Corporate Counsel, American Employment Law Council, Aerospace & Defense Labor & Employment Counsel, and North Shore Employment & Labor Counsel.

Mr. Gerard has served on the Georgetown University Alumni Admissions Program, and on the Boards of Directors of the Cedar Rapids Opera, and the Rochester Childfirst Network, an agency dedicated to advancing the quality of early education and care of children since 1857. He is a member of the Knights of Columbus, and was an altar server in his youth.

Mr. Gerard received his doctorate in jurisprudence from the Vanderbilt University School of Law, where he was honored with the Rose Memorial and American Jurisprudence Awards. He also graduated, cum laude, from the Honors Program at Georgetown University, in Washington, D.C. He furthered his studies and was awarded Certificates of Distinction and Merit from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. He has received the College of the Holy Cross Award for outstanding scholarship, concern for others & commitment to school & community, and was named a “University of Notre Dame Scholar.”

Mr. Gerard is happily married to his wife, Pamela, retired college and hospital vice president.

Mr. Gerard joined the CMMB Board of Directors in 2025.