The Eleazar Wheelock Society for Intellectual Discourse, Service and Vocation

GREGORY SLAYTON

gregoryslayton@eleazarwheelock.org

Gregory Winston Slayton was sworn in as the United States Chief of Mission and Consul General to Bermuda by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on August 15, 2005. Mr. Slayton is the youngest US Chief of Mission to serve in Bermuda in the modern era. Mr. Slayton is also one of a small handful of Presidentially-selected U.S. ambassadors who have been asked to stay on by President-Elect Obama and his foreign policy team.

Under Mr. Slayton’s leadership, the US Mission to Bermuda has undergone a complete transformation that has dramatically improved overall service levels while reducing annual Mission cost to US taxpayers by over 10%. Over the past three years the US Mission to Bermuda has also added significant new service capacity – including, for the first time in history, a Press Affairs Office and an Economic/Commercial Office. Mr. Slayton is particularly proud of the fact that all this was accomplished while significantly reducing overall Mission cost to the American taxpayer, primarily by streamlining and modernizing management systems and processes while enhancing overall Mission teamwork. Most importantly, respect and admiration for the US, as measured by independent polling data, have risen dramatically in Bermuda during Mr. Slayton’s tenure – a marked contrast to worldwide trends.

In the words of the Premier of Bermuda, the Honorable Ewart Brown, “my friend Gregory Slayton has transformed the US/Bermuda relationship – and all for the good. Bermuda has never had a senior US diplomat with Gregory’s skills, contacts, energy and enthusiasm…” Or to quote Bermuda’s leading daily, The Royal Gazette: “Energetic, brilliant, passionate and an unabashed American patriot…Gregory Slayton has made a greater impact on Bermuda that any one of his predecessors in more than a decade.” Mr. Slayton was recently named one of the “five most influential” people in Bermuda in the RG Magazine’s annual survey, the first US diplomat in history to be so honored.

Before becoming the United States’ senior diplomat to Bermuda, Mr. Slayton was the Managing Director of Slayton Capital, a private venture capital firm with offices in Northern Virginia and Silicon Valley. In this capacity, Mr. Slayton was honored to serve on the Boards of Advisors of Google, Salesforce.com and other high tech leaders.

The Harvard Business School has written a number of case studies on Mr. Slayton’s work in Silicon Valley. Po Bronson, in his best selling “Nudist on the Night Shift” devoted a chapter to Mr. Slayton’s unorthodox business style which he wrote “takes gung-ho to a whole new level.” The Wall Street Journal entitled a feature article on Mr. Slayton’s management successes “Silicon Valley Hybrid: A Boss Who Makes Others’ Ideas Pay Off.” And Time magazine put Mr. Slayton on the cover of its “GetRich.com: Inside the Secrets of the New Silicon Valley” issue.

A native of Ohio, Mr. Slayton graduated magna cum laude with a degree in international economics from Dartmouth College. As a Fulbright Scholar he received a Masters in Asian Studies with honors. His published Masters thesis focused on the structural causes of - and solutions to - poverty in India and Southeast Asia. Later, at Harvard Business School, he received an M.B.A. with honors.

For most of his twenties, Mr. Slayton lived and worked throughout Asia, Africa, and Latin America managing micro-credit, clean water generation and economic development programs for the poor. He remains active in international economic development via the Slayton Family Foundation and speaks four languages in addition to English.

Early in his thirties, Mr. Slayton served at McKinsey and Company for four years in Europe, South America and the United States. While at McKinsey, in addition to serving some of the largest and best known companies in the world, Mr. Slayton helped establish McKinsey’s Non-Profit Board Practice. He was then recruited out of McKinsey to run the Silicon Valley technology arm of Paramount Studios – and went on to be the President/CEO/Chairman of a number of successful high tech companies, both public and private. He then established Slayton Capital.

Today Mr. Slayton resides primarily in Bermuda with his wife and their four children. Mr. Slayton occasionally co-teaches at the Harvard Business School and the Stanford Graduate School of Business and remains active in international philanthropy via the Slayton Family Foundation. He is an avid tennis player and a recreational golfer who also enjoys water sports, spending time with his family and coaching his son’s soccer team.