Michelle Vilcheck Warner, 1988
B.A., Denison University
J.D., Northwestern University
Leadership Development Executive, Corporate Attorney and Advisor
Chicago, Ill.
In January of 2022, Michelle Warner was named as the executive director of CEO Perspectives. CEO Perspectives is a leadership development program for professionals reporting to the chief executive officers of Fortune 500 and select growth companies offered through the nonprofit Corporate Leadership Center. In this role, Michelle leverages her successful career as a business executive to lead all aspects of program development, marketing, and delivery.
In addition to her role with CEO Perspectives, Michelle is the founder and principal of MMW Advisors LLC, a corporate advisory firm she established in 2020. In this role, Michelle serves as an independent advisor in the areas of mergers and acquisitions execution, board and governance excellence, mergers and acquisitions team and process development, and legal and compliance department effectiveness.
Since May 2019, Michelle also has served on the board of directors of MKS Instruments, Inc., a publicly traded global provider of instruments, systems, subsystems, and process control solutions used in advanced manufacturing.
Michelle graduated cum laude from Denison with a B.A. in economics in 1988. During her time in Granville, she was initiated into the Phi Beta Kappa academic honorary and was a perennial Dean’s List honoree. Upon graduating from Denison, Michelle went on to Chicago to earn her J.D. from Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law in 1991. While at Northwestern, Michelle served as the articles editor for the Journal of International Law and Business. As a law student and beyond, she remained connected with her alma mater and served as a Denison career advisor.
After graduating from law school, Michelle had an illustrious career in the world of corporate law spanning more than two decades. After beginning her career in private practice at McDermott, Will & Emery, and Holleb & Coff, Michelle went on to spend 18 years at Motorola Inc., and then Motorola Solutions Inc., where she led the company’s most significant global transactions, including large-scale spin-offs, divestitures, outsourcing, acquisitions, and joint ventures, that transformed Motorola, Inc. from a communications conglomerate to a focused public safety solutions leader.
While at Motorola, Michelle served in various leadership roles, including corporate vice president, deputy general counsel, and corporate secretary. She left Motorola to become senior vice president, general counsel, and corporate secretary of USG Corporation, a publicly-traded leading manufacturer of building products and innovative solutions.
Michelle also serves on the President’s Council at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago.
Throughout all this, she has consistently given back to Denison. Not only has she served on the Board of Advisors from 2014 to 2022, and as an admission ambassador in 2019, but she also has had a significant impact on Denison’s student body.
She established the Michelle Warner ’88 and Michael A. Warner Fund for Career Exploration. In addition, Michelle has been a regular donor to the university’s Annual Fund, which has helped enrich the lives of generations of Denisonians.
Michelle and her husband, Michael, currently reside in Chicago.
