Early life and education

C. Boyden Gray attended Fay School and St. Mark's School in Southborough, Massachusetts, and graduated from Harvard University in 1964. He also served as a sergeant in the United States Marine Corps Reserve from 1965-1970. Gray attended law school at the University of North Carolina, where he served as Editor-in-Chief of the UNC law review. He graduated in 1968.

Career

After graduation Gray clerked for Chief Justice Earl Warren for one term. In 1968 he joined the firm of Wilmer Cutler & Pickering, and become a partner in 1976. Grey took a leave of absence from the firm in 1981 to serve as legal counsel for Vice President George Bush. He also served as Counsel to the Presidential Task Force on Regulatory Relief, chaired by Vice President Bush. Gray later served as Director of the Office of Transition Counsel for the Bush transition team, and as Counsel to President Bush from 1989-1993. During this time, Gray became one of the main architects of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments that suggested market solutions for environmental problems.

He returned to Wilmer Cutler & Pickering in 1993 where his practice focused on a range of regulatory matters with emphasis on environmental issues, including those relating to biotechnology, trade, clean air, and the management of risk. He also served as Chairman of the section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice of the American Bar Association. Gray also served as Co-chairman with former majority leader Dick Armey of FreedomWorks.

In October 2001 rumors indicated that Gray was considering running for an open US Senate seat in his native North Carolina, but he passed on the race. Former US Secretary of Labor Elizabeth Dole was elected in November 2002 to replace Jesse Helms, who chose to retire rather than seek a sixth term. Grey served on the Bush-Cheney Transition Department of Justice Advisory Committee, and as White House Counsel to US President George H. W. Bush.

He took up the post of United States Ambassador to the European Union on 17 January 2006, when President George W. Bush granted him a recess appointment to the post. He took a leave of absence from with the law firm Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr to accept that position. When Gray emerged as George W. Bush's preferred candidate for the post of the US's ambassador to the European Union in July 2005, that potential nomination deeply perturbed open source advocates who viewed his ties to Microsoft with suspicion.

Gray's most recent government position was as Special Envoy for European Affairs and Special Envoy for Eurasian Energy at the Mission of the United States to the European Union, having been nominated by United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on January 11, 2008. On March 31, the White House announced his appointment to the additional post of Special Envoy for Eurasian Energy. President H. W. Bush in 1993 awarded him the Presidential Citizens Medal.

He is a member of the board of directors at the Atlantic Council, The European Institute, FreedomWorks and America Abroad Media. In addition, Gray is or was a member of the Federalist Society, Harvard University's Committee on University Development, the Board of Trustees of the Washington Scholarship Fund, St. Mark's School, and National Cathedral School.

Family

Gray was the third of four sons born to Gordon Gray and Jane Boyden Craige. His cousin, Lyons Gray, was the chief financial officer of the Environmental Protection Agency. He and his former wife, Carol Elizabeth Taylor, have one daughter Eliza Lindsay Gray. In the 1990s, he was famous in Washington for having given over the first floor of his Georgetown home to his pot-bellied pig.

Gray's uncle, Bowman Gray, served as president and chairman of the RJ Reynolds Tobacco Co. in Winston-Salem. His father served as president of UNC from 1950-1955 and served as Secretary of the Army under President Harry S. Truman, and as chair of Piedmont Publishing Co. which publishes the Winston-Salem Journal. Lyons Gray was a Republican member of the North Carolina General Assembly before joining the EPA.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]