You have to be willing to step out of your comfort zone in order to experience growth...
Nichelle Maynard-ElliottFounder & CEO
Nichelle Maynard-Elliott is an accomplished dealmaker and advisor to boards and senior management. With over 25 years of extensive experience in mergers and acquisitions, business development and strategic alliances, Maynard-Elliott has demonstrated leadership in management of multi-functional teams and influence on executive decision-making to create shareholder value.
Maynard-Elliott’s expertise ranges from early stage private/venture-backed start-ups to mid-sized and mature global companies. From 2018 to 2024, Maynard-Elliott served as an independent director of Element Solutions Inc. (NYSE: ESI), a global specialty chemicals company. In 2019, she became a member of the Compensation and Audit Committees.
From 2021 to 2024 she served as Audit Committee Chairperson. In May 2021, Maynard-Elliott joined the board of Xerox Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ: XRX) and sits on the Audit Committee. In 2022, she was appointed Chairperson of the Compensation Committee. From 2023 to 2024 she also served on the Corporate Governance Committee.
In June 2021, Maynard-Elliott was appointed trustee of The Advisors’ Inner Circle Fund III and its affiliated funds. She currently chairs the Governance Committee.
In July 2021, Maynard-Elliott was elected to the board of Lucid Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: LCID) where she also serves on the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee and Compensation and Human Capital Committee. In 2024, she also joined the Audit Committee.
Maynard-Elliott was named one of 2021’s Most Influential Black Directors by Savoy, a 2023 Director to Watch by Directors & Boards, and one of BoardProspects 2024 100 Black Board Members Making a Difference.
Maynard-Elliott is the former Head of M&A, Americas and Asia Pacific for Praxair, Inc. (wholly owned subsidiary of Linde plc), a leading industrial gases/engineering company. From 2011 to 2019, Maynard-Elliott was responsible for evaluating and negotiating global acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures and other business combinations for Praxair and its affiliates in the Americas and Asia. During her tenure, Maynard-Elliott structured, negotiated and executed complex deals to drive revenue growth. She played an integral role in the Praxair Inc./ Linde AG merger, leading the complex divestiture and carveout workstreams across Europe, North and South America, China, India and Korea.
Prior to serving as Executive Director, M&A, Maynard-Elliott served as Senior Counsel and then Assistant General Counsel in Praxair’s law department. Maynard-Elliott’s responsibilities included M&A and commercial transactions for several wholly owned subsidiaries. As Assistant General Counsel, she served as primary legal counsel for the packaged gases distribution business and healthcare services business and had oversight of legal counsel representing the surface technologies business.
Prior to joining Praxair in 2003, Maynard-Elliott practiced corporate law, specializing in M&A and private equity at large corporate law firms including Weil, Gotshal & Manges, Pryor Cashman and Kelley Drye & Warren.
Maynard-Elliott received a Juris Doctor from Columbia University School of Law and a BA in Economics from Brown University.
Maynard-Elliott also serves on numerous not-for-profit boards for her church and denomination and is the founder and director of the gospel choir, Bronx Bethany’s Chosen. Maynard-Elliott and her husband live in Mount Kisco, NY. Their son is a graduate of NYU Tisch School of the Arts and their daughter attends Brown University.
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“The essence of transactional work is bringing different sides together…” – Nichelle Maynard-Elliott