Court clerk
Gerson was an undergraduate at Harvard University, a Rhodes Scholar who studied at Magdalen College, Oxford, a law student at Yale Law School, a US Supreme Court clerk, practised law in government and privately, held executive positions in state and federal government and on a presidential campaign, and was president of start-ups in health care and education, and of two leading national insurance and health-care companies. He has served on many non-profit boards, especially in the arts. The historian of the Rhodes Trust, Philip Ziegler, has described Gerson as "a distinguished lawyer who went on to a highly successful career in business".