Shawn M. Riley

Term: 2016-2025
Residence: Gates Mills, Ohio  

Shawn M. Riley was appointed to the Kent State University Board of Trustees in 2016 by former Ohio Gov. John Kasich. He will serve until May 16, 2025.

Trustee Riley currently serves as chair of the Board of Trustees.

Trustee Riley serves as a member of the law firm McDonald Hopkins LLC. As a lawyer, Trustee Riley advises clients on strategic alternatives, including acquisitions, sales, mergers, affiliations, refinancings, recapitalizations and restructurings. His clients have ranged from bookstore chains to multi-facility hospital systems, with revenue from $10 million to $1.5 billion. He has been recognized as a leading lawyer in Ohio and nationally in the field of restructurings and bankruptcies. He currently serves as McDonald Hopkins' board chairman, having previously served as president and chief executive officer, as well as head of the firm's Cleveland office.

His professional memberships include the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association and its Bankruptcy and Commercial Law Section, Ohio State Bar Association, Turnaround Management Association and American Bankruptcy Institute.

Trustee Riley is active in the Northeast Ohio community. He serves as board chairman of the Greater Cleveland Chapter of the American Red Cross. He serves on the board of directors of Destination Cleveland and on the board of the Cleveland Arts Community's Assembly of Action. He also is a member of the board of trustees for the Cleveland Institute of Music and the board of directors for Marymount Health Care System. He is a member of the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity.  Trustee Riley previously served on the board of trustees for the Great Lakes Theater Festival, the board of trustees for Apollo’s Fire and the finance committee of St. Francis of Assisi in Gates Mills. From 2002 to 2011, he served as a member of the village council in Gates Mills and then mayor of Gates Mills from 2011 to 2015. He also served as a member of the Cuyahoga County Charter Review Commission. 

Trustee Riley is an alumnus of Kent State, receiving a bachelor’s degree in political science in 1983. He earned his Juris Doctor degree from Case Western Reserve University in 1986.