Private Company Director’s Directors to Watch 2026 highlights 29 significant and diverse directors who have contributed to and will continue to expand ongoing dialogue on board best practices and corporate governance excellence.
Christine Gallagher
Astrocyte Pharmaceuticals, John G. Ullman & Associates Inc.
An experienced board director and senior capital markets professional, Christine Gallagher leverages expertise from over 300 M&A and capital markets transactions to guide companies in the health care and innovation sectors through strategic inflection points, valuation events and complex governance decisions.
She is the sole independent director of Astrocyte Pharmaceuticals, a clinical-stage life sciences company, where she helps frame strategic choices to keep development priorities on track and aligned with long-term value creation. Gallagher is a director at John G. Ullman & Associates Inc., a private wealth management firm, contributing to strategy, long-term planning and oversight of investment risk.
She is trustee emeritus, and former trustee and vice chair of audit for Colgate University and former president of the Colgate Alumni Corporation board. She is an executive coach in Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association’s Circle of Advisors leadership development program.
Gallagher is a member of the Private Directors Association and Extraordinary Women on Boards.
The board’s role as integrator. “In a world shaped by functional, informational and increasingly algorithmic data silos, the board’s highest function is to instill integrative thinking. Deep expertise is essential, but directors serve best when they pair their expertise with an enterprise-wide perspective and disciplined, collaborative exchange. Expertise with breadth enables boards to surface and connect complex issues early, guide organizations through inflection points with clarity and uphold the ethical, transparent stewardship of long-term value.”