Chairman of BF Enterprises, Inc. Palm Beach, Florida, and nationally recognized as a business attorney, entrepreneur and philanthropist. Former Chairman and Chief executive Officer of Boothe Financial Corp. and of Robert Half International, Inc., Mr. Burns also has had a distinguished career as a practicing attorney. His broad range of business experience has led to his election or appointment to the boards of major corporations, as well as professional, governmental and charitable organizations. Mr. Burns was one of the drafter of the revised California Corporations Code.

A graduate of Harvard Law School at the age of 23 and the son of the first General Counsel to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Mr. Burns was a partner at several leading law firms in San Francisco, including Burns & Whitehead (1978-1986); Cullinan, Burns & Helmer (1975-1978); and Cullinan, Hancock, Rothert & Burns (1965-1974). He began his career as an associate at Webster, Sheffield, Fleischmann, Hitchcock & Brookfield in New York City (1960-1964). He was Special Assistant to the Regional Administrator of the S.E.C.’s New York Regional Office.

In 2001, Mr. Burns was named one of the “Greatest Irish Americans of the 20th Century” by Irish America Magazine.