Jerome W. Van Gorkom

Jerome William Van Gorkom (August 6, 1917 – March 17, 1998) was a United States businessman who was U.S. Under Secretary of State for Management 1982-83. He served as the CEO of TransUnion for eighteen years. Van Gorkom is probably best known as the named defendant in the landmark corporate law case of Smith v. Van Gorkom, 488 A.2d 858 (Del. 1985), which involved the merger of TransUnion with the Marmon Group in 1980.

Jerome W. Van Gorkom was educated at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, receiving a B.S. in 1939. He then attended the University of Illinois College of Law, receiving a J.D. in 1941.

After law school, Van Gorkom joined the United States Navy, serving until the end of World War II in 1945. After the war, Van Gorkom became an associate attorney at the Chicago law firm of Kix, Miller, Baar & Morris. He stayed there only two years, leaving in 1947 to become an accountant at Arthur Andersen. He became a partner at Arthur Andersen in 1954.

In 1956, Van Gorkom joined TransUnion, the third largest credit bureau in the United States, as comptroller. He later served as TransUnion's chief executive officer from 1962 to 1980. In September 1980, in a move that would later prove highly controversial, Van Gorkom contacted Jay Pritzker and offered to merge TransUnion with the Marmon Group, a company controlled by Pritzker, with the Marmon Group acquiring TransUnion at a price of $55/share.

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