RICARDO MESTRES

MESTRES--Ricardo. Ricardo Angelo Mestres, Jr., former Chairman of Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, died peacefully on May 29, 2023, at his home in New York City in the company of his beloved wife, Patricia Hayot. He was 89 years old. Mr. Mestres was born on August 12, 1933, in New York City, the son of Anita (Gwynne) and Ricardo Angelo Mestres. He grew up in Princeton, New Jersey, where his father was the long serving Financial Vice President of Princeton University. He attended Phillips Exeter Academy and Princeton University, graduating with the class of 1955. After Princeton, he served as an anti-submarine warfare officer in the United States Navy. In 1955 he married Ann Farnsworth, who predeceased him in 2018. In 2022, Mestres was married to Dr. Patricia T. Hayot, the former head of The Chapin School in New York City from 2003 to 2020. Following the Navy, Mr. Mestres attended Harvard Law School, graduating cum laude in 1961. Mr. Mestres joined Sullivan & Cromwell in 1961. He became a partner of the Firm in 1968 and served as Chairman of the Firm from 1995 to 2000. He was a Senior Counsel of the Firm at the time of his death. Mr. Mestres' practice consisted principally of advising United States and non-U.S. issuers and their financial advisors in connection with merger and acquisition and corporate restructuring transactions and public offerings and private placements of equity and debt securities. He was a member of the Firm's Mergers & Acquisitions and Corporate and Finance Groups. "Ricardo was a leader of Sullivan & Cromwell for decades," wrote Robert J. Giuffra, Jr. and Scott Miller, the current Co-Chairs of the Firm. "He was revered by generations of our lawyers for his deep commitment to our Firm and our clients." Mr. Mestres was widely known and universally respected as a man of integrity, razor-sharp intellect and extraordinary grace. His commitment to his family, his law firm, his community, and his country was unwavering. Ricardo's unending well of astute wisdom was sought after by all who knew him. In addition to his noteworthy career in law, Mr. Mestres was deeply committed to the cause of education and to the communities in which he lived: New York City and Bay Head, New Jersey - "The Beach" - which he loved. He served as a deacon and trustee of The Unitarian Church of All Souls in New York City and a trustee of Phillips Exeter Academy, where he was a President of the Board of Trustees from 1993 to 1999. He was the founding chair of the board of the Goldman Sachs Philanthropy Fund, on which he proudly served as Chair Emeritus until just before his death. He and his late wife, Ann, were passionate long-time supporters of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. He was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Mr. Mestres is survived by his four children with Ann Mestres, their daughter, Laura Westlake (John) and their two daughters, Kara and Erin, of Vancouver, British Columbia; their son, Ricardo Mestres, III (Marischa) and his children, Alex and Carrie (predeceased), of Los Angeles, California; their daughter, Lynn Douglass (Hoby) and their two children, Kimmie and Nick, of Seattle, Washington; and their son, Anthony Mestres and his three children, Oscar, Hugo and Bo Mi, also of Seattle. A celebration of Mr. Mestres' life will be held in the near future at a date and location to be announced. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests that friends make a donation to Phillips Exeter Academy or one or more charities of their choice.