McGowan was born and raised in
Birmingham, Michigan to Harry and Mary McGowan, where he attended
Brother Rice High School. While working towards his B.S. from
Georgetown University and a
J.D. degree from
Georgetown Law, Gerry served as a clerk to Michigan Supreme Court Justice Thomas Kavanagh, and as an assistant to the late U.S. Senator
Philip Hart. He also served in the
Vietnam War as a
United States Army 1st Lieutenant in 1970-1971. A classmate at Georgetown was then class President and eventual United States President,
Bill Clinton. McGowan is a career
telecommunications industry lawyer and is a founding partner of the
Washington D.C. law firm Lukas, McGowan, Nace & Gutierrez. McGowan played an important role in negotiations between the US administration and the Portuguese leadership, during the
East Timor struggle for independence from
Indonesia in late 1999 and early 2000. A telecommunications industry veteran, McGowan sat on the board of directors of
Portugal Telecom from 2003-2015. On June 1, 2015, McGowan was appointed by President Obama to the Board of Visitors of the United States Military Academy - West Point. McGowan also served as a visiting fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School's Institute of Politics in April, 2016. ==Family==