2024 featured speakers

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  Bimal Patel

  Senior vice-president and general counsel, PayPal

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  Bimal Patel

  Senior vice-president and general counsel, PayPal

  Bimal Patel is senior vice-president and general counsel of PayPal Holdings. In his capacity as general counsel he oversees the company’s global legal function. Mr Patel joined PayPal in 2021 from the US Department of the Treasury, where he served as assistant secretary for financial institutions and oversaw several key portfolios. He also co-led the development and operationalisation of the Paycheck Protection Programme small-business lending programme in response to the covid-19 pandemic. Earlier in his career Mr Patel was a partner and head of the financial advisory and regulation practice at O’Melveny & Myers, and a senior advisor at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).

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  Áine Lyons

  Senior vice-president & deputy general counsel, VMware

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  Áine Lyons

  Senior vice-president & deputy general counsel, VMware

  Áine Lyons is a Senior Vice President and Deputy General Counsel who leads the Worldwide Sales, Operations and Privacy legal teams at VMware. She also serves as the Chief of Staff to VMware’s General Counsel. Working with the Legal Team and the business, her mission is to transform and scale legal services to accelerate VMware’s growth and simply the customer experience. She is a transformational leader that is passionate about increasing the Legal’s impact to the business through operational excellence, digital innovation, and investments in people development. She leads a diverse multidisciplinary team of fearless legal innovators to develop solutions that mitigate risk while still pursuing VMware’s strategic priorities in an ever-changing global environment.

  Áine has over 25 years of experience managing legal and cross-functional teams, predominately in fast-moving technology companies. The Financial Times named Áine the 2022 “Change Agent” and the 2019 “Legal Intrapreneur of the Year” for her transformation efforts, She and her team have won multiple awards for operational excellence, transforming transactional support, and driving industry change in how legal services are delivered. A founding member of VMinclusion, Aine helped shape VMware’s DEI and ESG strategy and is passionate about operationalising ESG to
  drive greater purpose and impact. She is a board member of the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium (CLOC) transforming the business and practice of law.

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  Regina Bynote Jones

  Senior vice-president, general counsel and secretary, ADM

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  Regina Bynote Jones

  Senior vice-president, general counsel and secretary, ADM

  Regina Jones is senior vice president, general counsel and secretary of ADM and a member of the company’s Executive Council. In this role, Jones oversees ADM’s global legal and regulatory affairs, compliance initiatives, security operations and government relations efforts. Jones joined ADM in September 2023. Before that, she served as the chief legal officer for Baker Hughes, a global leader in the energy technology sector. For the last three decades, Jones has held domestic and international legal roles with responsibility for complex legal environments across the United States, Europe, Southeast Asia, Latin America and the Middle East with expatriate assignments in Paris, France, and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 

  Jones previously served as Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary for Delek U.S.Holdings, Inc., and Delek Logistics Partners LP. Her career includes varied senior leadership roles in legal, supply chain and information technology with Schlumberger, Dynegy Marketing & Trade, Shell Oil Company and El Paso Energy. Jones currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors for South Texas College of Law and has previously served on Boards of Directors for the Houston March of Dimes, Girl Scouts of San Jacinto Council, Child Advocates and the State Bar of Texas. Jones has also assumed a role on the Board of Directors of the National Association of Manufacturers. Jones earned her Bachelor of Business Administration, General Business from Sam Houston State University, and her Doctor of Jurisprudence from South Texas College of Law with an emphasis in computer and technology law.

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  Alison Zoellner

  Group general counsel, Dentsu Group Inc.

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  Alison Zoellner

  Group general counsel, Dentsu Group Inc.

  Alison Zoellner is the General Counsel for Dentsu Group Inc. and joined the business in 2020 as the General Counsel for the Americas region, most recently serving as Global General Counsel, dentsu international. She previously served as Vice President and General Counsel of Honeywell’s Advanced Materials business, a global business which manufactures a wide variety of high-performance products. Prior to this, Zoellner was Assistant General Counsel, Securities and Corporate Finance of Honeywell International Inc. She began her career at Sullivan & Cromwell before working for seventeen years in the legal department of The New York Times Company.

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  Kai Falkenberg

  General counsel, The Guardian US

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  Kai Falkenberg

  General counsel, The Guardian US

  Kai Falkenberg is General counsel, The Guardian US. She has more than 20 years’ experience in media law including M&A, data privacy, intellectual property, labour relations, compliance and litigation. Before joining G/O Ms Falkenberg served as acting commissioner and first deputy commissioner of the New York City Mayor’s Office of Media Entertainment, overseeing the country’s largest municipal broadcast network and the regulation of all film and television production in the city.

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  Joanne E. Caruso

  Chief legal and administrative officer, Jacobs

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  Joanne E. Caruso

  Chief legal and administrative officer, Jacobs

  Joanne is EVP, Chief Legal and Administrative Officer at Jacobs, a 60,000-employee, Dallas-based global firm providing consulting, technical, scientific and project delivery services to clients worldwide. In this role she leads global functions that work together to align to the overall strategic direction of the Company, specifically Legal, Compliance and Insurance, Human Resources, Communications, HSE, Global Security, ERM and the Office of Climate Response and ESG. She is also an Executive Sponsor for Prism, Jacobs’ employee network for LGBTQI+ people and their allies. Prior to joining Jacobs in 2012 as VP, Global Litigation, Joanne was a partner in 2 international law firms, was named one of the top 100 attorneys in California and was repeatedly named as one of California’s Top 75 Women Litigators. In 2022, she was named by the Financial Times as a “Top 20 In-House Legal Leader”. Throughout her career, she has been involved in many professional, civic and non-profit organisations, including serving as the Vice- Chair of California’s Access to Justice Commission, a statewide Commission dedicated to exploring ways to improve access to civil justice for those living on low and moderate incomes. She is a graduate of Boston College and Boston College Law School and is based in Dallas.

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  Kimberly Woodward

  Vice-president, legal and chief of staff, Okta

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  Kimberly Woodward

  Vice-president, legal and chief of staff, Okta

  Kimberly Woodward is vice-president, legal and chief of staff to the chief legal officer at Okta. She has been at Okta nearly 8 years where she founded the Legal Operations function from scratch to over a dozen legal operations professionals today. Kimberly is a “recovering attorney” who began her career focusing on commercial transactions. She is passionate about giving back to the legal ops community and helping new legal ops professionals break into the field. She holds a J.D. from Santa Clara University School of Law and is a member of the California State Bar.

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  Seth Gastwirth

  Deputy general counsel and assistant corporate secretary, JLL

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  Seth Gastwirth

  Deputy general counsel and assistant corporate secretary, JLL

  Seth Gastwirth serves as deputy general counsel, assistant corporate secretary and general counsel work dynamics at JLL, a commercial real-estate services firm with operations in more than 80 countries and a global workforce of 98,000. His legal experience spans commercial contracting, corporate governance, M&A, litigation and dispute resolution, compliance and risk management, and employment law. Mr Gastwirth’s international experience includes three years at AkzoNobel’s global headquarters in Amsterdam as global director of investigations and chief compliance officer of its specialty chemicals business. He was previously a partner at Kirkland & Ellis in Chicago and an associate at Weil, Gotshal & Manges in New York.

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  Prashanth Jayachandran

  Senior-vice president, chief supply chain counsel, Colgate-Palmolive Company

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  Prashanth Jayachandran

  Senior-vice president, chief supply chain counsel, Colgate-Palmolive Company

  Prashanth ‘PJ’ Jayachandran is Senior Vice President, Chief Supply Chain Counsel for Colgate-Palmolive Company, based in Piscataway, NJ. As lead counsel for the global supply chain, PJ oversees global commercial contracting, labor relations, legal issues related to logistics, transportation, trade, manufacturing and product distribution. He also addresses key global policy issues related to human rights, environmental impact and sustainability. In his prior roles for Colgate, Jayachandran served as Chief Human Resources & Benefits Counsel, and Division General Counsel for Colgate Asia.
  Prior to joining Colgate in 2013, Jayachandran was in private practice as labor and employment lawyer for fifteen years. Jayachandran spent close to ten years with Morgan Lewis & Bockius, based in Princeton, NJ.
  Jayachandran also serves as Distinguished Lecturer for the Syracuse University College of Law, teaching a course related to Corporate Sustainability.
  In addition, Jayachandran serves on several nonprofit boards in various leadership roles: Board of Advisors for the Syracuse University College of Law; Board of Visitors for the University of Wisconsin College of Letters & Science; Board of Advisors for the Paul, Weiss ESG & Law Institute; and Co-Founder, New Jersey Youth Civics Coalition. He is also an Affiliate with Syracuse University’s The Dynamic
  Sustainability Lab.
  Jayachandran received a Bachelor of Arts degree (Economics and Political Science) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He received a Juris Doctorate from Syracuse University College of Law, and a Master of Public Administration from Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.

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  Matthew Dornauer

  Chief legal officer, Heineken USA

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  Matthew Dornauer

  Chief legal officer, Heineken USA

  Matt is the Chief Legal Officer of HEINEKEN^® USA (“HUSA”), leading the company’s legal, compliance, and regulatory functions. Matt joined HUSA after nine years as the first General Counsel of Phusion Projects, a U.S.-based alcohol beverage company. While at Phusion, he established and grew the company’s legal department, helped drive numerous successful product launches, and resolved challenging litigation across the globe. Prior to joining Phusion, Matt began his legal career as a commercial litigator in the Chicago office of Sidley Austin LLP.  He earned his undergraduate degree from The Ohio State University and law degree from the University of Notre Dame Law School.

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  Lisa Mather

  Vice-president and general counsel, Mars Snacking

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  Lisa Mather

  Vice-president and general counsel, Mars Snacking

  Lisa Mather is vice-president and general counsel at Mars Wrigley. She joined Mars in April 2022 and works with all functions across the business to help deliver sustainable business growth, bring new innovations to market and advance the company’s goal of becoming sustainable within a generation. Ms Mather was previously vice-president, legal and business affairs and chief international counsel at PayPal. Before joining PayPal in 2017 she served as vice-president and division general counsel for Asia Pacific at Colgate-Palmolive Company. Ms Mather began her legal career as a corporate lawyer specialising in mergers and acquisitions, practising with global law firms in Asia and Australia.