The ACC Foundation today announced its female leader honorees for the second annual ACC Foundation Global Women in Law & Leadership Reception and Honors Dinner.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (June 14, 2017) -- The Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) Foundation, which supports the mission of ACC, a global legal association representing more than 42,000 in-house counsel in 85 countries, today announced its female leader honorees for the second annual ACC Foundation Global Women in Law & Leadership Reception and Honors Dinner, to be hosted at the United Nations Delegates Dining Room on June 20.
The ACC Foundation selected Nadja Bellan-White, EVP, Global Brand Management, Ogilvy and Mather EMEA; Kim Rivera, chief legal officer and general counsel, HP Inc.; and Sabrina Shizue McKenna, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of Hawaii, as the 2017 honorees. The women will be recognized at the June 20 event, where they will participate in an interview on their accomplishments, leadership styles, and advice for female lawyers and business leaders. The interview will be moderated by Sunny Hostin, senior legal correspondent & analyst, ABC News, and co-host of The View.
The evening reception and dinner will be preceded by an afternoon symposium on the challenges and opportunities women face in the workplace. At the symposium, 200 attendees will attend sessions addressing:
- Women Leaders Effectuating Cultural Change
- Ted Talk: The Mindset, Skills, and Behaviors of High Performing Women
- Risk, Ambition & Self-Promotion: Women Leaders Cultivating Their Ambition and Claiming Their Contributions
Bellan-White, Rivera, and McKenna were selected by the ACC Foundation for their outstanding leadership and their commitment to helping other women advance into leadership roles. Additionally, each has found ways to contribute to the community through their professions. As CEO of Ogilvy Africa, Bellan-White managed a portfolio worth more than $20 million across 27 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. She has led pro bono campaigns for the Center for Discovery (RBS Citizens) and BuildOn.org (GE Capital), and most recently, an international FDI campaign for Kenya. Her client list includes IKEA, Coca-Cola, Nestle, and American Express. Bellan-White has now been tasked with relocating to London to grow a $200 million portfolio of global brands, while continuing the drive for diversity across the EMEA region.
Rivera has instituted a policy at HP requiring all law firms the company engages with to have at least one diverse relationship partner working on the legal matter, or to have one female and one minority attorney performing at least 10 percent of all billable work. While many companies have diversity requirements for their firms, HP is notable in that it will withhold 10 percent of legal fees if a firm does not meet these requirements after one year. Rivera created this policy in order to break barriers to diversity in the legal field, which has seen slow gains, especially at the largest law firms. Outside of the workplace, Rivera makes time to serve on non-profit boards, including prior service on the boards of the California-based Latino Community Foundation and the Denver Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
McKenna has worked across the legal field: at a law firm, as in-house counsel, and as a professor, and now serves as a justice on the Supreme Court of Hawaii, her home state. After attending college on a basketball scholarship as an early beneficiary of Title IX, she has long championed breaking barriers for the development of fellow women leaders. She frequently speaks on civil rights topics in the U.S. and internationally, and co-chaired the Hawaii Supreme Court's Committee on Equality and Access to the Courts and the Committee on Court Interpreters and Language Access, looking to provide opportunities for groups frequently underrepresented in the justice system.
"Our honorees have a storied list of accomplishments on their own, but what makes them truly worthy of this year's ACC Foundation honors is that they have used their success to champion for further progress," said ACC Foundation Director Jennifer Chen. "They haven't been satisfied with individual success – they are constantly working to break barriers for other women and diverse groups."
Video of last year's event may be accessed here. If you are interested in attending this year's symposium or the honors dinner as press, please contact Lee Betancourt, ACC senior director of communications and public relations, at betancourt@acc.com.
About the ACC Foundation:The ACC Foundation – a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization – supports the efforts of the Association of Corporate Counsel, serving the needs of the in-house bar through the dissemination of research and surveys, leadership and professional development opportunities, and support of diversity and pro-bono initiatives. The ACC Foundation partners with corporations, law firms, legal service providers, and bar associations to assist in the furtherance of these goals. For more information, visit www.acc-foundation.com/.