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The Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) is the world's largest organization serving the professional and business interests of attorneys who practice in the legal departments of corporations, associations, nonprofits and other private-sector organizations around the globe.

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Rising Stars of the In-house Profession

ACC's Top 10 30-Somethings awards recognize in-house counsel between the ages of 30 and 39 for their innovation, approach to challenges, well-rounded perspectives, contributions to the in-house community, and pro bono and volunteer work.

Top 10 30-Somethings are given special participation opportunities as speakers, authors, and mentors for ACC, connected with Top 30s alumni, and profiled in the ACC Docket.

Read about 2023 winners in the ACC Docket!

The Top 10 30-Somethings awards are graciously sponsored by:

Meet the 2023 Top 10 30-Somethings!

ACC Top 30s Winner Alex Van Gorp

Alex Van Gorp
General Counsel and Advocacy Director 
Damien Center
 

USA 
 

 

ACC's Top 30s winner Dannica Alston

Dannica Alston 
Senior Legal Counsel
 

PepsiCo
 

Australia 
 

ACC's Top 30s Winner Kriti Tannan

Kriti Tannan
Senior Director – Legal 
JLL
 

India
 

ACC's Top 10 30-Somethings winner Susanna Lee

Susanna Lee 
Corporate Counsel, Alliances
 

Salesforce, Inc.
 

USA
 

ACC's Top 30s winner Sona Bedrossian

Sona Bedrossian 
General Counsel & Compliance Officer
 

FlightHub
 

Canada
 

ACC's Top 30-Somethings Winner Jessica Lehman

Jessica Lehman 
Government Contracts Counsel
 

Verizon

USA

Philip Milley 
Director Legal and Compliance 

Mastercard Foundation 

Canada 

 

 

 

ACC's Top 10 30-Something's winner Carolina Lobato.

Carolina Lobato
Head of Legal
Anglo American
Brazil

 

 

 

Jamie Oh 
Associate General Counsel
 

Twitch Interactive Inc. 
 

USA
 

ACC Top 10 30-Somethings winner Nada Alnajafi

Nada Alnajafi 
Senior Corporate Counsel
 

Franklin Templeton
 

USA
 

Tanja Olano

Tanja Olano 
Chief Legal & People Officer

LA28 Olympic & Paralympic Games 
 

USA
 

 

 

 

Natasha Sim
Compliance and Regulatory Counsel
NCRC Community Development Fund
USA

Past Award Recipients

  • 2022 Class

    • Ismat Abidi, Business and Legal Affairs Middle East & North Africa, Netflix, Netherlands

    • C. Whitfield Caughman, Deputy General Counsel, VP Legal & Compliance, Paradies Lagardère, USA

    • Olesja Cormney, Managing Counsel, Toyota Motor North America, Inc., USA

    • Cristal Lambert, Corporate Counsel – Litigation, Bed Bath & Beyond Inc., USA 

    • Cory Lamz, General Counsel, Buoy Health, Inc., USA

    • Benita Lee, Data Center Counsel, Google, Singapore

    • Megan M. Lutes, General Counsel and CHRO, Glowforge, Inc., USA

    • Mipe Okunseinde, Global Head of Legal Operations, Booking.com, The Netherlands

    • Kate Shelby, General Counsel, Resultant, LLC., USA

    • Shalini Swaroop, Chief Legal & Policy Officer, MCE, USA

    • Pervin R. Taleyarkhan, Legal Counsel, Whirlpool Corporation, USA

    • Jonathon D. Wright, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary, Hucro Companies, Inc., USA

  • 2021 Class

    • Akshar Patel, Vice President, AGC Corporate & Commercial, Assistant Corporate Secretary, Flowserve Corporation, USA

    • Alicia Dietzen, General Counsel, KnowBe4, Inc., USA

    • Anushree Bagrodia, Senior Managing Counsel (VP), Mastercard, USA

    • Craig Katerberg, Chief Legal and Corporate Affairs Officer, Budweiser APAC, Hong Kong

    • Joanne Flack, Senior Director, Legal, Rackspace Technology, USA

    • Larry F. Venturelli, Attorney, Team Manager, Zurich North America, USA

    • Meng Choo Cheah, Head of Legal, SEA, ANZ & KR, Sephora Asia, Singapore

    • Morgan Barber, Associate Counsel, The Humane League, USA

    • Nicole Oelrich Tupman, Assistant General Counsel, Midco, USA

    • Tarek Nakkach, Region Legal Counsel, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, UAE

    Honorable Mentions

    • Aida Babalola, Senior Legal Director, Global Employment Law, PepsiCo, USA
    • Concepcion "Conchita" Valenzuela, Deputy General Counsel, Confie, USA
    • Marisa Muchow, General Counsel, Metricon Homes Pty Ltd, Australia
  • 2020 Class

    • Asaf Alkoby, Senior Director & Executive GC, Global Corporate Affairs, Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd
    • Andrew Buddle, Corporate Counsel,Teck Resources Limited
    • Julisa Edwards, General Counsel, Humane Society Wildlife Land Trust
    • Bassel C. Korkor, VP, Risk Management, Charles Schwab
    • Meyling Ly-Ortiz, Managing Counsel, Employment & Labor, Toyota Motor North America, Inc.
    • Vincent J. Montalto, Senior Litigation Counsel, BASF Corp.
    • Ahmed S. Mousa, SVP, Corporate Operations & General Counsel, Pieris Pharmaceuticals
    • Adam Nagorski, Corporate Counsel, UL
    • Tyrone H. Thomas, Jr., Deputy GC, Invenergy LLC
    • Maggie Warren, VP, Assistant GC, Vertafore, Inc.
  • 2019 Class

    • Fernanda Beraldi, Senior Director, Cummins Inc.
    • Brian Buckham, Senior Vice President and General Counsel, Idaho Power Company
    • Thomas Cluderay, General Counsel, Yellowstone Forever
    • Lewis Dolezal, Corporate Counsel, The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company
    • April A. Goff, Senior Counsel, Benefits, Labor and Employment, and Cybersecurity and Data Privacy, J.C. Penney Corporation, Inc.
    • Sadeq M. Khan, Chief Compliance Officer and Deputy General Counsel, Vertical Screen, Inc.
    • William K. Piotrowski, Associate General Counsel, Lydall, Inc.
    • Melissa Reiter, Director of Legal and Privacy Officer, G Adventures
    • Alana C. St. Aude, Director, Assistant General Counsel, Capital One
    • Erin K. Stewart, General Counsel and VP of Human Resources, Pinnacle Group
  • 2018 Class

    • Sheila Bangalore, Associate General Counsel, Aristocrat Technologies
    • Christopher Y. Chan, General Counsel and Head of Government Affairs, RedMart Limited
    • Steve Gangemi, Senior Counsel, Dispute Resolution, Hilton Worldwide
    • Mary Gritzmacher, Deputy General Counsel and Director of Legal Services, Europe, CoorsTek
    • Paul Lanois, Vice President, Cross-Border Legal, Credit Suisse
    • Olga V. Mack, Vice President of Strategy, Quantstamp
    • Shelly Paioff, Vice President, Legal Affairs, Taboola, Inc.
    • Julie Ryan, General Counsel and Company Secretary, Accolade Wines
    • Diana Toman, Senior Vice President, General Counsel, and Corporate Secretary, Compass Minerals International
    • Greg Wu, Managing Counsel, United Airlines
  • 2017 Class

    • Dan Seltzer, Managing Director, Senior Director, Anticorruption, and Government Compliance Officer, Accenture
    • Katia Bloom, Associate General Counsel, ForgeRock
    • Thomas Chow, General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer, Exponential Interactive
    • Leilani Harbeck, Senior Counsel, Conagra Brands
    • Jessica Roper, Legal Counsel, Trading and Supply – Global LNG, Shell
    • Jennifer Holsman Tetreault, Regional Legal Counsel, US Foods
    • Christina Zabat-Fran, Vice President and General Counsel, St. John Knits
    • Charlie Bingham, Corporate Counsel, Microsoft
    • Gladys Chun, General Counsel, Lazada
    • Jocelyn Shaw, Counsel, Bayer
  • 2016 Class

    • Farida Alkaff, Compliance Director, IngramMicro
    • Brett Dakin, General Counsel, The Child Mind Institute
    • Courtney Gregoire, Senior Attorney, Digital Crimes Unit, Microsoft
    • Julie Gresham, Senior Counsel and Director of Compliance, Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc.
    • Matt Nolan, Manager of Governance and Compliance, Dow Corning Corporation
    • Rusty Juma, Legal Counsel, Deloitte LLP
    • Lorne O'Reilly, Senior Counsel, Dow Chemical Canada
    • Benjamin Stone, Managing Director and General Counsel, MCE Social Capital
    • Aliya Ramji, Director, Legal and Business Strategy, Figure 1
    • Charlene Yaneza, Managing Director, Corporate Investigations & Chief Security Officer, United States, BMO Financial Group
  • 2015 Class

    • James Benes, Director of Legal Affairs, Active Network
    • Archana Bhuta, Director of Intellectual Property, Pebble Technology Corporation
    • Alan Bryan, Associate General Counsel, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
    • Jeremy Ladle, General Counsel, Potandon Produce
    • Laura McLaren, Senior Counsel and Director, BMO Financial Group
    • Erika Mouynes, General Counsel, Fintech Advisory
    • Alex Ponce de Leon, Corporate Counsel, Google Inc.
    • Rachel Stoermer, Senior Corporate Counsel, DocuSign Inc.
    • Matt Vaughan, General Counsel, Xero
    • Amy Yeung, Assistant General Counsel, ZeniMax Media
  • 2014 Class

    • Josh Beser, Assistant General Counsel, Lonza America Inc.
    • Bindu Dhaliwal, Senior Counsel, Environmental, Social and Governance Group, Bank Of Montreal
    • Shaka Johnson, Senior Attorney, Sony Electronics Inc.
    • Megan Jones, USA Counsel, BI-SAM Inc.
    • Therese Lee, Senior Ethics & Compliance Counsel, Google Inc.
    • Jonathan Maphosa, Assistant General Counsel, South African Reserve Bank
    • Manisha Merchant, SVP, Assistant General Counsel, Banc of California, N.A.
    • Shannon Orr, Corporate Counsel, Privacy and Data Protection, VMware
    • Robert Piasentin, General Counsel, Sierra Systems
    • Lisa Seilheimer, Senior Corporate Counsel, CDW Corporation

    Honorable Mentions

    • Aurélie Vanden Broecke, Senior Expert Legal Counsel, bpost
    • Rafael Barreto Garcia, General Counsel, Centro Nacional de Tecnologia Eletrônica Avançada S.A.
  • 2013 Class

    • David Cohen, General Counsel, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
    • Rebecca Hanovice, Senior Intellectual Property and Litigation Counsel, Callaway Golf Company
    • John Kurniawan, Legal Counsel, Rosetta Stone UK Ltd.
    • Jannie Lau, Executive Vice President, General Counsel, and Secretary, InterDigital
    • Ekumene Lysonge, Vice President of Legal Affairs, Churchill Downs Incorporated
    • Ambyr O’Donnell, Vice President, General Counsel, and Corporate Secretary, Tripwire, Inc.
    • David Stringer, Assistant General Counsel, The Progressive Insurance Group
    • Ann Warren, Associate General Counsel, Duke Energy
    • D. Simone Williams, General Counsel, Gulf Coast Funds Management LLC
    • Angie Zorotheos, General Counsel, Quidsi, Inc.
  • 2012 Class

    • Megan Belcher, Vice President, Chief Employment Counsel, ConAgra Foods
    • Alison Burton, Senior Counsel, Royal Bank of Canada
    • Kelli Cubeta, General Counsel, Billing Services Group
    • James Derry, Associate General Counsel and Chief Intellectual Property Officer, Arbitron Inc.
    • Ahmed Elganzouri, Assistant General Counsel, American Dental Association
    • Andy Gaunce, Associate Counsel, Tech Data Company
    • Angela Hughes, Corporate Counsel, Governance Manager and Assistant Corporate Secretary, Franklin Electric Co., Inc.
    • Kaiser Malik, Senior Counsel, Calpine Corporation
    • Julie Pradel, Senior Counsel The Williams Companies, Inc.
    • Christopher Smith, Assistant General Counsel and Head of the Legal Department, Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama, LLC

Nominations

Nominations for the 2024 cycle will open next January. Start thinking of who to nominate now! 

Eligibility

In-house counsel must be between the ages of 30 and 39 at the time of nomination and show outstanding achievement in their profession. Self-nomination is acceptable and encouraged. ACC membership is not required.

Criteria for selection

The nominee has added value to his or her legal department, organization/company, and/or the in-house community through:

  •     Innovation
  •     Anticipating, proactively preventing, or approaching challenges
  •     A well-rounded perspective/thinking beyond legal
  •     Advocacy efforts, participation in cases that champion the in-house community, and/or advancing diversity in the profession
  •     Pro bono and/or community service work

Judges

Past award recipients and in-house peers who serve on the ACC Board of Directors and the ACC Docket Advisory Board act as judges.

Questions

Have a question? Email top30s@acc.com

I was truly humbled and honored to be nominated by my colleagues and a recipient of the ACC's Top 10 30-Something award. Getting this award increased my profile tremendously! After receipt of the award, I was asked to work on a couple of important projects at work. In addition, my fellow awardees were all very accomplished and immediately raised the profile of my network. I encourage anyone who is ready to advance to the next level to apply.

Charlie Bingham
Corporate Counsel
Microsoft
 

Were You a Top 10 30-Something?

Join the ACC Top 30-Somethings Alumni Group on LinkedIn to network and connect with others who have been recognized for their achievements in the in-house community.

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