Levi Strauss & Co. - In-House Law
Karen serves as the Chief Privacy Officer for the iconic denim brand Levi’sĀ® and LS&Co. subsidiaries, Beyond Yoga and DockersĀ®. She leads development and oversight of the global privacy program which is based on the Company’s essential philosophy of profits through principles. She provides strategic leadership on the protection and use of personal data in the brick and mortar and ecommerce retail environments, and also supports the business in navigating the legal landscape of emerging technologies including Generative AI.
Prior to joining LS&Co., Karen was Managing Privacy Counsel at Intel Corporation, Chief Privacy Officer at LifeLock, Inc., General Counsel at ID Analytics, LLC, and Associate General Counsel at American President Lines (APL Limited). She has built and matured data privacy compliance programs in each of her roles, but also led legal work across a variety of other disciplines including cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, IOT, regulatory compliance, data analytics, intellectual property, employment/labor law, admiralty and maritime law, commercial transactional work and Government contracting and compliance. Karen is especially passionate about effective training and communication to minimize risk, demonstrating the value of privacy to the business, and holding her programs accountable to continuous improvement and growth.
Karen believes in the essential promotion of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the legal field and contributes by seeking out opportunities to mentor law students and young attorneys from diverse backgrounds, working with external law firms to confirm that diverse attorneys are assigned to LS&Co. matters, and supporting programmatic DE&I work at LS&Co. She enjoys speaking at a variety of events and conferences that allow her to share her experiences and insights as a privacy professional and a woman leader.