Laura Stein
United States
Executive Vice President - General Counsel and Corporate Affairs, The Clorox Company

Breakout Session: Navigating the Perfect Storm

Laura Stein has served as the first woman general counsel at two Fortune 500 companies, as a director on three Fortune 500 company boards, and in leadership roles with professional organizations and nonprofits whose missions champion diversity and encourage pro bono and the rule of law, among others.

Stein serves as executive vice-president - general counsel and corporate affairs of The Clorox Company, a global consumer packaged goods company. She is responsible for global legal, compliance, corporate responsibility/ESG, government and community affairs, privacy, communications, enterprise risk management, internal audit, crisis management, security and business continuity planning matters.  Stein serves on Clorox’s executive committee, co-sponsors Clorox’s cybersecurity program, is president of The Clorox Company Foundation and has sponsored the Clorox women’s employee resource group. Stein is lead independent director of Franklin Resources, Inc. (BEN), a global investment management firm known as Franklin-Templeton Investments, and is a director and chair of the environmental, safety and security committee of the board of Canadian National Railway (CN).

Previously, Stein was senior vice president – general counsel of H.J. Heinz Company, a director of the H.J. Heinz Company Foundation and president of the Heinz Women’s group. She was also previously a director of Nash Finch Company.

Among other leadership roles, Stein is co-chair of the Corporate Pro Bono Advisory Board, and on the board of the Pro Bono Institute, the Harvard Law School Program on the Future of the Legal Profession, the CEELI Institute and the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity, where she is also immediate past chair. Among other recognition, Stein has received the Sandra Day O’Connor Board Excellence Award, the Margaret Brent Award (the American Bar Association’s highest award for women lawyers), and Corporate Board Member America’s Top General Counsel Recognition Award.

The National Law Journal named Stein among the 20 most influential general counsel in America and the Financial Times named her the most innovative general counsel in North America. The National Association of Corporate Directors included Stein in a list of the most influential leaders in the boardroom and corporate governance community. Stein speaks six languages and received her J.D. from Harvard Law School, and her BA and MA degrees from Dartmouth College. She and her husband Mark Conrad are the proud parents of Amanda and Christopher Stein Conrad.