About Catherine Lacavera
Catherine Lacavera is a senior technology executive with extensive experience in global leadership, legal, regulatory, risk management, and human resources.
She serves as Chief Legal and Compliance Officer (“CLCO”) at Turing, and previously served as CLCO at Color Health, both of which are late state, venture backed technology companies. She previously spent 16 years as Vice President at Google overseeing global regulatory investigations, litigation, law enforcement and employment departments, and managing a multi-hundred million dollar budget. She built and led a highly successful global team of 300+ legal professionals and technical advisors situated in North America, EMEA, APAC and LATAM. Her roles involve engaging a wide array of external experts in fields as varied as law, engineering, economics, accounting and statistics.
She has always worked closely with leaders across the organization, and developed an understanding of all areas of the enterprise. At Google, she successfully defended the company against a broad range of legal and regulatory claims around the world, including several multi-billion dollar claims, more than 1000 patent claims, and a number of high profile, multi-jurisdictional, privacy and data protection inquiries. She has extensive experience working with regulators in the U.S. and globally. The claims her team defended reached nearly every product area and division of the company, involving stakeholders across engineering, product, finance, tax, and policy.
Catherine’s risk management experience includes her position as CLCO at both Color Health and Turing, as well as designing and implementing Google’s enhanced compliance program and leadership committee overseeing areas such as privacy and data security, competition, employment, environmental health and safety, ethics and employee conduct, finance and hardware. She also advises on a broad range of areas including M&A, licensing, competition, privacy, contract and regulatory investigations. She supported the $12.5B acquisition of Motorola, $3.2B acquisition of Nest, and $2.35B Motorola home business divesture to Arris.
Her human resource experience includes overseeing Google’s global employment department, advising in areas such as compensation, benefits, severance, non-competes, immigration, workplace initiatives and employee claims against the company.
She has a passion for emerging companies and has invested extensive time and capital into helping entrepreneurs and serving as an advisor to numerous venture-backed startups and incubators. She serves on the board for The Network Institute, the foundation that supports the tech community of 30,000 former Google employees founding, building and funding companies. She was on the Committee for the Venture Capital Catalyst Initiative for the Government of Canada. She has served on several non-profit company boards, including U.S. Chamber of Commerce Litigation Center, University of Toronto West Coast International Leadership Council and Electrical & Computer Engineering Board of Advisors.
Catherine has been widely recognized by her peers and is a frequent speaker dedicated to the legal and engineering community and the advancement of women in science, technology and the law. A sample of recent awards includes: Vanguard Award, California Lawyers Association (Nov., 2019); Inductee into Engineering Alumni Network Hall of Distinction (Nov., 2018); Fellow of Canadian Academy of Engineering (Jun., 2018) ; Among 100 Women of Influence, Silicon Valley Business Journal (May, 2018); Among World’s 50 Most Influential People in IP, Managing IP (Jul., 2015); and Ranked 18th on Fortune’s Top 40 under 40 (Sept., 2013).
She holds a bachelor’s degree with honors in computer engineering, as well as J.D. and M.B.A. with honors, all from the University of Toronto. The University of Toronto also awarded Catherine a doctor of laws, honoris causa. She is admitted to practice law in California, New York and Massachusetts, and registered before the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Catherine enjoys all the wonderful outdoor activities the Bay Area has to offer, including hiking, biking, skiing, and visiting the local parks with her son.