Alumni

Louise Pentland

Career Path: Chief Legal Officer, Adobe Inc.
Location: California, USA

I currently serve as Chief Legal Officer at Adobe having previously held the roles of Chief Legal Officer at Roku, Executive Vice-President for Disney Experiences and Chief Counsel for The Walt Disney Company. Previously, as Executive Vice-President and Chief Business Affairs & Legal Officer at PayPal, I led the Legal, Board and Corporate Affairs organisations, as well as the company’s HR environmental, social, and governance strategy and its global impact work.

During my seven years at PayPal, I was a key strategist and driver of the company’s digital payments and e-commerce transformation. As an expert negotiator across global markets, I was critical in equipping PayPal to expand aggressively and successfully into new markets such as China and cryptocurrency and under my leadership, PayPal elevated its ESG initiatives - driving a robust diversity & inclusion agenda, setting credible environmental stretch goals, and creating pay equity and company stock programs for all employees. As Head of Global HR for four years, I also worked closely with CEO Dan Schulman to transform the global HR organisation and advance PayPal’s leadership to drive an inclusive culture which included the 5,000+ customer service organisation.

Before joining PayPal in 2015, I served as Executive Vice-President and Chief Legal Officer at Nokia Corporation, where I managed the legal, regulatory, compliance, and government relations organisations globally. I also led M&A integration at Nokia and managed a P&L that generated more than a billion Euros in annual revenue from IP.

I joined the board of Experian PLC in November 2022 where I also serve as the Chair of the Remuneration Committee. I have also also served on the board of Hitachi Ltd. since 2015 and Pacific Mutual Holding Company since 2020and I am a Director of BECA, a non-profit organisation. My pro-bono activities include providing legal support to women and children victims of domestic violence, and working with several organisations focused on human rights and at-risk children seeking asylum.

What are you doing now?

I am the Chief Legal Officer at Adobe Inc. based in Silicon Valley California.

What was it about Northumbria that made you decide to study here?

The law program had a great reputation; I was born and raised in Newcastle and had always admired the higher education here.

What was it like studying at Northumbria?

Studying at Northumbria was so balanced between academics and hands-on, practical learning. During my law degree the elective options meant you could really try subjects that you may be curious about - in my case I could really explore topics like Medical Negligence, and go deep on topics like Copyright Law. Who would know 30 years later I'd be working at Adobe with such a strong focus on AI and the law given how relevant Copyright Law is in this moment.

How connected was your course with industry?

We often had guest lecturers. The Legal Practice Diploma that I obtained was very focused on the real world of being a lawyer.

What was the best thing about your course?

The balance of academics and practice.

How did studying at Northumbria help you achieve your career goals/ give your career an edge?

It gave me my start. It awakened my passion in the law, I met my lifelong best friend on the LLB Law course who is also a lawyer, Deepa Dhirani, and on the LPC course I met Amanda Carroll who is my sister and one of the closest friends in my life, Northumbria gave me so much more than just an education.