Clarissa has an impressive legal career which includes “making partner” in a large international law firm, being appointed the Assistant Counsel to the President of the United States during the Clinton Administration and serving as the General Counsel of her first company by the age of 35. Most recently, she held the positions of Chief Legal Officer and Chief Legal Strategist of LifeLock, which she helped take public in 2012. Additionally, as an experienced member of executive leadership teams, Clarissa has been a key strategist for multiple technology companies in regulated industries and brings with her a wealth of legal expertise in cyber security and privacy to her role as General Counsel of Pindrop.
How has your life experience made you the leader you are today?
I give most of the credit to my parents. My father encouraged me from an early age to follow my dreams – and to dare to dream big – as long as I was willing to put in the long hours and hard work required to realistically position myself to achieve those dreams. My mother instilled a confidence that allowed me the freedom to think outside the box and tackle new challenges. She believed that by nourishing our minds through education), our hearts by practicing the values of compassion and generosity, and our souls with faith in a power greater than ourselves, we would have all the “tools” we needed to succeed in any environment to reach those dreams.
How has your previous employment experience aided your tenure at Pindrop?
I only have been with Pindrop for six months, but it’s my fourth General Counsel position in a fast-growing tech company, in addition to my government and large law firm experience. This experience has helped me in three important ways. First, I do not have to reinvent the wheel on the basics of building and growing a legal department. Second, I am accustomed to the speed at which start-ups operate, the unpredictability of your workday, and the constant demand to “make hard easy.” Third, I appreciate the complexity of navigating a global regulatory landscape when it comes to data privacy, security and emerging technologies. As someone who is passionate about working with innovative companies and their cutting edge technologies to make the world a better place, I believe I have found the right company for this next chapter.
What have the highlights and challenges been during your tenure at Pindrop?
The challenges are the typical ones associated with a fast-growing, start-up with a cutting edge technology – and keeping up with the customer demand while preparing for the next steps in the maturation of the company and its global expansion. The highlights have been the strength of the company’s technology, the experienced management team and the caliber of our board. Although, I must admit I believe the true highlights are yet to come, so stay tuned!
What advice can you offer to women who want a career in your industry?
DO NOT self-select out of the tech industry or the legal profession. There is tremendous opportunity if you invest the time and effort to develop an expertise and succeed in these environments.
DO find yourself a mentor – or better yet, a collection of mentors – that can provide you with substantive insight about your chosen area of expertise, bolster your confidence to take risks and soundboard with you about new ideas.
DO raise your hand for the tough assignments, DO accept leadership positions on complex projects and DO speak up, providing a valuable check and balance to “groupthink” that thrives in more homogenous environments.
What is the most important lesson you’ve learned in your career to date?
Without a doubt, it has been the importance of integrity in everything you do and the value of your reputation. Or stated differently, the criticality of infusing “high performance with high integrity”– to quote the title of Ben Heineman’s book. With it, you can weather any storm at the end of the day.
How do you maintain a work/life balance?
I think many people looking at my life from afar would probably say that I’m a textbook example of someone who doesn't have work/life balance, but I beg to differ. I work hard and play hard. I am dedicated to my family above all else, and I am a workaholic. I find time in my busy schedule to be a wife, mom, daughter and good friend. In my early years in a large law firm, I would work 16 to 20 hours a day, month after month on a transaction, and then I might take off to Africa or Patagonia for two to three weeks to get away from all things urban and enjoy a more peaceful and natural setting. When I was general counsel at my first start-up company, my stepson was a state-level competitor in high school wrestling, and I'm proud to say I was one of the few moms that spent almost every weekend and countless weekday nights for over four years cheering him on at his meets. I spent those four years conducting business, taking sales negotiation calls and the occasional board call while sitting in a high school cafeteria or on a cold hallway floor in between matches. Work/life balance for me is something you strive for. It’s never perfect, but it allows you the opportunity to experience the satisfaction of achievement and enjoyment in all aspects of your life: family, work and self. That equation is different for everyone, and I have found one that works for me.
What do you think is the biggest issue for women in the workplace?
The biggest issue is the fact that right now, in 2017, approximately 4 out of 10 businesses in the most advanced economies in the world have no women in senior management positions. This absence of women, coupled with the disparity in pay statistic (that only increases dramatically for women of color) is troubling on many fronts. At the company level, it means that despite the business case for diversity that has been proven repeatedly through different global studies, businesses don't “miss” gender diversity when it is not present unless they have experienced it before. At the societal level, it means that little girls who do not see women in those roles may not grow up believing they can achieve those goals, so the pool of women looking to prepare themselves for those roles may be subconsciously self-limited. And at the individual level, the pay discrepancy and inherent biases in human nature that make people more comfortable hiring and working with people who look like them may contribute to women “opting out” of those career paths. At the end of the day, while there are many things businesses should do differently, we still need women willing to be the “firsts” in these roles and willing to accept the broader responsibility of paving the way for the next generation.
How has mentorship made a difference in your professional and personal life?
I am a big believer in the value of having a diverse “collection of mentors” in my life. As the first female, Hispanic partner in the 100 year history of my former law firm, I understand that finding a mentor that “looks like you” in your chosen field is not always easy. Accordingly, I have amassed a collection of diverse mentors that have provided memorable guidance in my professional and personal life. Three of the most notable early in my career were Paul Miller, the late Secretary Ron Brown, and my grandmother. Paul Miller was the legendary partner in my firm that looked the most “not-like-me”. We were opposites when it came to gender, cultural backgrounds, preferred working hours, and political parties, but we had similar negotiation styles on which we bonded and became fast friends. He was a key sounding board for me in my first general counsel position and later career. Ron Brown, the former (and first African-American) Secretary of Commerce taught me that the true measure of success is not the mere attainment of your goals, but whether you do it in a way that leaves the door open for others who “look like you” to also achieve those types of goals long after you are gone. He was a key influence in shaping the way I set goals and measure my successes in life. The close relationship I had with my grandmother provided me with great insight. She was an incredibly smart woman who was denied formal education beyond the six grade because she was a woman, but she continued to educate herself informally and ensure her daughters were educated formally.. I am still inspired by her quiet strength today as I navigate the everyday challenges I face as a woman and a Latina competing in today’s corporate executive world – and it is because of her that I strive to do it with the requisite pioneering spirit, optimism and grace under pressure.
Which other female leaders do you admire and why?
I admire women who take the time and expend the political capital necessary in today’s corporate environments to mentor and help other women achieve the same (or greater) successes than they have achieved themselves: Women who actually “walk the walk”. In the legal profession, the late Jean Allard and the great Stasia Kelly come to mind – both of whom I've been lucky enough to have as mentors in my career. I admire women who are unapologetically themselves in business, politics and the arts. Mellody Hobson, Eva Peron and Jennifer Lopez all come to mind for different reasons. And I admire the strong women behind the scenes in many households that make their daughters and granddaughters believe that they can grow up to be successful leaders in any field they choose.
What do you want Pindrop to accomplish in the next year?
In the near term, I would like to see I would like to see Pindrop establish its global footprint as the leader in voice security. As “natural voice” technologies become more accurate over the next couple of years, and the world moves forward with the next generation of these technologies to allow consumers to do more things by “talking” rather than by “typing”, I hope that Pindrop will become the thought leader and trusted security partner in shaping the future of voice computing. I cannot wait for the day that I pull up to my garage and say in my natural voice: “Hey garage, let me in”, and because of Pindrop technology, I know that it not only will open –but only will open when it has been determined through a no-friction, multi-factor authentication security protocol that it is me.