What was your route to the top? I joined Carbonite when it was still a private tech start-up in 2009 as the company's first lawyer and first female member of the executive team. In the past decade, the Company listed on NASDAQ, acquired and integrated a dozen technology companies, built a state of the art headquarters in the Innovation District of Boston, successfully defended against a hostile takeover attempt, activist shareholders and patent trolls, and the legal team has grown to nearly a dozen legal and professional staff worldwide. Over the years I have put my passion into privacy and security matters. I am particularly interested in evolving cultural privacy values within the United States and globally, and developing business strategies that anticipate how best to protect the privacy of our customers business data and systems.

What keeps you up at night? (i.e. What are your biggest business-related concerns?) My 2yr. old and 4yr. old keep me up at night! I get some creative ideas when I'm being ripped from sleep at 3 a.m. to soothe a little one from a bad dream. I have started sketching out our Privacy Champion program in these early mornings—this is an internal privacy-by-design initiative where we select, train and empower functional employees to also become privacy leaders within the organization. I'm excited to work alongside our DPO as this program evolves in the years to come.

What is the best leadership advice you provided, or received, and why do you think it was effective? “A leader is best when people barely knows she exists. When her work is done, her aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.” —Lao Tzu (changed to the feminine).

Looking back, what do you wish you had known when you started out in the legal profession? I believe the elixir of a technology company applies to the practice of law as well: Innovate. Innovate legal applications and interpretations, create precedent, and when necessary and appropriate, innovate the law itself.

What is the most valuable career advice anyone has ever given you? Reach for something you aren't quite ready to do. In figuring it out, that's where our best growth happens, and often, that's where some pretty great results come from.