Georgetown University Law Center

University of Michigan - Stephen M. Ross School of Business

General Counsel, Policy and Corporate Development at Mill

San Mateo, California, United States

Food isn’t trash. Mill keeps it from stinking up your kitchen and the planet. It’s a raccoon’s worst nightmare.

Mill

General Counsel, Policy and Corporate Development

Close advisor to the founders (fellow early Nest) on all aspects of the business since ideation.

Advisor

Arm-in-arm at all levels of Nest and Google business on: (i) closing transactions, (ii) launching products and services, (iii) entering foreign markets, and (iv) advising on complex regulatory and legal disputes.  Notable experiences that can be disclosed include being a leader on:

-  Sales/Supply Chain Transactions: Closing 1000s of retail, enterprise and energy deals creating $Bs annual run rate revenue; 1000s of supply/licensing/call center deals to manufacture and support products
-  M/A: Acquiring and integrating of 5+ companies, including Dropcam and Revolv
-  Products: Launching 10+ products, including Nest Protect, Nest Cam, Nest Security, Yale x Nest Lock
-  Services:  Defining 5+ services, including energy services and Works with Nest Developer Program
-  International Expansion: Entering Canada, Mexico, 14 EMEA countries, Australia/New Zealand
-  Regulatory/Crisis: Competitor litigation, Nest Protect recall, complex data/safety/competition profile

Identified, hired and currently manage a team of lawyers and staff across North America, Europe and Asia.  20+ lawyer direct reports.

Trusted external speaker on AI/ML, IoT, privacy and commercialization issues.

Google

Director, Legal

Made the difficult decision to leave Apple to join Nest pre-acquisition to define the consumer Internet of Things by launching iconic products like the Nest Learning Thermostat.  Senior member of the team that sold Nest to Google for $3.2 billion in February 2014, the second largest acquisition ever for Google.

Nest and Google operated independently from 2014-2018, inspiring the formation of Alphabet Inc., which separated Google from "Bets" like Nest, Waymo, Verily, DeepMind, X, and others.  In 2018, Google merged Nest into Google's consumer hardware division.

See above for details on my role across Nest and Google.  I was simultaneously Nest's Deputy General Counsel and a Director in Google Legal.

Nest Labs

Deputy General Counsel

Go-to lawyer and confidant for range of functions and executives on visible transactions, product launches and legal issues around the world during explosive growth in a notoriously intense, execution-focused environment.  Notable experiences that can be disclosed include being a leader on:

-  Supply Chain Transactions: Closing 100s of complex supply/capex/licensing/workout deals around the world, including multi-sourcing iPhone/iPad in China and bringing iPhone manufacturing to Brazil
-  M/A: Assessing and acquiring dozens of companies, including AuthenTec (building blocks for Touch ID) and Anobit Technologies (semi company that started Apple engineering presence in Israel)
-  Products: Counseling all product regulatory issues for iPhone 4S and iPhone 5

Apple Inc.

Sr. Legal Counsel (WW Operations/Products)

Primary legal counsel for marketing, finance, and information technology departments for what was then an e-commerce subsidiary of Cash America International (NYSE: CSH) and what is now a stand-alone public fin-tech company (NYSE: ENVA).

Responsibilities included: (i) drafting and negotiating a broad range of partnership, marketing, service, lead generation, license (inbound and outbound), and other commercial agreements, (ii) providing regulatory counsel on advertising, data privacy/security, and commercial credit matters, (iii) managing outside counsel, and (iv) advising on legal issues related to intellectual property, domain name protection, and product management.  Promoted early from Senior Corporate Counsel.

Enova International

Assistant General Counsel

Practice areas included mergers/acquisitions, capital markets/securities ('33 and '34 Acts), joint ventures/strategic alliances, technology transactions (including outsourcing and licensing transactions), private equity fund formation, regulatory counseling (primarily in the financial institutions practice), and general corporate matters -- including significant work for The Carlyle Group, Navistar International Corporation, Visa, Inc., Host Marriott, Global Environment Fund and Iberdrola S.A.

Latham & Watkins

Associate, Corporate/Securities/M&A

Summer Associate

Conducted extensive financial modeling and created presentations based on financial statement and competitive market analysis for Fortune 500 clients, including Honeywell International, Exelon Corporation and Corning, Inc.  Mercer Management Consulting is today Oliver Wyman.

Vineet Shahani

Vineet Shahani