Kent Walker (born 1961) is an American legal executive who has served as

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

of Global Affairs and

chief legal officer A general counsel, also known as chief counsel or chief legal officer (CLO), is the chief in-house lawyer for a company or a governmental department. In a company, the person holding the position typically reports directly to the CEO, and their ...

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

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since 2021.

Early life and education

Walker was born in Palo Alto. He graduated from

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...

College in 1983 and received his JD from

Stanford Law School Stanford Law School (SLS) is the Law school in the United States, law school of Stanford University, a Private university, private research university near Palo Alto, California. Established in 1893, Stanford Law had an acceptance rate of 6.28% i ...

Career

In 1990, Walker began his legal career in San Francisco at Howard, Rice, Nemerovski, Canady, Robertson & Falk, now

Arnold & Porter Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP, doing business as Arnold & Porter, is an American multinational law firm. It is a white-shoe firm and among the largest law firms in the world, both by revenue and by number of lawyers. Arnold & Porter was f ...

, and worked as a litigator specializing in government and public law issues. He then served 5 years as an Assistant

U.S. Attorney United States attorneys are officials of the U.S. Department of Justice who serve as the chief federal law enforcement officers in each of the 94 U.S. federal judicial districts. Each U.S. attorney serves as the United States' chief federal ...

at the

United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a United States federal executive departments, federal executive department of the U.S. government that oversees the domestic enforcement of Law of the Unite ...

. Walker worked at various technology companies, starting in 1995 with

Airtouch Communications AirTouch Communications, Inc. was an American wireless telephone service provider, created as a spin-off of Pacific Telesis on April 1, 1994. Its headquarters were located in the One California building in the Financial District of San Francis ...

. From 1997 to 2001 he was deputy general counsel at

Netscape Netscape Communications Corporation (originally Mosaic Communications Corporation) was an American independent computer services company with headquarters in Mountain View, California, and then Dulles, Virginia. Its Netscape web browser was o ...

, from 2001 until 2004 he worked for Liberate Technologies, and from 2003 until 2006 he was deputy general counsel at

eBay eBay Inc. ( , often stylized as ebay) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that allows users to buy or view items via retail sales through online marketplaces and websites in 190 markets worldwide. ...

Alphabet Inc.

Since 2006, Walker has advised

Alphabet Inc. Alphabet Inc. is an American multinational technology conglomerate holding company headquartered in Mountain View, California. Alphabet is the world's third-largest technology company by revenue, after Amazon and Apple, the largest techno ...

's board and management on legal and policy issues, its work with governments around the world, its policies for content on its various services, and its philanthropic efforts. Since 2021, he has been President of Global Affairs and chief legal officer at Alphabet. On September 12, 2023 Walker was followed by a man dressed up as

Mr. Monopoly Mr. Monopoly is the mascot of the board game ''Monopoly (game), Monopoly''. He is depicted as a portly old man with a moustache who wears a morning suit with a bowtie and top hat. In large parts of the world he is known, additionally or exclusive ...

, as he went to attend Google's antitrust trial ''United States v. Google LLC'' (2023) at federal court in Washington, D.C. in which the DOJ accused Google of illegally abusing its monopoly power as the largest online search tool. As of 2022, Walker base salary at Alphabet was $1,000,000, with a maximum of a $2,000,000 annual bonus, one tranche of performance stock units of $5,000,000, and one tranche of restricted stock units worth $18,000,000. For 2024, Walker's total compensation from Alphabet was $30.17 million, marking the first time that the general counsel of a US-based corporation was awarded more than $30 million in annual compensation.

Board service

As of 2018, he served on the

Harvard Board of Overseers The Harvard Board of Overseers (more formally The Honorable and Reverend the Board of Overseers) is an advisory board of alumni at Harvard University. Unlike the Harvard Corporation, the Board of Overseers is not a fiduciary governing board, but in ...

and was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. In 2015 he was on the HeartFlow Board of Directors, and advised the

Mercy Corps Mercy Corps is a global non-governmental, humanitarian aid organization operating in transitional contexts that have undergone, or have been undergoing, various forms of economic, environmental, social and political instabilities. The organizati ...

Social Ventures Fund.

Controversy

In 2008, Walker introduced a "communication with care" policy at Google, which resulted in the company adopting a policy of automatic deletion of employee chat logs, a practice that became a source of legal controversy for the company during later federal antitrust lawsuits. In 2024, the

American Economic Liberties Project The American Economic Liberties Project (AELP) is an American non-profit organization that advocates corporate accountability legislation and aggressive enforcement of United States antitrust law, antitrust regulations. History and leadershi ...

, along with two other advocacy groups, called for the

State Bar of California The State Bar of California is an administrative division of the Supreme Court of California which licenses attorneys and regulates the practice of law in California. It is responsible for managing the admission of lawyers to the practice of law ...

to investigate Walker for allegedly coaching Google to "engage in widespread and illegal destruction" of records relevant to multiple federal lawsuits.

Personal life

As of 2010, Walker was married to Diana Walsh, a former San Francisco Chronicle reporter, and they had three children.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Walker, Kent Living people American lawyers Stanford Law School alumni Harvard College alumni Google employees Assistant United States attorneys 1961 births