Estée Lauder recruits next general counsel

The Estée Lauder Companies (ELC) has hired Deirdre Stanley as executive vice president and general counsel, effective October 28.

In her new role, Stanley will be a member of the company’s executive leadership team and will jointly report to executive chair William Lauder and president and CEO Fabrizio Freda. She will succeed Sara Moss, who was recently promoted to the newly created role of vice chair.

Stanley will be responsible for global ELC legal organization and will be a strategic adviser to the organization and the board on both legal issues and the company’s business interests. She will be engaged in legal matters such as reporting, compliance, risk mitigation, governance and complex business transactions. She will also lead the company’s legal review of potential acquisitions, divestitures and joint ventures.

Stanley will join ELC having previously worked at the Thomson Reuters Corporation, where she served as general counsel for the company and its predecessor organization for 17 years. Having spent six years as senior vice president and general counsel of the Thomson Corporation, she was promoted to executive vice president and general counsel following the acquisition of Reuters by Thomson in 2008.

During her time with the company she was a member of the executive and operating committees, secretary to the board of directors and a company-appointed director of Refinitiv, a financial markets data joint venture. Among other things, she led company-wide initiatives including creating its enterprise risk management program and acting as executive sponsor of various women’s leadership and other diversity initiatives.

Stanley worked from 1999 to 2002 at InterActiveCorp/USA Networks, now IAC, as deputy general counsel and later in a dual role as divisional general counsel and head of business development for the company’s electronic commerce solutions division. From 1997 to 1999, she was associate general counsel for the GTE Corporation, a predecessor company to Verizon. She began her career in private practice at Cravath Swaine and Moore.

‘Deirdre is a highly talented, proven general counsel and seasoned executive whose global business acumen and legal expertise are matched only by her leadership capabilities and sound judgment,’ Lauder says in a statement. ‘[Her] exemplary track record of leading large organizations and acting as a key strategic partner to multiple CEOs and boards at a family-controlled, publicly traded company makes her uniquely suited to take on this role.’