Pinterest has appointed Wanji Walcott as chief legal officer (CLO), effective November 14. She will report to CEO Bill Ready.
Walcott will be responsible for legal, compliance and public policy and will join Pinterest from Discover Financial Services, where she has been executive vice president, CLO and general counsel since 2019. During her time with Discover, she has managed its legal and government relations teams, co-led the company’s innovation initiative and worked with the board on strategy and risk-management protocol.
Before Discover, Walcott was general counsel at PayPal having previously led a team at the company providing strategic legal support for its global product and engineering group. According to her LinkedIn profile, before that she spent 13 years at American Express in legal roles including senior vice president and managing counsel. Her other legal experience includes being an attorney with Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman.
Among other things, Walcott chairs the board of the Minority Corporate Counsel Association.
Ready says in a statement: ‘I’ve seen first-hand the tremendous impact Wanji has had on the businesses and communities she has served. Wanji believes in our mission at Pinterest and is excited about the culture we are continuing to build within our teams. She is the right fit for our organization, and I am excited about the expertise, leadership and passion [she] will bring to Pinterest.’
Walcott will succeed Christine Flores, who informed the company earlier this year that she intended to leave, effective October 1. Pinterest stated in an SEC filing announcing the move in February that Flores’ departure was not due to any disagreement with the company. ‘The company thanks Ms Flores for her many contributions and wishes her the best in her future endeavors,’ the filing stated.
Flores joined Pinterest in 2017, two years before the company went public. She was previously a vice president of legal at Google, where she led legal teams focused on securities and corporate governance, M&A, real estate, compliance and legal operations.
A request for comment from Pinterest on Flores’ plans was not returned immediately.
Ben Maiden
Ben Maiden is the editor-at-large of Governance Intelligence, an IR Media publication, having joined the company in December 2016. He is based in New York. Ben was previously managing editor of Compliance Reporter, covering regulatory and compliance...
