Connie Collingsworth is a board member of Banner Corporation, a publicly-traded bank holding company, with $16 billion in assets, and chairs the Governance/Nominating Committee; and Premera Blue Cross, one of the largest health plans in the Pacific Northwest and chairs the Compensation Committee. She has served on Risk and Investment Committees for public and private company boards.

At the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, she was Chief Operating Officer, Chief Legal Officer and Executive Leadership Team member and led intellectual property strategy, alliances with pharmaceutical, bio-tech companies and multi-laterals, crisis management, as well as enterprise-wide technology implementation and knowledge management. Internationally, she managed operations of nine regional offices in China, India, Africa and Europe.

Connie joined Planet First Partners, a European private equity fund, in 2021, which focuses on purpose-driven investments aligned with UN Sustainable Development Goals and Europe’s Green Deal.

Before the Gates Foundation, she was a partner at Preston Gates & Ellis (now K&L Gates), a major international law firm, where she focused on M&A, private equity financing, and venture capital.

Connie received an LL.M. in International Business Legal Studies from the University of Exeter, England; a J.D. from the University of Nebraska School of Law, and a B.A. from Andrews University.