Nora LaFreniere is an accomplished C-suite executive serving as the Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Otis Worldwide Corporation (NYSE: OTIS), a Fortune 250 company with nearly $14 billion in revenues and 69,000 employees, servicing more than 200 countries and territories. She oversees the company’s global legal, compliance, corporate secretary, intellectual property, security, government relations, quality, and environmental, health & safety (EHS) functions comprised of more than 500 combined employees. She previously held leadership positions at United Technologies Corporation, a Fortune 50 company with aerospace and industrial operations. She has played a key role in driving strategic acquisitions and divestitures – leading both Legal and Business Development teams – closing more than 30 deals with revenues in excess of 10 billion dollars across the globe, including deals in China, the US, the Middle East, and Brazil. She has shaped ESG, compliance, and risk management strategy.
Nora served a critical role in guiding Otis through its spin process, including onboarding independent directors, defining roles of required board committees, setting governance cadence, establishing processes around enterprise risk management, and driving the formation of the company’s ESG strategy. She continues to be a key advisor to the board on succession, board refreshment, and onboarding new directors, as well as on shareholder engagement and governance topics.
As a member of the senior executive leadership team, Nora was the senior sponsor of the 1.7 billion Euro tender offer for the shares of Otis’ publicly traded subsidiary in Spain. Nora has been actively engaged in the company’s digital strategy, bringing her knowledge of the business and relevant regulatory concerns as well as intellectual property and contractual rights. She has implemented compliance policies, taking a risk-based approach and increasing the use of software-based tools.
As a division General Counsel across various divisions of United Technologies Corporation (now RTX), Nora was a key leader in driving growth through numerous strategic acquisitions and then helping to integrate and rationalize the acquired companies. Nora is passionate about quality and has extensive experience with recalls and other product actions, crisis communications, and litigation defense.
At Otis, Nora serves as the executive sponsor for Momentum, an employee resource group for Black and African American employees and their allies. Partnering with the Boys and Girls Clubs of Hartford and the University of Connecticut Law School, Nora championed the formation of a program called “Lifting the Law,” which strives to increase diversity in law schools and, ultimately, the profession.
Nora holds a Juris Doctor from the University of Notre Dame and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Philosophy from the University of California, San Diego. She has been named to the YWCA Academy of Women Achievers.