Veta is a financially savvy, purpose-driven executive who brings a wealth of experience in the C-suite and boardroom at Fortune 500 and market-leading nonprofit corporations. She is a public company board-ready contributor to Audit, Talent & Compensation, and Nominations & Governance Committees, as well as any business grappling with global expansion, market disruption, AI technology tranformation, human capital and risk management strategies.
Currently serving as CEO of the Association of Corporate Counsel, a global nonprofit association in the professional services sector, Ms. Richardson has spent more than two decades working with Fortune 500 companies and market-leading nonprofits in both the boardroom and C-suite as a key contributor to strategy development and execution with accountability for P&L, global expansion, market positioning and branding, digital transformation, succession planning, talent management, and stakeholder engagement.
Ms. Richardson is nationally recognized for corporate governance thought leadership, having been named to the prestigious NACD Directorship 100 list four times and contributed to its Blue Ribbon Commission Report for boards of directors titled Culture as a Corporate Asset. In 2019, she was named to the Advisory Board of the Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at University of Delaware.
With deep experience regarding securities disclosure and financial reporting requirements, Ms. Richardson has trained executives regarding Audit Committee oversight responsibilities and was tapped by NYSE Euronext (formerly Corpedia) to judge awards competitions for best proxy statement disclosures re executive compensation and board diversity. Her expertise has been widely-sought regarding development of DEI and talent management strategies, as she has served as an independent advisor to hundreds of Fortune 500 and multinational corporate executives as well as an external advisor to four U.S. presidential administrations, both pre- and post-pandemic.
Her global experience includes collaborating in Europe, Australia, and Asia with international director societies, CERES, OECD, and the UK’s Accounting for Sustainability on CSR and governance issues. In addition she brings diversity of perspective and relationships in the nonprofit sector, a $2.76 trillion (USD) industry that contributes almost 6% of the national GDP and is the third largest workforce (behind retail and manufacturing) providing jobs to 1 in 10 workers.
Prior to serving as a nonprofit CEO, Ms. Richardson spent more than a decade at Sunoco (NYSE: SUN, +$4B rev) as lead counsel for M&A and strategic transactions exceeding $16.0 billion (USD) domestically and internationally, in addition to capital-raising efforts in public and private markets totaling +$700 million. She also advised Executive Management and the Audit Committee of the board on shareholder activism, investor relations, securities disclosure and financial reporting, as well as executive compensation issues.
Ms. Richardson is also an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center and previously taught a full-year course on the business side of the arts at the College of Fine Arts at Howard University. Her long-time mentorship of students was recognized by receipt of the EDGE Award from the Council on Legal Education Opportunity.
Ms. Richardson’s first book, Take Six: Essential Habits to Own Your Destiny, Overcome Challenges and Unlock Opportunities (Website: https://www.takesixhabits.com), was released by ForbesBooks in August 2021. Within four months of the book’s debut, Ms. Richardson became an Amazon #1 bestselling author in the strategic management genre and Take Six sold out its first print run. Top law firms, in addition to corporations such as, Xerox (NYSE:XRX), Elevate Services, Inc., Changhi Airport, and Burford Capital (NYSE:BUR) have sought Ms. Richardson’s expertise and utilized Take Six as part of their human capital management strategies.
In 2019, she earned the certified directorship credential from NACD in recognition of public company board readiness.
A world traveler who has experienced the joy of visiting +52 nations, Ms. Richardson loves coming home to the Washington, DC region where she enjoys gardening, theater, art history, and genealogy research in addition to spending time with family and friends.