• Independent Director; Chair, Nominating & Corporate Governance Committee, and Member, Compensation Committee, NUBURU, Inc. (NYSE American: BURU). NUBURU uses ground-breaking technology to transform a new class of high-power, high-performance blue lasers to enable radical gains in speed and quality for metal processing, new designs for conventional laser-metal machining and additive manufacturing (3D printing) and other manufacturing applications not possible with infrared lasers.
• Former global C-Suite executive with significant board experience. Industry experience with highly regulated financial services companies and banks, real estate operations and development, retail, ecommerce, distribution and logistics, technology, global supply chain operations, asset management and agriculture (through management of family farm in Upstate New York).
• Deep experience with founder led companies. Significant international experience at five public companies – including two Fortune 500, one S&P 500 and one European public company.
• Recognized expert in corporate governance, executive compensation, SEC/NYSE, capital markets, corporate finance, global M&A, global trade compliance, ESG, enterprise risk, compliance, and internal audit. Qualified to serve and chair Governance and Compensation Committees and on Audit Committee.

Executive Roles

Lily is Assistant Dean at Syracuse University College of Law, overseeing strategy and operations for the Office of Career Services and the Office of Student Experience, and appointed by the Chancellor as a member of the University Leadership Team. Previously, Lily was the Senior Vice President, Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary of Arrow Electronics, Inc., responsible for the 120+ member global legal, compliance and trade compliance organizations based in North America, Europe, Asia, and Latin America. With 2020 sales of nearly $29 billion and 19,000+ employees worldwide, Arrow is a Fortune 110 global provider of products, services, and solutions to industrial and commercial users of electronic components and enterprise computing solutions. She guided Arrow through high- profile geo-political matters, including navigating sensitive discussions with different government regulators and significant business partners. Lily also transformed the legal and compliance teams into a highly motivated and effective “One Arrow” global team focused on excellence and delivery of services as trusted business advisors.

Prior to joining Arrow, Lily served as the Senior Vice President, Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary of Public Storage, an S&P 500 and FT Global 500 company with $55 billion+ market cap. She provided leadership and oversight for all legal and internal audit matters, including board, corporate securities, governance, capital markets, litigation, employment, real estate, compliance, operations, intellectual property, M&A, business continuity, enterprise risk management, government affairs, investor relations, and external communications.

Public Storage is a consumer-facing, service-oriented and data-driven real estate operating and development company that faces significant competition. The company had to transform how it drove consumer traffic into 2,700+ brick-and-mortar stores across 38 states to sell moving supplies and rent self-storage “garage” spaces. While Lily was CLO of Public Storage, she also served as General Counsel to PS Business Parks, an affiliated (42% owned by Public Storage) NYSE company with $4.8+ billion market cap and advised a separate board of directors and executive team. She also provided legal oversight to the General Counsel and legal team of another affiliated European company, Shurgard (previously owned 49% by Public Storage in a joint venture; currently $4.5+ billion market cap), which she helped to spin-off in a successful IPO.

Prior to joining Public Storage in January 2015, Ms. Hughes served in roles of increasing responsibilities for almost 18 years in the legal department of Ingram Micro, an Orange County-based former Fortune 100 (now privately owned) and the world’s largest wholesale information technology and mobile devices distributor with at that time, $47B+ in annual sales, over 20,000 employees, serving customers in 160 countries, Lily’s last role was Vice President and Associate General Counsel, Corporate, M&A and Finance, the #2 corporate lawyer of the company, with primary legal responsibilities for board matters, securities, governance, treasury, tax, strategic partnerships, and executive compensation matters and as global legal lead on all mergers and acquisitions and finance transactions.

Non-Profit Business Role

Lily took a short hiatus from law practice to manage real estate, oil and gas partnership interests and other assets for the City of Hope near Los Angeles. City of Hope is a private, not-for-profit clinical research center, hospital, and graduate medical school.

Law Firm Roles

Before joining Public Storage, Lily was a Corporate and Securities Partner with the national law firm of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips focused on serving the financial services industry, including national and state community banks. She began her legal career as a corporate and securities lawyer focused on banking and capital restructuring.

Non-Profit Board Roles

Lily is currently Vice Chair and has served on the of board of directors of DirectWomen since October 2021. Previously, she served on the global board of the Association of Corporate Counsel (“ACC”) for three years and served on the Executive Committee for two years – overseeing the CEO and executive team, and strategy for serving over 43,000 in-house counsel members in 80+ countries. Lily also served as President and on the board of directors for seven years with one of the largest chapters of ACC.

She served as a member of the Audit and Program Committees of the national American Heart Association based in Dallas, Texas. Lily was also Chairman of the Board for one of the largest American Heart Association affiliates in Southern California.

Recognition and Honors

In 2021, Lily was selected to be included in the Agenda Diversity 100, a directory of board-ready director candidates from groups historically underrepresented in the boardroom. The directory was curated by a selection committee consisting of board directors, investors and other corporate governance experts and each honoree was vetted by a team of independent journalists. Agenda is the Financial Times’ publication for corporate board members.

Lily has also been recognized by numerous publications and organizations, including being honored in 2021 and 2020 as a Power 50 Leader (C-Suite Women) by the National Diversity Council, selected to participate in the prestigious DirectWomen Board Institute in 2019, being honored as National General Counsel of the Year by the National Women in the Law Awards in 2018, and in 2017 as the Public Company General Counsel of the Year by the Los Angeles Business Journal.

Education

Lily was awarded her Juris Doctor from University of California Berkeley School of Law, and her undergraduate degree from University of California, Berkeley, after beginning her college studies at Williams College in Williamstown, MA.

Personal

Lily was born and raised in Hong Kong and immigrated to the United States when she was 11. She speaks conversational Cantonese. She has also completed 13 Half-Marathons.