Building a Successful Women's Initiative

Judy Hargrave has been Assistant General Counsel for Philip Morris International’s Latin America and Canada region since 2011. She joined Philip Morris International in 1988 as a Corporate Counsel for Philip Morris Limited (Australia), having started her in-house counsel career at Hoechst (Australia) Ltd in 1986. In 1992, Judy was appointed General Counsel and Company Secretary (Australia) and in 1994 was appointed Director, Legal and Corporate Services (Australia) responsible for Law, Risk and Insurance and Compliance. Judy was appointed as an Assistant General Counsel in 2001 and moved with Philip Morris International to Hong Kong. During this time she was involved in the business expansion into Asia. Alongside this, she helped establish the Asia Law team.

In 2011 Judy moved to New York where she holds her current position. In this role, Judy covers a wide variety of legal matters including mergers and acquisitions, competition law, corporate governance and industry specific regulation. She also oversees Philip Morris International’s Diversity and Inclusion in the Latin America Legal Profession Program. She embraces diversity and inclusion and in particular enjoys coaching and mentoring new in-house counsel. Throughout her career Judy has also held various roles with Corporate Lawyers Associations both in Australia and Hong Kong, and is currently a Trustee of Oxford Academy in Connecticut.

Judy holds graduate degrees in Law and Economics and a post-graduate diploma in Commercial Law, all from Monash University in Australia.

Sheila is Senior Vice President and Associate General Counsel at MetLife and leads the Regulatory and Retail Litigation Unit that provides regulatory advice to its US Business and litigation,and risk mitigation advice to its US Retail and Direct Business organizations. She spearheads the Litigation Support Business Owner’s Committee and advises on e-discovery issues. Sheila is also responsible for talent development for the Litigation Section.

Sheila was selected to be on the Advisory Board to MetLife’s Women’s Business Network and a member of its US Task Force on Diversity & Inclusion. She is co-Chair of Legal Affairs Academy and previously co-chaired its Management Development subcommtitee. Previously she was a member of Legal Affairs IT Governance Committee and its member of the Retention and Development Subcommittee of the Diversity Committee. Sheila has chaired and been a member of a number of strategic and talent management initiative committees.