tsoutherland24@nul.org
Speaker Bio
Tanya Southerland is Vice President, Senior Managing Counsel for Strategic Growth at Mastercard, where she serves as lead counsel for the Center for Inclusive Growth, Impact Fund, Corporate Sustainability, Community Engagement, and Future of Work teams. She advises on commercial transactions, philanthropy, ESG strategy and operations, cause or impact-related products and services, strategic initiatives, and collaboration with nonprofits, academic institutions, governments, and international organizations.
Drawn to impactful work at the nexus between law, business, and inclusive growth, she has spent over two decades nationally and internationally as a lawyer, a diplomat, and a senior executive in both private and public sectors.
Prior to Mastercard, Tanya served as Resident Country Director in Senegal and an Assistant General Counsel in Washington DC with the Millennium Challenge Corporation; as an Attorney-Advisor, International, with the Commercial Law Development Program of the US Department of Commerce; and as a Corporate Associate with Cravath, Swaine & Moore.
Tanya holds a Juris Doctor from NYU Law, a Masters in Public Affairs from Princeton and a Bachelors of Arts in International Affairs from Brown. She is admitted to practice law in New York, is a certified Project Management Professional, and