{{Short description|American legal executive (1961-)}} {{Infobox officeholder |name = Kent Walker |image = KentWalker2017.jpg |birth_date = {{birth year and age|1961}} |birth_place = Palo Alto, California, U.S. |death_date = |death_place = |spouse = Diana Walsh |education = Harvard University (BA)<br>Stanford University (JD) }} '''Kent Walker''' (born 1961)<ref name="super"/> is an American legal executive who has served as President of Global Affairs and as an chief legal officer of Google & Alphabet since 2021.<ref name="ussec">{{Cite web |date=28 December 2021 |title=United States Securities And Exchange Commission Form 8-K. Alphabet Inc. |url=https://www.sec.gov/ix?doc=/Archives/edgar/data/0001652044/000165204422000009/goog-20211228.htm |access-date=29 January 2022 |website=United States Securities And Exchange Commission |location=Washington, DC}}</ref>
==Early life and education== {{expand section|date=October 2023}} Walker was born in Palo Alto.<ref name="super">{{Cite news |last=Martin Kuz |date=2010-10-08 |title=Googling Kent Walker - Super Lawyers California |language=en |work=Super Lawyers |url=https://www.superlawyers.com/california-northern/article/googling-kent-walker/a0fa051d-d7cf-40da-a063-25e015f9afd7.html |access-date=2022-11-10}}</ref> He graduated from Harvard College in 1983<ref name="super" /> and received his JD from Stanford Law School.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/ericjackson/2012/11/27/why-does-google-crave-elites-for-their-management-team-while-apple-eschews-them/#79f95484d131|title=Why Does Google Crave Elites for Their Management Team While Apple Eschews Them?|last=Jackson|first=Eric|work=Forbes|access-date=2018-06-01|language=en}}</ref>
==Career== In 1990, Walker began his legal career in San Francisco at Howard, Rice, Nemerovski, Canady, Robertson & Falk, now Arnold & Porter, and worked as a litigator specializing in government and public law issues. He then served 5 years as an Assistant U.S. Attorney at the United States Department of Justice.<ref name="super"/>
Walker worked at various technology companies, starting in 1995 with Airtouch Communications. From 1997 to 2001<ref name="super"/> he was deputy general counsel at Netscape,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Jamie Zawinski |date=1998 |title=really bad attitude. |url=https://www.jwz.org/gruntle/rbarip.html |access-date=2020-05-18 |website=www.jwz.org}}</ref> from 2001 until 2004 he worked for Liberate Technologies, and from 2003 until 2006<ref name="super"/> he was deputy general counsel at eBay.<ref name="acc">{{Cite web |title=Organizing the World's Information at Google Legal: Kent Walker, Vice President & General Counsel - Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) |url=http://www.acc.com/clo/perspectives/april-2015-clo-profile.cfm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612140022/http://www.acc.com/clo/perspectives/april-2015-clo-profile.cfm |archive-date=2018-06-12 |access-date=2018-06-01 |website=www.acc.com}}</ref>
=== Alphabet Inc. === Since 2006,<ref name="super" /> Walker has advised Alphabet Inc.'s board and management on legal and policy issues,<ref name="acc" /> its work with governments around the world,<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.recode.net/2017/6/22/15855322/google-change-laws-access-user-data-international|title=Google has proposed changes in laws for requesting data|work=Recode|access-date=2018-06-01}}</ref> its policies for content on its various services,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/04/google-rolls-out-new-policies-for-u-s-election-ads/|title=Google rolls out new policies for U.S. election ads – TechCrunch|website=techcrunch.com|language=en-US|access-date=2018-06-01}}</ref> and its philanthropic efforts.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://venturebeat.com/2017/09/20/google-org-launches-5-million-innovation-fund-to-counter-hate-and-extremism/|title=Google.org launches $5 million innovation fund to counter 'hate and extremism'|date=2017-09-20|work=VentureBeat|access-date=2018-06-01|language=en-US}}</ref> Since 2021, he has been President of Global Affairs and chief legal officer at Alphabet.<ref name="ussec" /> On September 12, 2023 Walker was followed by a man dressed up as Mr. Monopoly, as he went to attend Google's antitrust trial ''United States v. Google LLC'' (2023) at federal court in Washington, D.C.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Harshawn Ratanpal |date=2023-10-05 |title=Google ramped up federal lobbying ahead of DOJ antitrust showdown |language=en |work=Open Secrets |url=https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2023/10/google-ramped-up-federal-lobbying-ahead-of-doj-antitrust-showdown/ |access-date=2023-10-07}}</ref> in which the DOJ accused Google of illegally abusing its monopoly power as the largest online search tool.
As of 2022, Walker base salary at Alphabet was $1,000,000, with a maximum of a $2,000,000 annual bonus, one tranche of performance stock units of $5,000,000, and one tranche of restricted stock units worth $18,000,000.<ref name="ussec" /> For 2024, Walker's total compensation from Alphabet was $30.17 million, marking the first time that the general counsel of a US-based corporation was awarded more than $30 million in annual compensation.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Andrews |first=Greg |date=2025-04-28 |title=Unfazed by Losing Antitrust Suits, Alphabet Makes Kent Walker First US GC to Break $30M Pay Barrier |url=https://www.law.com/corpcounsel/2025/04/28/unfazed-by-losing-antitrust-suits-alphabet-makes-kent-walker-first-us-gc-to-break-30m-pay-barrier/?slreturn=2025050985643 |access-date=2025-05-09 |website=Corporate Counsel |language=en}}</ref>
===Board service=== As of 2018, he served on the Harvard Board of Overseers<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.lcldnet.org/about/corporation-membership/kent-walker/|title=Kent Walker. Leadership Council on Legal Diversity|website=www.lcldnet.org|language=en|access-date=2018-06-01|archive-date=2018-03-17|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180317162524/http://www.lcldnet.org/about/corporation-membership/kent-walker/|url-status=dead}}</ref> and was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cfr.org/membership-roster-v-z|title=Membership Roster|website=Council on Foreign Relations|language=en|access-date=2018-06-01}}</ref> In 2015 he was on the HeartFlow Board of Directors,<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150303005259/en/Kent-Walker-Joins-HeartFlow-Board-Directors|title=Kent Walker Joins HeartFlow Board of Directors|access-date=2018-06-01|language=en}}</ref> and advised the Mercy Corps Social Ventures Fund.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.mercycorps.org/sites/default/files/Mercy_Corps_Social_Venture_Fund_Overview_May_2016.pdf|title=Mercy Corps' Social Venture Fund Overview|last=|first=|date=|website=|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=}}</ref>
== Controversy == In 2008, Walker introduced a "communication with care" policy at Google, which resulted in the company adopting a policy of automatic deletion of employee chat logs, a practice that became a source of legal controversy for the company during later federal antitrust lawsuits.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Barrabi |first=Thomas |date=2023-10-30 |title=Google CEO Sundar Pichai grilled over company's deleted chat logs at antitrust trial |url=https://nypost.com/2023/10/30/business/google-ceo-sundar-pichai-grilled-over-companys-deleted-chat-logs-at-antitrust-trial/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240502152329/https://nypost.com/2023/10/30/business/google-ceo-sundar-pichai-grilled-over-companys-deleted-chat-logs-at-antitrust-trial/ |archive-date=2024-05-02 |access-date=2024-08-28 |website=New York Post |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Ostwal |first=Trishla |date=2024-08-27 |title=DOJ Claims Google 'Destroyed' Evidence Before Antitrust Trial |url=https://www.adweek.com/programmatic/the-doj-alleged-google-destroyed-relevant-evidence-ahead-of-its-antitrust-adtech-trial/ |url-access=registration |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240828001229/https://www.adweek.com/programmatic/the-doj-alleged-google-destroyed-relevant-evidence-ahead-of-its-antitrust-adtech-trial/ |archive-date=2024-08-28 |access-date=2024-08-28 |website=Adweek |language=en-US}}</ref> In 2024, the American Economic Liberties Project, along with two other advocacy groups, called for the State Bar of California to investigate Walker for allegedly coaching Google to "engage in widespread and illegal destruction" of records relevant to multiple federal lawsuits.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Streitfeld |first=David |date=2024-11-20 |title=How Google Spent 15 Years Creating a Culture of Concealment |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/20/technology/google-antitrust-employee-messages.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241122122012/https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/20/technology/google-antitrust-employee-messages.html |archive-date=2024-11-22 |access-date=2025-05-03 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US}}</ref>
==Personal life== As of 2010, Walker was married to Diana Walsh, a former San Francisco Chronicle reporter, and they had three children.<ref name="super"/>
== References == {{reflist}}
== External links == * {{Commons category-inline}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Walker, Kent}} Category:Living people Category:American lawyers Category:Stanford Law School alumni Category:Harvard College alumni Category:Google employees Category:Assistant United States attorneys Category:1961 births