Speaker Biographies

Charles A. Berardesco – Mr. Berardesco is Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, or NERC, which is an international, independent, not-for-profit organization, whose mission is to ensure the reliability of the bulk power system in North America. He has primary responsibility for legal and regulatory affairs and compliance enforcement, and is the chief legal advisor to NERC’s independent board of trustees.  Prior to joining NERC, Mr. Berardesco was Senior Vice President, General Counsel, Corporate Secretary and Chief Compliance Officer of Constellation Energy. Prior to joining Constellation, Mr. Berardesco had practiced law for nearly 20 years, both in-house and with law firms. Mr. Berardesco is also active in a number of charitable and civic organizations, including having served as Chairman of the Board of the Woodbourne Center, President of the Presbyterian Home of Maryland, Vice Chair of the Board of the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington. Mr. Berardesco was named one of the top 10 “GC’s to Watch” by Corporate Board Magazine in May 2010.  In 2009 he received the first Inspiration Ribbon for his service to the annual Concert for Life in Washington, D.C. and in 2010 was awarded the Out and Proud Corporate Counsel award by the National LGBT Bar Association. Mr. Berardesco received his Juris Doctor (with high honors) in 1983 from The George Washington University, where he was the Managing Editor of The George Washington Law Review, and his Bachelor of Arts (magna cum laude) in 1980 from Duke University.

Larry Chanen – Larry Chanen is a Senior Vice President and Associate General Counsel in the JPMorgan Chase Legal and Compliance Department, where he handles a number of large bankruptcy/workout litigation matters for the firm. In addition, oversees the Litigation Department’s internal electronic discovery group. For many years, he has been a Senior Sponsor of the JPMorgan Chase Pride employee networking group. Larry has long been active in the LGBT community organizations in the New York area, most recently serving as co-Chair of the Board of Directors of SAGE (Services and Advocacy for GLBT Elders), the nation’s oldest and largest organization dedicated to the LGBT older community. He is now the founding co-chair of SAGE’s National Leadership Council and in 2011 received SAGE’s Community Service Award. Among his other activities, Larry served as a member of the Board of the Empire State Pride Agenda, was a member of the Legal Advisory Committee and a Cooperating Attorney for Lambda Legal, and co-founded the Lesbian and Gay Community Mediation Service, which became the Center Mediation Service. He has also served as a peer counselor and board member of Identity House, a LGBT peer counseling organization. In November 2010, Larry was the recipient of the “Out and Proud Corporate Counsel Award” from the National LGBT Bar Association; in 1999 Larry was honored by LeGaL, the LGBT Bar Association of Greater New York.  Prior to JPMorgan Chase, Larry was at Pan American World Airways, Inc. and a partner at Whitman and Ransom. He received his B.A. from the University of Michigan and his J.D. from New York University School of Law. He resides on Roosevelt Island, New York with his spouse, Jack Burkhalter.

Darek DeFreece – Darek DeFreece is a managing counsel for the Global Commercial and Insurance division of the Wells Fargo Legal Group. Based in San Francisco, Darek leads a team of attorneys who provide legal support to International Group lines of business for their trade finance, trade services, correspondent banking, and foreign exchange activities. Darek is the lead legal representative for Wells Fargo’s offices in Latin America. Prior to his current role, Darek provided legal support to Wells Fargo Foreign Exchange. Before joining Wells Fargo, Darek worked for international money management firms and in private practice, with a focus on over-the-counter derivatives and investment management. Darek earned an A.B. degree in political science from the University of California, Berkeley, and a law degree from Boston College Law School. Darek is a member of the Financial Markets Lawyers Group sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. He is regent emeritus for the University of California system and is a past president of the UC Berkeley alumni association. In addition, he serves as a National Advisory Council member for the Institute of Governmental Studies. A native of northern California, Darek resides in the San Francisco Bay Area with his partner and their two children.

Phylliss DelGreco – Phylliss DelGreco is a Director and Associate General Counsel at Citigroup. Phylliss specializes in handling and managing complex global commercial transactions with a focus on technology and intellectual property matters for the Intellectual Property and O&T Law Group for Citi, and leading various initiatives to better facilitate the operational effectiveness of the Group as relates to transactional matters and management. Phylliss has also worked for several large technology companies whose products and services target the Financial Services industry, as Divisional General Counsel with Fiserv’s Investment Services Division, and as Senior Counsel with SunGard. In her early law career, Phylliss practiced employment law for several Fortune 500 companies. It was in this early part of Phylliss’s career that she gained insight into the importance of diversity. Phylliss has been openly out in the workplace since 1991, and is a member of Citi’s LGBT Network having held a seat on the Leadership Council from 2007 – 2010. In addition to her work responsibilities, Phylliss has participated as a panelist on various legal panels covering a range of topics including employment law, technology and diversity. In her spare time, Phylliss (along with her two co-Authors, Kathryn Silverio and Jaclyn Roth) has written and published The Jessie Books, a children’s book series of seven stories – each of which contains subtle social messages of diversity – as told through the eyes of a little girl growing up in Queens, New York, with her two moms.       

Ted Furman – Ted Furman is a Vice President in the GlaxoSmithKline(GSK) Legal Department managing a global team handling GSK’s Consumer Healthcare, Dermatology, and Ophthalmology patent matters, having joined GSK in 2002. Ted has also been a member of the patent departments at Bristol-Myers Squibb and the RCA Corporation and has a total of 31 years in the patent profession. Ted is co-chair of GSK Legal’s Diversity and Inclusion Steering Team which includes members from around the world. Under Ted’s leadership that Steering Team has succeeded in implementing programs and practices including the leveraging of GSK’s external legal spend to promote diversity in the profession, providing summer internships for diverse law students, providing a Young Inventors Program for grade school children, and providing Career Days for law students, to name a few. These and related efforts have led to GSK being the first Pharma company to sign on to the Law Society’s (UK) Diversity and Inclusion Charter in 2010, GSK Legal being an MCCA Mid-Atlantic Region Employer of Choice for 2010, and GSK scoring a 100 on HRC’s ‘Best LGBT Places To Work’ list for 7 consecutive years. GSK Legal’s Diversity efforts under Ted have also garnered the ACC’s 2011 award for Outstanding Commitment to Diversity by a Law Department in the Philadelphia area (DELVACCA) as well as the National LGBT Bar Association’s 2012 Out and Proud Corporate Counsel Award recently in Philadelphia. Also, for the past 8 years Ted has served as Executive Sponsor for GSK’s Philadelphia-area LGBT Employee Resource Group, SPECTRUM, and is proud to have led or sponsored successful efforts to obtain health coverage for gender reassignment surgeries for transgender employees, to provide Safe Zone training within GSK, and to include LGBT into GSK’s Supplier Diversity efforts.

David Gonzalez – David Gonzalez is a Country Compliance Officer and Training Manager with Standard Chartered Bank. In this capacity, his responsibilities across the Americas include: managing the compliance training program, developing and implementing policies and procedures, ensuring employees receive periodic training on regulatory compliance issues, acting as an adviser on regulatory compliance issues and performing compliance monitoring reviews. Prior to joining Standard Chartered Bank, David was an Assistant Vice President – Compliance at Lehman Brothers in London where he participated in the new business/product approval process, chaired various Compliance Working Groups across the region and advised on regulatory compliance issues. David holds a BA in Political Science and a JD from Fordham University.

Greg McCurdy – Greg McCurdy is the Senior Policy Counsel advising Microsoft’s US government affairs team on state legislation and policy based in New York City. Greg joined Microsoft in 2000 in Paris and then Seattle from 2002 to 2009 managing US and international antitrust and commercial litigation. Before joining Microsoft, Greg practiced commercial litigation in New York City at Milbank Tweed from 1991-94 and at Proskauer Rose from 1996-99. In between, Greg also clerked for Judge Harold Baer, Jr. in the S.D.N.Y. and Chief Judge Harry T. Edwards at the D.C. Circuit. Throughout his career, Greg has been active in a number of bar associations having served as co-chair of the International Bar Association’s Antitrust Committee and on the National Leadership Council of Lambda Legal. He graduated from Harvard College and NYU Law School. Greg and his partner live on the Upper West Side.

Julius Towers – Julius is currently Chief Hill’s, Home Care, and Licensing Trademarks Counsel for Colgate-Palmolive Company.  His practice focuses on all aspects of non-patent Intellectual Property Law (Trademarks, Copyrights, Unfair Competition, Internet & Social Media) on a global basis.  In addition, Julius supports Colgate’s Legal Transactional Group and Brand Protection Unit.  Prior to Colgate-Palmolive, Julius was Senior Trademark & Copyrights Counsel at Bristol-Myers Squibb, and an associate at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP.  A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School (J.D., 2003) and Florida State University (B.A., 2000), Julius is active in many community service, alumni, and affinity group activities.  At Penn Law, he was the President of Penn Law Lambda, and is currently serving on the Penn Law School Alumni Board of Managers.  Other activities include chairing the Bristol-Myers Squibb Department’s Diversity Committee and participating in the Colgate-Palmolive Global Legal Organization’s Pro Bono Committee.  Julius frequently participates in panels focusing on Intellectual Property law practice and diversity & the bar (specifically as it relates to GLBT and multi-cultural concerns).

Michelle Waites – Michelle Waites is Senior Patent Counsel for Xerox Corporation, actively involved in enforcing and obtaining the company’s patent and other intellectual property rights.  Her primary responsibility is patent litigation, and includes leading internal fact investigations, managing outside counsel, attending court hearings, participating in settlement and case strategy discussions and drafting and negotiating settlement agreements.  Ms. Waites is also involved in product design and development efforts and she works with business and technical staff to develop and implement effective legal strategies.  She is a registered patent attorney and has extensive experience preparing and prosecuting patent applications. Ms. Waites has maintained her own law practice, has been a law firm associate in New York City and spent several years as an engineer in the aerospace/military defense industry. She received a Juris Doctor degree from the University of California at Berkeley and a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Syracuse University.  She is admitted to the Bar in California and New York and is registered to practice before the US Patent and Trademark Office.

Fauzia Zaman-Malik – Fauzia Zaman-Malik is the Legal Lead of the Healthcare Offering Group in North America at Accenture LLP. She is based in New York City. Fauzia leads a team of lawyers who support Accenture in relation to the wide range of transactions and compliance matters, acquisitions and other transactions in the area of healthcare. While at Accenture, she has also held the positions of Lead Counsel for Accenture’ Global Insurance Offerings and served as Local Indian Counsel for Accenture’s operations in India. Fauzia is on the National Committee for the Accenture GLBT Employee Resource Group. In addition, Fauzia was selected to attend the Smith College Executive Women’s Leadership Program in the Summer 2010 and, as a part of the Accenture Corporate Citizenship Program, was selected to teach Negotiations and Conflict Management at the Addis Ababa Law School in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in November 2008. Fauzia graduated from the University of Texas (Austin) with an Bachelors of Art in Studio Art in 1994 and from the University of Iowa Boyd College of Law (Iowa City) with a Juris Doctorate in Law in 1997. She started her legal career as in-house associate at ReliaStar Financial Group (now known as ING America) and, prior to joining Accenture in 2003, she was a technology transactions associate at DLA Piper. Fauzia is fluent in Urdu, Hindi and English. She has lived in a number of countries and enjoys international travel, reading and yoga.

Sharon Zealey – Ms. Zealey is the Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer for The Coca-Cola Company. In addition to managing the global compliance program, she serves as Co-Chair of the Company’s Ethics & Compliance Committee. She was previously Senior Litigation Counsel for the Company. Prior to joining The Coca-Cola Company, she was a partner in the commercial litigation practice group at Blank Rome LLP. She served as the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, appointed by President Bill Clinton, and served on U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno’s Advisory Committee. She was an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Criminal Division for three years prior to her appointment. Ms. Zealey also served as Deputy Ohio Attorney General. She graduated from Xavier University of Louisiana and obtained her law degree from the University of Cincinnati College of Law. She is a member of the National Bar Association, American Bar Association and the Ethics and Compliance Officers Association. She serves as Board Member of the Foundation of the LGBT Bar Association.