Honoree: Sapna Pandya

EVP, General Counsel
Red Bull North America, Inc.
Cornell Law School

Sapna Pandya is the executive vice president and general counsel of Red Bull North America, Inc. As the daughter of two Indian immigrants, she learned at an early age to value hard work, education and opportunity. Her father’s first steps in the U.S. were to pursue his education at the University of California, Berkeley, and Pandya continued this tradition. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, with a major in business and a minor in English and developed her interest in advocacy. Pandya spent two years at Deloitte in the financial advisory services group before attending Cornell Law School. While at Cornell, she dedicated time to the Death Penalty Project, advocating for mental health considerations in capital punishment cases.

Pandya went on to become an associate at Gibson Dunn, where she represented a range of clients in food and beverage litigation, employment and securities matters. While at Gibson Dunn, she also represented plaintiffs in a voting rights matter in the County of Albany and successfully represented a class of children to reinstate funding for treatment programs in Los Angeles.

Pandya joined Red Bull in 2015 and worked her way up from legal counsel to the role of general counsel in 2020, a month prior to her maternity leave with her third child. She now oversees a team of 25 and focuses on being a champion of diversity and mentoring working mothers as they navigate their careers. In the past 24 months, she has developed the North American legal roadmap and strategy to focus on adapting to technological changes in the industry, moving the business forward in marketing and sales and handling a large and complex distributor transition to improve business performance. Pandya has also resolved multiple confidential, high-risk matters within the organization over the last 24 months. At Red Bull, she sits on the North America Leadership Team and the Global Legal Leadership Team and mentors individuals inside and outside of Red Bull in legal and other development opportunities. Her department has also created a DEI program within the department to positively impact the community and educate the team on DEI.