Jennifer Salinas

I am a Senior Executive, the General Counsel, and the company Secretary for Cerence (NASDAQ: CRNC), AI for a world in motion. Cerence is the global industry leader in creating unique, moving experiences for the mobility world. I have experience advising and prepping boards of directors to facilitate informed decisive action. I have served on private and non-profit boards. I am known for pro-active, appropriate risk-taking and for targeting underlying goals/concerns across a range of stakeholders and creating actionable solutions.

As General Counsel, my expertise includes joint ventures, M&A opportunities and due diligence, strategic partnerships, brand protection, contract negotiations, compliance, insurance recoveries, and review and preparation of security disclosure documents, and I have extensive experience in intellectual property portfolio management and negotiating intellectual property licensing agreements. I also lead and oversee litigation strategy for intellectual property, corporate securities, labor & employment, product liability, and other areas, including class actions, across all business lines.

As a core member of the top management team, I do not just offer legal advice, but I help shape the discussion and debate about business issues. As a former equity partner, I understand the importance of not just protecting the company but enabling the business to profitability. I am more than just a problem solver. I’m a strategist that loves getting to know the product, the market, the competition, and our strategy to win. I do not lose sight of the big picture and our legal solutions must align with that big picture. As a known developer of quality talent, I make sure that everyone on my team emphasizes value, quality, and productivity. High performance with high integrity.

Highly valued as a mentor and sponsor of legal talent who attracts and retains diverse, high-performance teams, I am the executive sponsor of Cerence’s Women in Tech employee resource group (ERG) and was one of three executive sponsors and a board member of my prior company (Lenovo’s) enterprise-wide Hispanic ERG, Hispanics of Lenovo Association. While in private practice, I was a member of the senior management-level Diversity & Inclusion Strategic Council and led the Women’s Lawyer Group. I am committed to creating and supporting diverse talent pipelines and, from 2018-2019, served as the National President of the Hispanic National Bar Association, where I oversaw a board of 70+ members for a national organization comprised of thousands of lawyers.

Industry experience: technology (software, hardware and support), biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, semiconductor, surgical robotics, consumer electronics, sporting equipment and other areas.

Bar admissions: California and the District of Columbia