Laura C. Kaplan

A corporate and non-profit board member and adviser, Laura has more than 24 years of executive level experience in public policy, communications, corporate governance, and stakeholder engagement in the public, private and non-profit sectors. As the Principal-in-Charge of Government, Regulatory Affairs and Public Policy for global professional services and accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, Laura has spent a decade on the executive management team of PwC and almost 12 years managing PwC’s public policy engagement strategy, which coordinates public policy strategies across the more than 150 countries in which PwC operates. She has also advised a broad range of c-suite level clients, and has significant experience building coalitions and partnerships to advance issues and policies.

Laura created the integrated public policy strategy that PwC employs today, as well as the firm’s political engagement strategy that aims to increase diversity in public policy and elected office. She also created and cultivated unique partnerships with NGOs to further PwC’s commitment to diversity in the women’s political engagement space. The Public Policy Intern Leaders program and curriculum she developed at PwC is recognized for combining the latest thinking in public policy and political engagement with PwC’s approach to leadership development. Laura also led and served in leadership positions at the American Institute of Certified Professional Accountants (AICPA) and the Center for Audit Quality.

Laura writes a regular blog and has been published in Fortune Magazine, The Huffington Post, World Economic Forum Blog, among others, and speaks before a range of audiences from c-suite executives and corporate boards to students and community leaders.

Prior to joining PwC, Laura served in senior positions at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and the U.S. Department of the Treasury, where she focused on the legislative and regulatory response to corporate governance and accounting failures in the late 1990s, and on the implementation of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. She spent almost 10 years on Capitol Hill as a senior communications strategist.

In addition to her corporate board directorship, Laura consults with and serves on a number of non-profit boards, including Running Start, All In Together, the American Council on Germany, and Empowered Women. She also serves on the Advisory Committee for the Bush School of Public Policy at Texas A&M University, and is a member of the Economic Club of Washington.

In 2016, Laura received the Alice Paul Alumnae award from American University for her work on women’s political engagement. In 2015, Laura was named one of Washingtonian Magazine’s 100 Most Powerful Women in Washington.

Laura received a Master’s degree from American University in Washington, D.C. and a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas in Austin. Laura and her husband Joel live in Chevy Chase, MD with their two children.