Contributor

Mary Dent

General Counsel for Silicon Valley Bank

Mary Dent is SVB Financial Group's general counsel and secretary. She is responsible for leading the company's legal and compliance departments, providing strategic guidance to its management team and board, and building a research & development function within the Company. In addition, Dent spearheads the company's government affairs initiative and SVB’s cleantech policy initiative.

Pioneering SVB’s government affairs effort, Dent is responsible for building relationships and successfully influencing policymakers on issues that affect the ability of emerging and high-growth innovative companies to succeed. Dent advocates for policies that promote long term growth and disruptive innovation, and creates an avenue for Silicon Valley companies to be heard by policymakers in Washington.

On the cleantech front, Dent works closely with Matt Maloney, the head of SVB’s cleantech banking practice, to advocate for policies that will help the United States develop a robust cleantech sector: In addition, she is responsible for leading SVB’s “green” initiative, which implements cleaner, greener business practices within SVB.

Dent has more than 15 years of legal experience in the public and private sectors. She joined SVB Financial Group from New Skies Satellites, a global satellite communications service provider based in the Netherlands. While serving as New Skies' general counsel, she was responsible for all securities and governance matters, including the company's IPO in 2000 on the NYSE and AEX, as well as all regulatory, contractual, and other legal matters affecting the company. She also served as a member of the company's executive management team and, in that capacity, participated in determining and implementing its long term strategy. During the past several years, she played a central role in taking New Skies private in 2004, conducting the company's second IPO on the NYSE in 2005, and in its recent sale to a strategic buyer.

Prior to joining New Skies, Dent was an attorney with Goldberg, Godles, Wiener & Wright, a Washington, DC-based law firm that specializes in legal and policy matters for technology companies. Over the course of her professional career, Dent also worked for Senator Edward Kennedy, was a fellow with the Women's Law & Public Policy Fellowship Program, and served as a law clerk to Judge Royce Lamberth of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.

Currently, Dent is a member of the board and the finance committee of Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network.

Dent earned a bachelor's degree in economics from UCLA, graduating Phi Beta Kappa and Magna Cum Laude, and a Juris Doctor degree with Distinction from Stanford Law School.

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