HONOREE

Jeff Bleich

Chief Legal Officer
Cruise
UC Berkeley School of Law

Jeff Bleich is the chief legal officer at Cruise, an autonomous vehicle company that is now the first company approved to operate a driverless service for the public in a major city in America.

As chief legal officer, Bleich has led Cruise through an extraordinarily productive period. He has led the legal team’s efforts to successfully obtain regulatory approvals from the California DMV and CPUC to operate the first driverless ridehail service in a major city in the U.S. The Cruise legal team has also now submitted to NHTSA the first-ever petition for a fully purpose-built autonomous ridehail vehicle for operation in the United States. Under Bleich they helped close a $2.5 billion funding round this past year that increased Cruise’s valuation to $30 billion. Two months later, Bleich joined the Crown Prince of Dubai in executing an agreement for Cruise to become the exclusive autonomous ridehail service for Dubai, and subsequently executed an agreement with Walmart to provide autonomous delivery service in the United States.

Internally, Bleich has helped to pioneer the development of Cruise’s Safety Management System, its user agreements, community standards, privacy policy, and AI ethics programs. Throughout the pandemic, Cruise’s legal team has led efforts to provide meals from the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank both by staffing the Food Bank and supporting the Cruise For Good delivery program that has delivered two million free meals to families in need. Bleich has overseen Cruise Legal's pro bono commitment, diversity equity and inclusion program, and has staffed clinics to provide immigration services to people seeking to become naturalized American citizens.

Bleich has also served in government and public agencies in a wide variety of roles over the past 20 years, including as special counsel to President Obama in the White House.

Since returning from his service as U.S. Ambassador to Australia in 2014, Bleich’s career has been devoted principally to addressing challenges of digital technologies for democratic nations and the impacts of climate change.

PRIVATE COMPANY: OVER 1000 EMPLOYEES FINALISTS

Steve M. Bodmer

General Counsel
Pechanga Tribal Government
Arizona State University College of Law

Steve Bodmer serves as general counsel for the Pechanga Tribal Government in Temecula. In this role, he provides legal counsel to the Pechanga Tribal Council, the Pechanga Development Corporation, and oversight for legal affairs of the Pechanga Resort & Casino. Bodmer specializes in federal Indian law, gaming law, and tribal economic development. He is also an adjunct professor at the Arizona State University Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, a member of the International Masters of Gaming Law, and has spoken at conferences throughout the U.S. and internationally on topics such as the future of tribal sovereignty, tribal gaming, and sports betting.

Bodmer’s most recent and notable success has been providing expert counsel, legal and otherwise, to the Pechanga Band from the inception of the COVID-19 pandemic. He led the wind-down and restart of a billion dollar a year casino business and safe operation of essential tribal governmental functions.

Sapna Desai Pandya

Senior Vice President, General Counsel
Red Bull North America Inc.
Cornell Law School

Sapna Desai Pandya is the senior vice president, general counsel of Red Bull North America, Inc. Pandya is the daughter of two Indian immigrants, which has shaped her optimism about the opportunities that come with a strong education. Her father came to the U.S. with eight dollars in his pocket and through his education at UC Berkeley and relentless pursuit of his dream, worked his way up from entry-level engineer to CEO at a public technology company. Pandya also attended UC Berkeley, where she developed her interest in advocacy.

Pandya joined Red Bull in 2015 as the head of litigation & employment. She also started her family and one month before taking maternity leave for her third child, she was offered the role of general counsel in 2020. She now oversees a team of 25, with lawyers specializing in data privacy, marketing, sales, distribution, litigation, employment, and risk management.

Jason Weintraub

Chief Legal Officer
Jacuzzi Group
UC Berkeley School of Law

Jason Weintraub is an innovative, award-winning general counsel with a demonstrated history of transforming the legal department from a cost center to a profit center. At Taco Bell, for example, his work enabled over $150 million in procurement savings alone in just three years. Currently, at Jacuzzi Group, Weintraub's recovery and negotiation efforts added over $25 million to the company's bottom line in his first year. He also closed three M&A transactions in his first 18 months at Jacuzzi, broadening the company's global manufacturing footprint in both the spa and bath industries.

Also in the past 24 months, Weintraub launched an affirmative recovery program at Jacuzzi, yielding $4.5 million in recoveries within the first nine months. He developed a law firm preferred provider program that cut outside counsel spending by over 30% in the first 12 months despite the company's revenue doubling during that same period.