In this episode of GCs in the House, host Lina Guo sits down with Martha Ha, Executive Vice President, General Counsel, and Corporate Secretary of US Foods, who shares her inspiring journey from her humble beginnings as an immigrant from South Korea to becoming a leading legal executive at a Fortune 500 company. Martha discusses her nonlinear career path, her experiences as an AAPI female attorney, and the challenges she faced while juggling professional growth and single motherhood.
Martha Ha is Executive Vice President and General Counsel of US Foods and joined the company in September 2023. Ms. Ha is responsible for the company’s legal, food safety, risk management, corporate secretary, corporate social responsibility and ethics and compliance functions.
Prior to joining US Foods, Ms. Ha served as Vice President, Chief Counsel – Corporate Governance (including Sustainability, Insurance and Aviation), Mergers and Acquisitions, and Cardiovascular Portfolio at Medtronic, a global medical device and technology company. From 2016-2020, Ms. Ha was Chief Privacy Officer at Medtronic and since 2019 served as the co-chair of the Asian Impact at Medtronic Employee Network.
From 2011 to 2016, Ms. Ha was Vice President, Corporate Secretary, and General Counsel – Corporate & International at DaVita Health Care Partners. Prior to that she served as Vice President, Corporate Secretary and Deputy General Counsel at W.W. Grainger, Inc. and several roles of increasing responsibility at Baxter Healthcare Corporation. Earlier in her career, she worked at Arthur Andersen LLP; Bell, Boyd and Lloyd; Coffield Ungaretti & Harris and Shefsky & Froelich, Ltd.
Ms. Ha holds a Juris Doctor from Loyola Chicago School of Law and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Illinois. She is also a Certified Public Accountant.
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