Speaker and Topic: Laura Lane, Chief of Corporate Affairs, Communications and Sustainability Officer, UPS Global, on the "Implications of the Pandemic on the Global Supply Chain"

Chief Corporate Affairs, Communications and Sustainability Officer

Laura Lane serves on UPS’s Executive Leadership Team. She reports directly to CEO Carol Tomé and oversees Public Policy and Government Affairs, Sustainability, Public Relations, Employee Communications and the UPS Foundation.

Laura began her UPS career as President, Global Public Affairs in 2011. In this role, she was responsible for worldwide government affairs and worked with partners across the enterprise to strengthen UPS growth and competitiveness, including successfully advocating for comprehensive tax reform; enhancing network efficiencies through infrastructure investments; securing alternative fuel credits in support of UPS’ sustainability agenda; modernizing trade agreements and customs processes; leveling the playing field with postal networks; facilitating UPS Flight Forward certification; and advocating for laws that promote equity and justice in the workplace.

Prior to joining UPS, Laura was Managing Director and Head of International Government Affairs at Citigroup.  Laura directed the day-to-day advocacy efforts of Citi’s international government affairs team.  Before joining Citi, Ms. Lane was VP for Global Public Policy with Time Warner where she represented the company on the federal and international levels on all issues affecting Time Warner and its divisions.

In her government career, Ms. Lane served as a trade negotiator in the Executive Office of the President in the United States Trade Representative’s Office (USTR).  In this role, she negotiated market access commitments on trade in services with China as part of its accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) and served as U.S. negotiator on the first-ever WTO Financial Services Agreement. She also managed bilateral trade affairs with the Middle East and the Mediterranean countries. 

Before joining USTR, Ms. Lane served in the U.S. Foreign Service from 1990-1997.  She worked in the Trade Policy and Programs office in the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs at the U.S. Department of State from 1995-1997.  She served as the State Department representative on the US Basic Telecommunications negotiating team, which concluded the first-ever global agreement on basic telecommunications in 1996. Ms. Lane also worked in the State Department Operations Center from 1994-1995 as watch officer under Secretary Warren Christopher.

In her overseas assignments, Ms. Lane was the economic and political-military affairs officer at the American Embassy in Kigali, Rwanda from 1993-1994.   She led the evacuation effort of American citizens from Rwanda in April 1994 with the outbreak of the civil war and returned in August as political advisor to U.S. forces providing humanitarian relief to Rwandan refugees. Laura subsequently delivered a TED talk on her experiences on “When to Follow your Heart and Write your own Rules” and shared her perspectives on the Rwandan genocide in the PBS/Frontline documentary “Ghosts of Rwanda.”   Ms. Lane also served as economic and consular officer in Bogota, Colombia from 1990-1992. In her state department career, she was the recipient of two Superior Honor awards and a Meritorious Honor award.

In her government advisory roles, Laura was reappointed as Chairman of the President’s Advisory Council on Doing Business in Africa (PAC-DBIA) from 2019-2021. She is also a member of the Board of UNHCR USA and previously served as Alternate US Delegate for the APEC Business Advisory Council from 2017-2019.   

In her private sector roles, Ms. Lane is Chairman of the International Policy Committee of the US Chamber of Commerce as a Member of the Board, Vice Chairman of the Board of the German American Business Council, and a member of the Board of the Atlantic Council, the US Global Leadership Coalition, the US-ASEAN Business Council and the Girl Scout Council of the Nation’s Capital. She previously served as a Member of the Johnson & Johnson’s Global Public Health Advisory Council. Finally, in 2014 and again in 2016, she served as Corporate Chair of the Global Partnership Initiative for Refugees International and continues her volunteer efforts in support of refugees.

Ms. Lane was named again as Top Lobbyist in Washington DC by the Hill in 2019 and won the Women who Mean Business Award in 2018 from the Washington Business Journal.

Ms. Lane was born in Evanston, Illinois but grew up in Frankfurt, West Germany.  She graduated summa cum laude from Loyola University with a Bachelor’s degree in political science and history and summa cum laude from Georgetown University with a Master of Science degree in Foreign Service in International Economics and Business Diplomacy.  Ms. Lane’s husband, Greg, served in the U.S. Marine Corps in Japan, and at the American Embassies in Nicaragua and Colombia, and now is an electrical engineer at Parsons Inc.  Ms. Lane and her husband have two daughters. She is a two-time Ironman triathlon finisher and active community volunteer.