The David and Lucile Packard Foundation is pleased to announce the appointment of Emily Fan (she/her) to the role of General Counsel. As General Counsel, Fan will oversee the Foundation’s legal affairs and provide legal guidance for strategy development, grantmaking, and governance in partnership with senior leaders across the Foundation. She will serve as a member of the Executive Team and as the Secretary of the Foundation’s Board of Trustees.
“It is a great pleasure to promote Emily into this important position. She is trusted and respected both within the Foundation and among her peers. We will benefit from her extensive international and non-profit legal experience as well as her internal leadership and institutional knowledge,” said Nancy Lindborg, Packard Foundation President and CEO. “Emily embodies the Foundation’s values, and I look forward to working with her in this new role.”
Fan has served as a member of the Packard Foundation Office of the General Counsel since 2016 and is the second in-house General Counsel in the Foundation’s nearly 60-year history. In her role as Deputy General Counsel, Fan improved the Foundation’s legal processes, policies, and practices, and used technology to increase accuracy, efficiency, and effectiveness. She has contributed to the development of the Foundation’s grantmaking practices, addressed a broad range of operational issues, led risk mitigation efforts, and navigated the changing legal landscape around the Foundation’s grantmaking issues and geographies. Fan has also served as a member of the Foundation’s Leadership Team and supported the development of the Foundation’s new strategic framework.
“I am excited to take on this new role as the Packard Foundation collaborates with communities for lasting solutions and centers justice and equity in all that we do,” said Fan. “Along with the Board, my colleagues, and our partners around the world, we will relentlessly pursue a future where we all thrive.”
Before joining the Foundation, Fan was the director of legal at Room to Read where she established the legal function for the organization as its first in-house attorney. In this role, she advised global leadership, built a legal team, set up the global compliance program, and managed a wide range of legal issues for the organization’s 25 entities located in Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America. Prior to her time at Room to Read, Fan was based in Bangkok, Thailand. She served as assistant general counsel and as a member of the regional leadership team for Habitat for Humanity International, advising on the organization’s legal matters in 30 countries throughout Asia-Pacific. During her time in Thailand, Fan also served as the country representative for the Clinton Foundation’s Health Access Initiative and worked to increase treatment options for those living with HIV/AIDS. She has also worked for the law firm LS Horizon, focusing on project finance throughout Asia. Fan started her legal career working on anti-trafficking efforts in northern Thailand.
Outside of work, Fan serves on the board of EverFree, an international anti-trafficking organization supporting women to achieve economic security, and Pie Ranch, a Bay Area nonprofit dedicated to cultivating a healthy and just food system, and as an advisor for Invest for Better, a national nonprofit providing women with values-aligned investing education. She is a member of Liberated Together, a faith-based community of women of color justice seekers and a graduate of the Council on Foundations Career Pathways program.
She holds a Juris Doctorate from the University of Virginia School of Law and graduated cum laude in sociology with a focus on Asian American studies from Bryn Mawr College.
