Chinwe Esimai

National Sawdust Board

Chinwe Esimai is an award-winning lawyer, trailblazing corporate executive, writer, and speaker who helps women leaders discover and embrace their genius and live lives of impact and fulfillment. She served as managing director and chief compliance officer for Legacy Franchises, as well as chief anti-bribery officer at Citigroup, Inc. She spent five years at Goldman Sachs in various regulatory risk-management roles, and also served as a law professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law. Esimai is an executive council member of the Ellevate Network. She is the host of the Brilliance Beyond Borders podcast, and her leadership insights have been featured in publications including Forbes, Thrive Global, Black Enterprise, Medium, and Knowledge@Wharton. She has delivered keynotes to prestigious audiences and has spoken three times at the United Nations. She obtained a Bachelor of Arts in political science, summa cum laude, from The City College of New York and a juris doctor from Harvard Law School. She lives in Sparta, New Jersey, with her husband and three children. She loves to travel, dance, and exercise, and can often be seen donning a hat and a smile.

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