Karyn Smith

Karyn Smith is the General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer of Twilio Inc. (NYSE: TWLO), a cloud communications platform company, which she joined in 2014 as its first attorney. She leads the legal, government affairs, regulatory compliance, and privacy teams at Twilio, and previously also led Twilio’s Trust and Security team and served as interim Chief People Officer.

Prior to Twilio, Karyn was Vice President and Deputy General Counsel at Zynga (NASDAQ: ZNGA), an online game company, where she oversaw all corporate matters and led Zynga through its $1B IPO in 2011. Prior to Zynga, Karyn was a partner of Cooley LLP, an AmLaw 100 firm, where she represented emerging growth companies at all stages of growth, from formation through liquidity events and beyond, with a particular specialty in IPOs, guiding dozens of companies through public offerings.

Karyn sits on the board of the Business Software Alliance, the leading advocate for the global software industry before governments and in the international marketplace. She is also on the board of USTelecom, the national trade association for technology providers, innovators, suppliers, and manufacturers committed to connecting the world through the power of broadband. Karyn also is a member of The Economic Club of Washington, DC.

Karyn earned her Bachelor of Journalism from the University of Missouri, Columbia, and her JD cum laude from Santa Clara University School of Law.

Karyn lives with her family in Washington, D.C., and is passionate about yoga, hiking, reading, travel, and providing belly rubs on demand to the family dog.