About the IAPP

Melinda Thompson is currently Deputy General Counsel and Vice President of Legal Affairs at Palo Alto Networks (PANW).  Joining Palo Alto Networks pre-IPO in 2011 as the second attorney to the General Counsel, Melinda developed and now manages the Technology, Transactions and Privacy Global Legal Team.  She is responsible for several legal practices areas including transactions, products, global expansion, corporate and foreign subsidiary maintenance, strategic partnerships, channel compliance and privacy, as well as a member of the M&A practice team.  From 2004 to 2011, Melinda was with VeriSign (VRSN) where she served as Asia Pacific Regional Counsel from 2006 to 2011.   Based in both Sydney and Melbourne, Australia, she was responsible for all legal functions and oversight in the Asia Pacific region, including VeriSign’s expansion in APAC and integration following the divestiture of VeriSign’s Authentication Services business unit to Symantec in 2010.  Melinda received her J.D. from Santa Clara University and LL.M. in International Business Law and Taxation from Universiteit Leiden, the Netherlands.