Cleantech 2009 Speaker Profile: Mary Dent, SVB Financial Group

Mary Dent
General Counsel
SVB Financial Group

Mary Dent is SVB Financial Group's general counsel and secretary, responsible for leading the company's legal department, providing strategic guidance to its management team and board, and spearheading the company's government affairs efforts. Dent also has overall responsibility for SVB's cleantech initiative. This initiative brings together SVB's efforts in four areas that, collectively, are designed to promote the success of SVB's cleantech clients and the development of a robust cleantech sector: Building out a comprehensive cleantech banking practice; informing SVB's clients about relevant business and policy developments; helping to shape policies affecting the sector to ensure they reflect the views and needs of cleantech entrepreneurs; and implementing cleaner, greener business practices within SVB.

Dent has more than 15 years of legal experience in the public and private sectors. She joined SVB Financial Group from New Skies Satellites, a global satellite communications service provider based in the Netherlands. While serving as New Skies' general counsel, she was responsible for all securities and governance matters, including the company's IPO in 2000 on the NYSE and AEX, as well as all regulatory, contractual, and other legal matters affecting the company. She also served as a member of the company's executive management team and, in that capacity, participated in determining and implementing its long term strategy. During the past several years, she played a central role in taking New Skies private in 2004, conducting the company's second IPO on the NYSE in 2005, and in its recent sale to a strategic buyer.

Prior to joining New Skies, Dent was an attorney with Goldberg, Godles, Wiener & Wright, a Washington, DC-based law firm that specializes in legal and policy matters for technology companies. Over the course of her professional career, Dent also worked for Senator Edward Kennedy, was a fellow with the Women's Law & Public Policy Fellowship Program, and served as a law clerk to Judge Royce Lamberth of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.

Dent earned a bachelor's degree in economics from UCLA, graduating Phi Beta Kappa and Magna Cum Laude, and a Juris Doctor degree with Distinction from Stanford Law School.

Bio courtesy of SVB.

Don't miss your chance to see Mary Dent speak at Cleantech Investment Strategies on October 7-9th in San Francisco, CA. Hope to see you all there!