Career Biography

Prabha Sipi Bhandari is Chief Legal Officer, Chief Ethics Officer and Secretary of Paychex, Inc., a digitally driven HR leader that pays 1 out of every 11 American private sector employees and offers a full spectrum of HCM advisory and employee solutions for nearly 800,000 customers globally. She is a member of the company’s Executive Committee and leads a global team of high performing lawyers and professionals responsible for all Paychex legal functions, corporate compliance, sustainability reporting, and the company’s charitable foundation.

Previously, Ms. Bhandari served as SVP, Deputy General Counsel and Corporate Secretary at AIG, a global insurance leader operating in over 200 countries and jurisdictions. In this role, she oversaw AIG’s NYSE and SEC compliance and legal support for capital markets and M&A; Cyber/Privacy; IP; IT, Procurement; Real Estate; and Innovation, including artificial intelligence, among other corporate matters. In her role as Corporate Secretary, Ms. Bhandari served as the primary liaison to the AIG Board of Directors.

Prior to joining AIG, Ms. Bhandari was SVP and Principal Deputy General Counsel at Freddie Mac, an approximately US$3.7tr secondary mortgage market leader that ensures liquidity, stability, and affordability in the U.S. housing market. Here, she supervised the entire Legal Division and managed a team of over 125 attorneys and legal professionals who advise on capital markets, mortgages and mortgage securities, derivatives, tax, SEC compliance, and other corporate matters.

Prior to Freddie Mac, Ms. Bhandari was Managing Director and General Counsel of Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., Deutsche Bank’s US registered broker-dealer, and Global Head of Mergers & Acquisitions – Legal. She joined Deutsche Bank from Viacom Inc. (now Paramount, a Skydance company), where she was responsible for Mergers & Acquisitions. Prior thereto, Ms. Bhandari was a corporate associate at the law firm of Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York. She began her legal career as a law clerk for the Honorable John M. Duhé, Jr. of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Ms. Bhandari received her J.D. from New York University School of Law, where she served as Notes and Comments Editor of the New York University Law Review. She received her B.S. from Cornell University in Industrial and Labor Relations.

Ms. Bhandari is a Member of the Board of Trustees of the Brooklyn Children’s Museum and a Member of the Private Sector Steering Committee of the South Asian Bar Association of New York.