About

Not only is Katherine Adams responsible for the legal, governmental, and security departments of a multibillion-dollar company – including close to 1,000 staff under her watch – but she’s also leading its diversity efforts. ‘We are definitely, as a profession, hitting a negative progression through the ranks’, she says. ‘I’m referring to legal, although it’s also true of corporate America. So it seems that being in a position of authority, I can use that as a platform. By being visible, affirmative and vocal about it, I hope to make a difference over time’. Adams is one of many prominent members of the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity – a group of GCs and law firms committed to diversity – and within her organization, she sits on the steering committee of the Honeywell Women’s Council. Of the latter, she says ‘We’ve been looking at the factors that prompt women to stay or leave. We found that people really like it here, and as the proud mother of two children, I want to dispel that myth kicking around that we can’t have it both ways’. But her interests don’t just stem from a personal perspective: ‘as the company becomes more global we need to move to look more like the diverse world we are trying to sell into’. Her other passion is sustainability, something she’s been working relentlessly towards for around a decade. As Bradley Butwin, of O’Melveny and Myers points out, ‘she has always been environmentally minded, and the annual goals she sets continue to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase energy efficiency’.