Christina Lai
Vice President for Corporate Legal Affairs and Corporate Secretary, Applied Materials
Christina Lai is a transformative executive with over 20 years of experience sharing her legal wisdom. Her commitment to connection and collaboration drives her approach to problem-solving and creates an environment in which business partners, cross-functional team members, and stakeholders feel comfortable and empowered to seek key legal advice. Christina is passionate about continuous learning, coaching and mentoring others, and building best-in-class teams.
Currently, she is Vice President for Corporate Legal Affairs and Corporate Secretary at Applied Materials, which she joined in 2014. In her role, she’s a trusted advisor to the company’s Board of Directors and the executive leadership team with respect to securities, corporate governance, and executive compensation matters. She and her team also support the company’s corporate communications, investor relations, corporate finance transactions, executive compensation, and equity and benefit programs. In March of 2018, she was appointed Corporate Secretary.
Prior to joining Applied, Christina was at Yahoo, where she built the corporate and securities legal function as the company matured and scaled from 3,000 to over 14,000 employees. She held a variety of corporate governance and securities roles in her 11 years at the company, most recently serving as the Vice President, Deputy General Counsel of Corporate Governance and Assistant Secretary. Prior to starting her in-house legal career, she was a Senior Associate with Latham and Watkins in Menlo Park, where she handled securities, governance, M&A, capital markets, and emerging and public company matters.
Christina’s impact reaches beyond the walls of her office. She serves on the Governance Advisory Committee of the Board of Directors of El Camino Hospital, a nonprofit organization with hospital campuses in Mountain View and Los Gatos. Additionally, she teaches classes about social media and cyber-bullying to junior high and high school students as part of a local pro bono program and is an active member of Advancing Women Executives — an organization aimed at accelerating the careers of women in business to improve the global economy. Christina was recognized as one of the “Top 50 Most Powerful Women in Technology” by the California Diversity Council in 2017 and 2018.
Christina received her bachelor’s degree in international relations, with honors, from Stanford University and her J.D. from UCLA School of Law, where she was a Managing Editor of the UCLA Law Review and graduated Order of the Coif.
When she is not in the office, she can be found practicing tai chi, enjoying outdoor activities with her family, and training their Bernedoodle puppy. Christina lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her family.