Carolyn Herzog
Chief Legal Officer
Elastic
Elastic is a Dutch-headquartered company that is traded on the New York Stock Exchange. We are a leading search analytics company; we help everyone find the answers that they need from data, when they need it, using the Elastic platform. The Elastic Platform powers search, observability, and security. A Chief Legal Officer is the most senior lawyer inside of a company. This means that I only have one client that I advise - the company. My team does all sorts of interesting things! Working in a fast-paced technology company means that we are researching new laws and the ways that laws and regulations apply to new kinds of issues (like Artificial Intelligence and cybersecurity!) every day. It is very interesting and no day is like another.
I love helping people and helping to solve complex problems! It is very fun working with a team because people have such different experiences and I am able to learn from them every day. I think it is a huge privilege when someone asks me for help and I am able to help them solve a problem. And I also appreciate it when I can ask someone for help and they help me!
Every day is unique, but I spend a lot of time on video conferences, on the phone, and I travel a lot, too! I love visiting colleagues and customers in other offices around the United States and in other countries. Elastic is distributed-by-design, which means that our employees work remotely, but we can choose to go into an office if we want to. Pretty cool!
My journey looks like spaghetti - it is not a straight line at all. I followed my curiosity and I was really lucky to work with some great people who made some wonderful suggestions on things that I might try, when I would not have otherwise considered it. I studied French and Music, so my path to becoming a lawyer was not something that I always dreamed of.
The future is bright! I have been so lucky to have people who have supported me in my career. I enjoy what I do and the people who I work with. I also do lots of things outside of work that are important to me. I have always believed that nobody was born hating another human being. Hate is something that people, unfortunately, learn. I am trying to be a better listener, so that I can learn from people who have different views from my own. I hope that I can play a role in helping our world to be one where there is more kindness, more equality, and greater access to resources for everyone.
I enjoy spending time with my family and friends. My kids are in college now, so any time that I get with them is very precious - I think that they are AMAZING! I have a wonderful husband and our fur babies are always fun to be with. I love being outdoors and I enjoy yoga, listening to music, reading a great book, and watching an entertaining movie. And I do love my travel - I dream of far off places and sights unseen.
Maya Angelou is an inspiration and I love almost everything that she wrote and said. I particularly like this quote: "I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."