Claudius Sokenu

Background

About Claudius Sokenu

Claudius Sokenu, a former Senior Counsel at the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, and a Fellow of the American College of Governance Counsel, serves as Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer, Chief Compliance Officer, and Corporate Secretary at Avantor, Inc, a Fortune 500 company. Claudius has 27+ years of executive leadership experience, including as Chief Legal Officer, Chief Compliance Officer, Corporate Secretary, Chief Administrative Officer, and Global Head of Quality and Regulatory Affairs, and former partner at three AmLaw 100 law firms. He is an exceptional C-suite executive with a proven track record of transforming legal, compliance, regulatory, and governance functions at Fortune 500 companies during critical business inflection points. He offers a unique blend of public company C-suite experience across diverse industries, global operational expertise across 40+ countries, and elite credentials from leading global law firms and government. He is recognized for creating significant business value through strategic leadership, leading companies through major government and business crisis, and operational transformation.Before Avantor, Claudius was SVP, General Counsel, Corporate Secretary, and Chief Administrative Officer at Unisys. Before Unisys, he was SVP, Deputy General Counsel, Global Head of Litigation, Labor and Employment, and Legal Operations at Cognizant, a Fortune 200 technology and consulting company. Prior to joining Cognizant, Claudius was VP, Deputy General Counsel, Global Head of Litigation and Investigations, and Global Head of Ethics and Compliance at Andeavor, a Fortune 100 refining, logistics, and integrated marketing company.Prior to going in-house, Claudius spent 17+ years in private practice, lastly as an equity partner at Shearman & Sterling LLP, where he was the first ever African-American male partner. Earlier in his career, Claudius served in the Washington, DC office of the Securities and Exchange Commission in the Division of Enforcement, on the Honors Program, first as a Staff Attorney and later as Senior Counsel. Claudius has been widely recognized for his leadership skills and intellectual acumen. He has been consistently ranked by Legal 500, GC Powerlist New York 2025, Chambers USA and Chambers Global for his investigative, regulatory, and securities enforcement practice, recognized by Securities Law 360 as one of its 10 under 40, named Corporate Lawyer of the Year, 2018 by the National Bar Association, Corporate Law Section, named a Litigation Star by Benchmark Litigation.