Tina Tchen

Tina Tchen is an Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy and Impact Officer for the Obama Foundation. She is responsible for leading the development, implementation, and monitoring of the Foundation’s strategy, oversees the Girls Opportunity Alliance, formalizing the senior advisor role she has played with the team over the last year, and is involved with the Foundation’s work with Obama alumni.

Ms. Tchen is an attorney, activist, and lifelong advocate for women and girls. She served in the Obama White House through both terms, and was an Assistant to President Barack Obama, Chief of Staff to First Lady Michelle Obama, and Executive Director of the White House Council on Women Girls. At the White House, Ms. Tchen spearheaded the first-ever White House Summit on Working Families, helped form the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault, and led the Administration’s effort to promote education for adolescent girls around the world, including Mrs. Obama’s Let Girls Learn Initiative.

Prior to the White House, Ms. Tchen practiced law for 23 years at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP. She was a partner in the Litigation Department, representing companies, senior management and corporate boards for major Fortune 500 companies, including Sprint, Abbott, McDonald’s and United Airlines. She also chaired the firm’s pro bono committee, was a long time leader of the American Bar Association’s Section of Litigation, and was named Chicago Lawyer Magazine’s Person of the Year, among other accolades. During this time, she served on numerous boards, including as chair of the board of the Field Foundation of Illinois, an elected member of the board of the Harvard Alumni Association, a trustee for the University of Chicago Medical Center, and a board member for the Chicago Public Library, the Chinese American Service League, the Chicago Foundation for Women, and Personal PAC, a statewide political action committee electing pro-choice candidates throughout Illinois.

After the White House, Ms. Tchen returned to a corporate law practice and specialized in workplace culture, advising companies on gender equity, sexual harassment and diversity and inclusion. Her clients included XPO Logistics, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and she chaired the Task Force on Diversity and Inclusion for the Recording Academy, the music industry organization that awards the Grammys. In 2017, she helped design and launch the TIME’S UP Legal Defense Fund, which is now housed at the National Women’s Law Center and has connected thousands of people with legal or PR support for sexual harassment across dozens of industries. From 2019-2021, Ms. Tchen also served as President and CEO of TIME’S UP Now and the TIME’S UP Foundation, as the organization worked to build safe, fair and dignified workplaces, and launched the TIME’S UP Care Economy Business Council.