Full Name
Lalania Gilkey-Johnson
Job Title
Deputy General Counsel
Company
GE Appliances
Speaker Bio
Lalania Gilkey-Johnson is an accomplished executive attorney and enterprise leader with more than 25 years of combined business, commercial, and in-house legal experience advising CEOs, CFOs, boards, and executive leadership teams in complex, highly regulated global environments. She currently serves as General Counsel, Corporate Secretary, and Chief Compliance Officer of GE Appliances, a Haier Smart Home company and U.S.-headquartered subsidiary of a $40B+ global public enterprise. A business-first legal executive, Gilkey-Johnson is known for integrating governance, risk, and compliance with commercial strategy and operational execution. She leads enterprise governance, board engagement, enterprise risk management, complex commercial transactions, regulatory compliance, global data and privacy risk, and supply-chain strategy across North America and Asia. She regularly advises boards and senior leadership on fiduciary obligations, audit oversight, executive sessions, crisis response, and enterprise risk escalation.
At GE Appliances, Gilkey-Johnson leads a multidisciplinary legal, compliance, and security organization. She chairs the Risk Committee and Executive Risk Council and has driven modernization initiatives, including AI-enabled supply-chain process automation resulting in meaningful efficiency gains and cycle-time reduction in smart home consumer products. Previously, Ms. Gilkey-Johnson held senior legal leadership roles at US Foods and CDW, leading legal strategy for multibillion-dollar commercial transactions across healthcare, education, government, and public-sector markets. Earlier in her career, she founded a boutique commercial and technology law practice and practiced at a large national law firm handling complex general litigation, white collar litigation, IP, and commercial transactional matters.
Distinctively, Ms. Gilkey-Johnson began her career as a national commercial sales executive at Sprint, where she led P&L-owning teams, generated more than $1.3B in new and retained revenue, and ranked #1 nationally—experience that uniquely informs her pragmatic, revenue-aware approach to legal risk and governance. Ms. Gilkey-Johnson currently serves on the board of the Fund for the Arts and is a frequent speaker on governance, compliance, business enablement, and supply-chains. She holds a J.D. from Chicago-Kent College of Law and a B.A. from Howard University and has completed multiple executive leadership programs.
At GE Appliances, Gilkey-Johnson leads a multidisciplinary legal, compliance, and security organization. She chairs the Risk Committee and Executive Risk Council and has driven modernization initiatives, including AI-enabled supply-chain process automation resulting in meaningful efficiency gains and cycle-time reduction in smart home consumer products. Previously, Ms. Gilkey-Johnson held senior legal leadership roles at US Foods and CDW, leading legal strategy for multibillion-dollar commercial transactions across healthcare, education, government, and public-sector markets. Earlier in her career, she founded a boutique commercial and technology law practice and practiced at a large national law firm handling complex general litigation, white collar litigation, IP, and commercial transactional matters.
Distinctively, Ms. Gilkey-Johnson began her career as a national commercial sales executive at Sprint, where she led P&L-owning teams, generated more than $1.3B in new and retained revenue, and ranked #1 nationally—experience that uniquely informs her pragmatic, revenue-aware approach to legal risk and governance. Ms. Gilkey-Johnson currently serves on the board of the Fund for the Arts and is a frequent speaker on governance, compliance, business enablement, and supply-chains. She holds a J.D. from Chicago-Kent College of Law and a B.A. from Howard University and has completed multiple executive leadership programs.
