Aspen Strategy Group

Zoe Baird Budinger

President, Markle Foundation

Program:
Aspen Strategy Group

Biography

Zoë Baird Budinger is President of the Markle Foundation, a private philanthropy that focuses on using information and communications technologies to address critical public needs, particularly in the areas of health care and national security. Previously, she has been senior vice president and general counsel of Aetna, Inc., a senior visiting scholar at Yale Law School, a counselor and staff executive at General Electric, and a partner in the law firm of O’Melveny & Myers. Mrs. Baird Budinger served on the Technology & Privacy Advisory Committee to the Secretary of Defense from 2003 to 2004, and since 2001 has Co-chaired with Jim Barksdale the Markle Task Force on National Security in the Information Age. During the administration of President Bill Clinton, she served on the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board and on the International Competition Policy Advisory Committee to the Attorney General. During the administration of President Jimmy Carter she was associate counsel to the President and an attorney in the Office of Legal Counsel of the U.S. Department of Justice. She participates in the steering committee of Markle’s Connecting for Health initiative, and is on a number of non-profit and corporate boards, including the Chubb Corporation, Boston Properties, and The Brookings Institution. She holds a B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley and a J.D. from Boalt Hall. She is a member of the Aspen Strategy Group.