Binta Niambi Brown

Binta Niambi Brown is a corporate lawyer, startup advisor, human rights advocate, and bass player based in New York City.

Binta began basic computer programming courses when she was ten years old, had her computers talking to other computers outside her home by the time she was twelve....still infatuated, Binta wrote her senior thesis at Barnard College about the Internet in 1995, relying extensively on data and analysis derived from the World Wide Web and other Internet sources. She wrote about the effect the Internet would have prospectively on commerce, communications, business and policy making.

After working for a technology start-up, Binta went to Columbia Law School and then as an associate at Cravath, Swaine & Moore worked exclusively on technology and internet IPOs and telecom transactions through 2002.

Binta subsequently advised senior management and corporate boards of media, technology, telecom and entertainment companies on corporate governance matters, strategy and special situations, and was a partner in Kirkland & Ellis LLP, before taking a break to undertake research at Harvard as a Senior Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government, in addition to advising a dozen early stage technology companies.

Binta was an informal advisor to Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign and served on each of Governor Eliot Spitzer's and Governor Andrew Cuomo's transition teams, in each case as a member of their respective Transportation Policy Advisory Committees.

A Truman National Security Fellow and former Pipeline Fellow, Binta has been recognized as one of the Root's 100 Most Influential African-Americans, Fortune Magazine's 40 under 40 business leaders, JET Magazine's 40 under 40, Crain's New York 40 under 40, by the National Organization for Women as a Woman of Power and Influence, by Super Lawyers as a New York Area Super Lawyer Rising Star, and by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader. She is a winner of the 2013 CUP Catalyst Change Agent award, and has been featured in Real Simple magazine on mentorship, the Washington Post, the New York Times, Cosmo and on CNN.

Binta sits on several boards including: 2U (advisory), Barnard College, Human Rights First, the New York City Parks Foundation, and the American Theatre Wing.

She plays electric bass in NYC area bands and enjoys running, cycling and photography.