When she entered law school at Harvard in 1994, Chantal Kordula envisioned becoming a diplomat and going to work at the United Nations. But she quickly decided to give corporate law a chance in order to help develop her writing and problem-solving skills and make money. “I thought I’d be here a few years, pay off some loans and frankly move on,” she said.
Kordula, 39, has forged an international career, only instead of negotiating treaties she’s arranged transnational corporate mergers, restructurings and project financing agreements. Her clients include Mexico’s Grupo Bimbo SAB in its $2.5 billion takeover of the bakery division of George Weston Ltd. in 2009 and its $959 million purchase of Sara Lee Corp.’s North American bakery operations, a deal that recently cleared Justice Department antitrust review.
