Rick Sinkfield serves as the Chief Legal Officer and Chief Ethics & Compliance Officer for Laureate Education, Inc. (Nasdaq: LAUR), an international network of higher education institutions in Mexico and Peru with over three hundred thousand students. He oversees the work of an extensive team of corporate and university counsel Mr. Sinkfield has served in the General Counsel's office for over 15 years and played a significant role in its growth that at one point reached over a million students across 30 countries - including leading numerous M&A/divestiture efforts in the U.S., Europe and Latin America, as well as strengthening the company’s corporate governance and ethics policies.
Mr. Sinkfield practiced law at several law firms including the Washington offices of Sidley LLP and Akin Gump, where he developed specialties in corporate/securities law and public policy in areas that included banking, international trade and investment and intellectual property issues.
As a federal political appointee and civil servant, Mr. Sinkfield served as a senior executive in the Treasury Department and as a line attorney at the State Department between 1994 and 1999.
Mr. Sinkfield values the preparation of the next generation of lawyers having served as an adjunct professor at the George Washington School of Law. In addition, he has been a guest lecturer at other universities on topics that have included business and ethics and international negotiation. Throughout his career, Mr. Sinkfield has served on, and advised a number of non-profit boards and organizations whose missions have included fostering public-private micro-partnerships in Central America, arts in education, the performing arts and standardized test tutoring for at-risk high school kids in math and English.