Patricia Brown

Executive Vice President & Chief Legal Officer

Patricia Brown oversees legal services and licensing operations worldwide for SAS. In this role, she leads a global team of over 300 attorneys and support staff. Her division handles all legal and licensing operations support for the company and includes the Government Affairs, Enterprise Negotiations and Risk departments at SAS. As part of the executive management team, Brown helps set direction and policies for the company.

A SAS employee since 1988, Brown previously led SAS efforts focused on protecting intellectual property. In addition, she supported the governance of SAS offices and affiliated businesses, such as IDeaS. Under her leadership, her teams provided legal support for several large SAS divisions, including Research and Development, Marketing, Finance, Human Resources, Information Technology and Global Channels. Throughout her tenure, she has worked closely with all SAS divisions to promote a customer-focused approach to legal services.

“Our customers include some of the biggest and best-known names in their industries, and we are continually focused on optimizing our pricing, contracts and back-end processes to provide the best experience possible,” said Brown. “From working with Technical Support to identify ways to modernize support relationships, to working with our developers to patent next-generation technologies, our goal is to support SAS’ efforts to become more innovative and customer-focused.”

Brown has a BA in music education from Emporia State University and a JD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Additionally, she served in the United States Marine Corps for five years as a paralegal. She is currently on the advisory board for the University of North Carolina Institute of Innovation at the School of Law, which provides legal counsel to early-stage businesses in North Carolina.