Wanji Walcott

Wanji Walcott is Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel at Discover Financial Services, and is a member of the company’s Executive Committee. In these roles, she helps to set strategy and leads our corporate legal function, which plays a critical role advising on corporate and product strategies and services and managing litigation, legislative and regulatory affairs.

Prior to joining Discover, Ms. Walcott served as Senior Vice President and General Counsel at PayPal since 2017, responsible for their legal affairs, as well as managing their global legal organization. She led and coordinated legal support for complex corporate transactions, including pivotal agreements with card networks, M&A and equity investments; innovative product and feature launches; and the company’s transformative global legal entity management framework to streamline business operations.

She also previously served as Vice President and Managing Counsel at American Express, where she managed a team that provided global legal support in several areas, including payments, ecommerce/social media initiatives, and data security.

Ms. Walcott earned Bachelor of Arts and Juris Doctor degrees from Howard University. She is passionate about employee development and diversity & inclusion, and has held leadership roles in initiatives to promote both, including the launch of PayPal’s Black Employee network and serving as Global executive sponsor of PayPal’s Women’s Employee network. She also launched a legal pro bono program at PayPal.