Google’s Legal Chief Joins K.K.R.’s Board

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David C. Drummond, the chief legal officer of Google, right, with Eric E. Schmidt, Google's executive chairman.Credit Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
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Kohlberg Kravis Roberts has attracted one of Silicon Valley’s top legal executives to its board of directors.

David C. Drummond, the chief legal officer of Google and senior vice president for corporate development at the search giant, has joined the board of K.K.R., where he will sit on the conflicts committee, the private equity firm said on Monday. His appointment was effective Friday.

With Mr. Drummond’s appointment, the number of independent directors on K.K.R.’s board has risen to seven, out of a total of nine directors. The co-chairmen of the board are Henry R. Kravis and George R. Roberts, co-founders of the firm.

Other independent directors on the board include Joseph A. Grundfest, a former commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission; John B. Hess, chief executive of the Hess Corporation; and Robert W. Scully, a former Morgan Stanley executive.

Mr. Drummond, who joined Google in 2002, is also the chairman of Google’s two investment arms, Google Ventures and Google Capital. He oversees Google’s activities in public policy, communications, and mergers and acquisitions.

He was Google’s first outside counsel, working with its co-founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, to raise money and incorporate the company, according to an official biography. At that time, he was a partner in the corporate transactions group of the law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.

Mr. Drummond, a graduate of Stanford Law School, is also on the boards of Uber and Rocket Lawyer, according to the biography.

At K.K.R., he has joined the board of the firm’s managing partner, the corporate entity that manages the firm’s business. This technicality is a result of the fact that K.K.R. is considered a limited partnership.