Global building materials manufacturer Heidelberg Materials has announced that Kimberly-Clark deputy general counsel Shonn Brown is joining Heidelberg as general counsel and chief compliance officer for its Irving-based North America operations.
Heidelberg Material North America CEO Chris Ward said the company, which has a market cap of $17 billion and annual revenues in excess of $20 billion, chose Brown because of her “extensive experience in regulatory and corporate law and her passion for building inclusive communities and workplaces.”
“I am confident that Shonn will be a great fit at Heidelberg Materials as we continue to transform and futureproof our organization,” Ward said in a statement to The Texas Lawbook. “Shonn brings an energy and perspective that will benefit our executive team and positively impact the organization overall.”
Ward said that Brown, who practiced complex civil litigation in private practice at Locke Lord, Gruber Hurst and then Lynn Pinker Hurst & Schwegmann, will join Heidelberg as GC on Aug. 22 and will be a member of the organization’s leadership team, overseeing all legal matters “with a particular emphasis on antitrust compliance and human rights.”
“Kimberly-Clark gave me the opportunity to expand my skillset from litigation to business sustainability and I am so grateful to Kimberly-Clark,” Brown told The Lawbook. “Heidelberg is giving me an opportunity to grow even more, to learn some new and different things. The company does a lot of M&A, which will give me the opportunity to round out my experience. And it is a great way to learn the business.”
In 2021, the Associate of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and The Lawbook honored Brown with the DFW Corporate Counsel Award for Achievement in Diversity and Inclusion.
Brown succeeds Carol Lowry, who has served as Heidelberg‘s GC since 2017. Lowry will retire later this year.
Born in Dallas, Brown was raised by her maternal grandparents. Her grandmother was an educator and a musician. Her grandfather was a Korean War veteran who worked as an aircraft mechanic at Addison Airport. Her father operated a dry cleaning business in South Dallas for many years. Her mother, who was an ordained minister, licensed cosmetologist and worked at Texas Instruments and Haggar Slack company, died in a car crash in 2016.
Brown’s grandfather took her to the Southern Methodist University campus when she was starting to consider where to go for college. He told her that he was not allowed to “even walk in the University Park area” when he was younger because he was African American. But her grandfather also gave her critical advice: “Don’t stand outside the institution and throw rocks at it. Get on the inside, get a seat at the table and make change from the inside out.”
Brown did exactly that, getting involved with student government. She received her bachelor’s degree from SMU and her law degree from SMU in 1998. Two decades later, the SMU Dedman School of Law honored Brown with its Distinguished Alumni Award.
At the end of her second year at SMU Law, Brown did a summer clerkship with Locke Purnell — later Locke Lord. That year, she received two offers — one from the corporate firm offering an associate’s position in its litigation practice and later a dinner date from Clarence Brown, who was an associate at Locke Lord.
Shonn and Clarence secretly dated throughout her third year of law school and married on Nov. 18, 2000.
“We thought we were doing a great job of keeping things under wraps when I started working at Locke Purnell,” Brown said. “Little did we know it was one of the worst kept secrets in the office.”
Clarence and Shonn Brown were married for 21 years and became one of the power couples of corporate law in Texas. He was the general counsel of global manufacturer Kronos Worldwide. During his tenure there, she became the deputy general counsel of Kimberly-Clark Corporation, a multinational personal care products maker. The couple have three children — Evan Clarence, Ryan Ella Marie and Lily Elizabeth.
In May 2021, Clarence Brown fell at his home and suffered serious head injuries. He died a few months later at age 52.
“Taking this position with Heidelberg has a personal touch because Heidelberg’s parent is based in Germany and Clarence’s company had operations in Germany and took to there often,” Brown said.
Ken Bouska, who is Heidelberg’s vice president of human resources, said Brown is a perfect fit for the position.
“We interviewed many qualified candidates, but Shonn’s strategic thinking and leadership approach solidified our decision,” Bouska said.