Aparna Williams

Aparna Williams is Sophos' Chief Legal and Trust Officer, having joined the company in July 2025. She leads a broad remit that unites the company's legal, governance, privacy, compliance, and enterprise risk functions with the Office of the CISO, government relations, customer assurance, and procurement and workplace solutions, bringing together the disciplines that underpin trust with Sophos' customers, partners, employees, and stakeholders.

Aparna is an accomplished legal executive with over 25 years of experience building and leading both private and public high-growth companies. She has successfully scaled international legal functions across a range of sectors, including software, SaaS, hardware, hosted services, and professional services. Her areas of expertise span sales and revenue support, product development, compliance, regulatory strategy, and M&A, particularly in the cybersecurity industry.

Before joining Sophos, Aparna served as Chief Legal and Compliance Officer atCoalfireSystems. She was previously Head of Legal atShippo, and held senior legal roles at Imperva and Symantec. Across these roles, she earned a reputation for building scalable legal infrastructure, mentoring next-generation legal talent, and enabling business transformation through practical, business-minded legal advice.

Aparna holds a B.A. in Literature and History from the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) and a J.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law. She is admitted to practice in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington DC.