Janet Elizabeth Kerr

Janet E. Kerr is the Founder and Executive Director of the Palmer Center for Entrepreneurship & the Law.  She is a Professor of Law at the Pepperdine University School of Law where she teaches Corporations, Securities Regulations, Entrepreneurship, and Advanced Securities Regulations.  In addition to her current positions at Pepperdine University, Professor Kerr is a nationally recognized author, lecturer and consultant in the area of securities law compliance, corporate governance and general corporate law.  For the past four years, she has served on the board of directors and as Chair of the Corporate Governance/Nominating Committee of CKE (Carl Karcher Enterprises), a NYSE-traded company.  Additionally, she is a member of CKE’s Compensation Committee and currently serves on the Audit Committee of a privately-held clothing retailer.  Recently, Professor Kerr was appointed by ISS/Risk Metrics to serve on the Governance Exchange Advisory Council.

Professor Kerr is also a recognized entrepreneur having founded several technology companies over the last ten years.  One of her companies, X-Laboratories, was jointly-owned with HRL (Hughes Research Laboratories) and was one of the first companies created to assist in the commercialization of technologies in research institutions.  In recognition of her development of this new business model, Professor Kerr was appointed to the board of Larta Institute, an international non-profit firm, which commercializes technologies in the fields of digital media, life sciences, alternative energies, as well as others.

Professor Kerr has also served as an advisor on corporate issues and entrepreneurial strategies to such countries as the People’s Republic of China, France and Thailand.  Additionally, she has represented the U.S. Department of Commerce as a speaker at several international events.