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Craighton Goeppele

Craighton Goeppele

Senior Vice President and General Counsel

As senior vice president and general counsel for TerraPower, Craighton Goeppele focuses on international and domestic agreements, corporate matters, intellectual property, compliance, risk management and employment law. He has practiced law for more than 25 years, including several years in Japan and throughout Europe, and is licensed to practice law in the state of Washington.

From 2011 to 2013, he served as senior counsel at Intellectual Ventures, where he handled global compliance, employment and various corporate and commercial transactions. From 2009 to 2011, he was senior director, business transactions at Nintendo of America, where he led a team of lawyers and staff handling all contracts and compliance matters for Nintendo’s business in the Western Hemisphere. From 2000 to 2009, Goeppele held several leadership roles in Starbucks Corporation’s legal department, including managing a team of lawyers supporting the business of Starbucks across 26 countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and acting as lead lawyer for its global consumer packaged goods businesses. From 1992 to 2000, Goeppele practiced with the law firm of Riddell Williams P.S. (then known as Graham & James/Riddell Williams) in the company’s Seattle, Wash., and Tokyo, Japan offices, where his practice focused on mergers and acquisitions, corporate, international and commercial transactions. While in Tokyo, Goeppele worked in-house at ITOCHU Corporation’s Tokyo headquarters from 1996 to 1998 on numerous international energy and infrastructure projects throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

Goeppele graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from Boston University in 1987 and a master’s degree from the University of Michigan in 1988. He earned his law degree from the University of Washington School of Law in 1991, Order of the Coif.

Craighton Goeppele