Juliette W. Pryor

Corporate lawyer Juliette Pryor was born on January 18, 1965 in Tarrytown, New York to Juanita Agnes Sealy and Reverend Saul Williams. She received her B.A. degree in political science and Spanish from Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee in 1986 and her M.S. degree from the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service and J.D. degree from the Law Center at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. in 1991.

After receiving her law degree, Pryor was hired as in-house counsel at IBM in Washington, D.C., where she worked for three years before joining the U.S. International Trade Commission in 1994 as attorney advisor to vice chair Janet A. Nuzum. In 1997, she was named senior vice president, general counsel, and corporate secretary at the telecommunications company e.spire Communications in Washington, D.C. Pryor then served as counsel at the Washington, D.C. office of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom from 2002 to 2005, when she was hired as senior vice president, deputy general counsel, and chief diversity officer for the food supplier and distributer U.S. Foodservice (later US Foods) in Chicago, Illinois. She was promoted in 2009 to U.S. Foodservice’s executive vice president, general counsel, and chief compliance officer. In 2016, Pryor was named senior vice president, general counsel, and corporate secretary for the conglomerate Cox Enterprises in Atlanta, Georgia. She then joined Albertsons Companies as executive vice president, general counsel, and corporate secretary in Boise, Idaho, in 2020. In 2023, Pryor was appointed executive vice president, chief legal officer and corporate secretary of Lowe’s Companies, Inc in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Pryor has served on several boards, including the board of directors of the Greater Chicago Area American Red Cross, Equal Justice Works, and Genuine Parts Company; the board of trustees at Fisk University, La Rabida Children’s Hospital, and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra; the board of visitors of the Georgetown University Law Center; and Illinois Governor Pat Quinn’s Women’s Advisory Council. Pryor also is a member of The Chicago Network and a founding board member of Levantamos: The Center for Afro-Brazilian-American Cooperation.

Pryor has been the recipient of numerous honors and awards including a Women of Achievement Award in 2011, the Diamond Award for Outstanding Career Achievement from the Corporate Counsel Women of Color, the Breaking the Glass Ceiling Award from the Leadership Institute for Women of Color Attorneys, the National Bar Association Pinnacle Award for Lifetime Achievement, and the Hynes Catalyst Award from the In-House Counsel Leadership Institute and Georgetown University Law Center. Pryor has been ranked on the Minorities Fortune 500 and was recognized by Black Enterprise as one of the most powerful executives in corporate America.

Pryor and her husband, Walter Pryor, live in Charlotte, North Carolina. They have two children, Jordan Adjua Pryor and Wade Pryor.

Juliette Pryor was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on August 25, 2022.