Denielle serves as a Global Managing Director and Chief Legal Officer of Diversified Search Group (DSG) where she directs commercial transactions and manages a portfolio of executive level and Legal Counsel searches across multiple sectors. She is a member of the Executive Committee leading the firm.

Denielle joined DSG following fifteen years as Group Counsel, Programming and Business Affairs at the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), the nation’s largest non-commercial media enterprise where she led negotiations and directed content acquisition and transactional work across multi-media platforms on behalf of PBS and its 300 plus member stations, and collaborated with on-air talent, program funders, and the PBS Foundation.

Before joining PBS, she served as Group Counsel for Thales, Inc., a French-owned defense contractor, as Vice President, Legal and Business Affairs at Time Life (TWX), and in-house positions at Discovery Communications, Inc. (DISCA).

Denielle began her law career in private practice as a commercial real estate attorney with Connecticut’s Wiggin and Dana and was subsequently associated with the New York firm of Cowan Liebowitz and Latman, where she focused on intellectual property litigation and portfolio management. She has published scholarly works in the area of copyright and trademark law and has experience in compliance and Board Governance matters.

A past Regional Judge for President Obama’s Presidential Commission on White House Fellowships, Denielle is committed to emerging leaders, talent pipeline development, community service, and corporate social responsibility initiatives.

She has also served as a Trustee of the Toy Industry of America Foundation, on the Advisory Committee of DCVLP (DC Volunteer Lawyers Program to end domestic violence), and a past Board of Governor of the Case Western School of Law.

Denielle is a past member of the professional faculty of the Johns Hopkins University Carey School of Business, where she lectured on business law.

As an Advisor to Pod Networks, a P/E backed operator of STEMconnector she remains committed to increasing the number of STEM-ready workers in the global talent pool supporting leaders across 200 organizations.

Denielle Pemberton-Heard was honored Diversity Woman’s Class of 2022 Elite 100 list of Black women leaders and has been appointed to the Diversity Committee of the Association of Executive Search Consultants (AESC).

Education

JD
Case Western Reserve University School of Law

MBA
Columbia University Graduate School of Business 

BA, Political Science
Tufts University