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Kate Pérez Whittaker, the senior director and head of legal for North America at Arxada, is a mother of five who has always been willing to be outspoken about her duties at home. She and her husband own a small family farm, where Whittaker tends to baby goats and roaming alpacas, among other duties.
This isn’t a traditional path, but it’s the life Whittaker and her family have been working toward for more than a decade. The attorney’s path is a reminder that, with the right kind of perspective, you can get close to having it all.
Whittaker has always known what it means to be a little different, starting with her parents. Her Canadian mother spent her childhood in Cuba before becoming a Spanish professor and meeting Whittaker’s father, an engineer, in Mexico. The two moved to Canada and had Whittaker and her sister then relocated the family to the United States, and eventually, settled in Pennsylvania.
“I knew that speaking a different language in our home and the way we were raised was not the norm in our town,” Whittaker says. “That isn’t to say it wasn’t happening, and I think it’s much more common now. But at the time, it was easy to feel like things were somehow different at our house.”
Growing up, Whittaker was positive that she was going to be a successful brain surgeon, right up until her first exposure to blood while studying at college. The attorney jokes that she wishes she had a more romantic story about deciding, right then and there, to go to law school, but the passion would come later.
After graduating from Seton Hall Law and clerking for Associate Justice Helen E. Hoens for the Supreme Court of New Jersey, Whittaker went to New Jersey law firm Gibbons P.C. where she racked up a true rarity in the firm world: she was seconded to a client’s in-house compliance team within her first year.
The secondment was supposed to be brief but stretched out to a year. After the lawyer returned to Gibbons, she was seconded a second time, this time to utility company PSEG as commercial counsel.
“I think I was just the natural choice for the role that second time,” Whittaker explains. “I had gotten some broader commercial litigation experience when I went back to the firm, and they knew I was good at working in-house, so it just made sense.”
The attorney eventually went in-house full-time at PSEG, where she spent a total of four years. Then, Whittaker was recruited to join pharmaceutical manufacturing company Lonza with the possibility of the company carving out and spinning off its specialty chemicals business, what is today Arxada.
“I knew there might be some interesting opportunities with the carve-out,” she says. “I didn’t realize how varied those experiences would be.”
Whittaker played integral roles in multiple M&A deals on both sides of the aisle. Following its carve-out from Lonza, Arxada was bought by private equity. Within five months, Arxada acquired two companies of its own. Whittaker played key roles in integrating those new companies as well.
“I wasn’t trained as a labor and employment lawyer, but I guess now I play one on TV,” the senior director jokes. “I have gotten the broad-based experience at Arxada that I couldn’t imagine getting anywhere else.”
At every stop on her journey, Whittaker makes a point to be vocal about the fact that she is a working mother. It was a reaction to a career where she saw so many people underplaying their personal lives.
“People with very demanding jobs often decide not to pursue having families, or [they are] having fewer children,” Whittaker explains. “I never wanted my job to sway me from having the kind of life I wanted outside of my career. I hope by being vocal about prioritizing work/life balance, I can support other people who feel the same way.”
Whittaker always wanted a big family and a big career. Now she’s in the position to act as living proof that both can be had. It may not have been possible at a big firm, but it was for her by going in-house.
Whittaker likes a challenge. When her job offered more remote work options, she suddenly had a few more hours in the day, and the attorney elected to go after her MBA. She’ll be graduating this August.
“It’s been a chance to dive deeper in areas I never would have learned otherwise, like finance,” Whittaker explains.
“I’m doing data analytics and statistics, which sounded scary and, well, frankly, they’re still scary,” she adds with a laugh.
The senior director says as a lawyer representing Arxada’s business, she wants to be as invested and knowledgeable as she possibly can be. Whittaker’s not one to take the easy way out.
None of the Whittakers are, it seems. At the family farm, the attorney’s kids, ages one to thirteen, are being raised away from technology as much as can be hoped for and with an understanding of where their food comes from. Whittaker and her husband, Shane, want their children to be more aware of the world right in front of them.
While Whittaker was still commuting every day, she conceived an idea for a blog that she could maintain if she had the time (she doesn’t): From Firm to Farm and Back Again. Just this once, Whittaker gave herself the out. It’s been more enjoyable to just live it.
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