Today we’d like to introduce you to Janet Braun.
Janet, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, I earned both an engineering degree and law degree at Ohio State University and moved to Los Angeles in 1985. I started my legal career at O’Melveny & Myers in DTLA where I specialized in corporate law–securities and mergers & acquisitions. I left private practice and took some in-house corporate legal positions at Santa Fe International Corporation (oil services owned by the Kuwaiti government) and then NeXstar Pharmaceuticals (publicly-held company acquired by Gilead Sciences). I helped start a few companies, one of which used we licensed out our technology. In 2014, I helped start a generic injectable pharma company based in Brea (HBT Labs, Inc.) which we sold to American Regent in 2022. I was the COO and General Counsel of HBT Labs
During my professional career, I have been involved with many other organizations, including serving on the Boards of Directors for the American Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO), Greater Los Angeles Area Boy Scouts of America, Pasadena Ronald McDonald House, Flintridge Preparatory School, and currently serve on the Board of Directors for Huntington Hospital in Pasadena. I also coached soccer for 15 years and was both a Boy Scout leader and Girl Scout leader, and volunteered many hours to several organizations. I am also actively involved with the College of Engineering at Ohio State, serving on the capital campaign committee and a charter member of Buckeye Women in Executive Leadership. I am currently on the National Legal Advisory Board to the Ohio State Law School. I was very active in AYSO, not only as a coach, but also as the Regional Commissioner for South Pas/San Marino and the Area Director for the West San Gabriel Valley. I still serve on the Legal Commission for AYSO.
I have been very politically active, and was very involved in the 2016 Presidential campaign for Hillary Clinton as a volunteer. I travelled to Nevada, Florida and Ohio for voter protection and GOTV efforts and was a caucus monitor in Las Vegas, in addition to hosting many GOTV events in California. I served on the Public Safety Commission in South Pasadena for 4 years and the Planning Commission for 6 years and decided to run for South Pasadena City Council in 2022. I currently serve on the City Council and am the acting Mayor for 2025. I am a Past President of Women in South Pasadena Political Advocacy and an Executive Member of Women Leadership Vital Voices, a political advocacy group in Pasadena. We bring many national, state and local elected officials to our organization to discuss current events.
I have raised 3 adult children, a daughter who lives in New York City, and 2 sons who live in Santa Monica and West LA. I am a rabid Ohio State Buckeyes fan, but also a season ticket holder to Angel City FC soccer games and the Hollywood Bowl, which I love.
I have received a few awards along the way, including the AYSO Region 214 Hall of Fame, Ohio State College of Engineering Distinguished Alumni Award (Entrepreneurship), Business Life Magazine (Burbank) Women Achievers Award, AYSO President’s Award.
I also love to travel. My best trips have been a safari and silverback mountain gorilla trek in Tanzania, Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo (Virunga National Park), Cuba and a recent Civil Rights trip to Atlanta, Alabama and Tennessee.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
On the professional side of life . . . balancing work, kids and volunteering will always be a bit challenging, but also incredibly rewarding. I am grateful that I was able to have a rewarding career while raising my kids, but you have to be flexible.
I believe that the best leaders have fundamentally good character traits to make them leaders, but that they also need experience to develop as outstanding leaders. The many, many leadership roles I have undertaken have helped make me a stronger leader. Ironically, all of my roles in youth soccer had many, many challenges, but were both rewarding and also helped prepare me professionally and personally.
As far as political challenges, I was devastated by the 2016 election results and dove in deeper to help candidates and causes after that election. Over the past decade, I have concluded that our government processes are somewhat broken and that the path to fixing them is to act locally. So I did. I think if people get involved with their local communities, we can build from the ground up and truly “fix” our country.
On City Council and as Mayor, the challenges are greater in today’s environment, because people are observing many poorly behaved politicians and adopting that behavior. It is up to all of us to remain civil and promote conversation, even when we disagree. The best decisions are usually made when all sides are heard and there is a great compromise. Someone came to my door at 1 am trying to kick it in shortly after a very contentious meeting at which I explained why I could not support the adoption by our city council of a Gaza ceasefire resolution, because the issue was not within our jurisdiction. I have also not supported certain issues about which I receive brutal and personal attacks on social media. We must stand up to bullying behavior and continue in civil discourse. See: https://abc7.com/post/south-pasadena-councilmembers-targeted-inflammatory-social-media-posts/14945618/
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I answered this in the initial summary, but professionally, I started my corporate legal career at “big law” in DTLA at O’Melveny & Myers where I received outstanding training from remarkable professionals. I transitioned to in-house positions at Santa Fe INternational (which moved to Dallas, TX and I declined the move) and then to NeXstar Pharmaceuticals as Associate General Counsel (also moved the HQ to Boulder, Colorado and I declined that move, but stayed with the operations in San Dimas, CA). After NeXstar Pharmaceuticals was purchased by Gilead Sciences, I spent about 8 years consulting to various businesses on corporate matters before I joined 3 chemists to form Brightside Innovations to use drug delivery technology for consumer applications. We received a patent and licensed our technology to another company. In 2014, I helped start another generic pharmaceutical company with a business partner. We received the first approval for a generic alternative to Abraxane, a $1 billion market chemotherapy drug. We sold our company (HBT Labs, Inc.) in 2022. I stayed post-sale until November 2023. I acted as both Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel for HBT Labs. Building and running a business is very gratifying.
I think I am most proud of my abilities as a business lawyer. I believe that I am an outstanding problem solver (comes from being an engineer and years of varied experience). I work to getting deals DONE, with creative solutions that work for everyone. I am practical and have common sense–missing from today’s world in many arenas.
If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
I grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio and then moved to Columbus, Ohio to attend Ohio State University. I was the youngest of 3 daughters and grew up in a middle class suburb of Ohio. I was extremely curious and liked to have fun. I took every lesson imaginable–played the piano, violin, guitar, took baton twirling and horseback riding lessons, played soccer and softball, loved the Cincinnati Reds, went to many, many, camps, including Girl Scout camp, horseback riding camp, sailing camp, gymnastics camp. I grew up on a cul-de-sac in a neighborhood where we had a neighborhood “gang” (not that kind of gang). We played whiffle ball in the street and basketball on the hoop my parents put up at the end of our driveway. We rode our bikes everywhere, including to the Pony Keg for Icees and baseball cards. We played Kick-the-Can on summer nights in everyone’s backyards until it was dark.
In high school, I was a cheerleader for 4 years and on the gymnastics team for 4 years (co-captain and co-MVP twice). I played soccer my senior year when a girls’ team was created. I was also elected to the National Honor Society. I was never in a “group” but when I said that to a classmate at a recent High School Reunion, she said–“maybe not, but you were nice to everyone.” I thought that was the nicest compliment ever!
My homeroom was in the gym because another friend of mine and I went to Athletic Trainers camp one summer to learn sports medicine. We helped wrap and rehabilitate athletic injuries for our teammates. I also volunteered at Christ Hospital one year.
I have always had lots of interests and have kept very busy!
I had lots of fun in college and somehow managed to graduate with an engineering degree. I studied more in law school, but also managed to have much fun. I was a Managing Editor on the Law Review and externed for Judge Robert Duncan (S.D. Ohio).
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.southpasadenaca.gov
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janet-braun-152b5a12/
