Rob Chesnut is the former Chief Ethics Officer of Airbnb, Inc., a role he took on in late 2019 after almost four years as Airbnb’s General Counsel. Rob is a graduate of Harvard Law School and the University of Virginia. He worked for 14 years with the U.S. Justice Department, where he prosecuted bank robberies, kidnappings, murder, and espionage cases, including the prosecution of CIA employee Aldrich Ames. He joined eBay in 1999 as its third lawyer, where he led eBay’s North America legal team and later founded its Trust and Safety team. He joined Airbnb in 2016, where he grew the legal team from 30 to over 150 legal professionals in 20 offices around the world. His team led initiatives to promote home-sharing and address regulatory issues with local governments and landlords around the world. Rob developed a popular interactive employee program, Integrity Belongs Here, to help drive ethics throughout the culture at the company.
“[Studies show] that companies that perform ethically, actually outperform the market, and they outperform companies that are unethical. Integrity and ethics are superpowers in a company.” – Rob Chesnut
Episode Highlights
- Why the most valuable companies integrate ethics into their DNA
- How you can become a beacon for intentional integrity in your team
- The importance of digital ethics