Rob Beard    

Chief Strategy and Legal Affairs Officer

Rob Beard is Chief Strategy and Legal Affairs Officer at Coherent. He joined the company in 2024, initially serving as Chief Legal and Global Affairs Officer.

Prior to joining Coherent, Rob was Chief Legal and Global Affairs Officer at Mastercard, where he led the company’s global legal, government affairs, and policy teams and was a member of Mastercard’s Management Committee. Prior to Mastercard, Rob spent nearly a decade at Micron Technology, where he held several leadership roles within the legal organization, ultimately serving as General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. During his tenure at Micron, Rob played a key role in advancing the U.S. CHIPS and Science Act and in securing a major incentive package from the state of New York for Micron’s planned $100 billion semiconductor manufacturing facility in the Syracuse area.

After clerking on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, Mr. Beard began his corporate legal career as an associate in Shearman & Sterling’s London office, before moving to Weil, Gotshal & Manges. He graduated from the University of Utah and received his Juris Doctor from the University of Illinois College of Law, summa cum laude. Mr. Beard has also taught in the University of Illinois Communications Department, at the University of Illinois College of Law, and at the S.J. Quinney College of Law at the University of Utah.