Seattle, Washington
Jennifer Arterburn — Chief Operating Officer, Geocaching HQ
She spent her twenties telling other people’s stories on live television, her thirties keeping America’s greatest institutions out of legal trouble, and now she runs the company the whole world uses to go play outside.
The journey so far
Most executives get one career. Jennifer has had three — and each one made the next one possible.
Act I
1993 – 2004
Anchorage, Las Vegas, then NBC Bay Area — where she anchored business and technology coverage at the height of the dot-com era and won an Emmy. A decade of live television gave her something no law school teaches: executive presence, and the ability to turn a complicated story into one people remember.
Act II
2005 – 2012
She went back for her J.D., then practiced at two national firms — Nixon Peabody and Davis Wright Tremaine, counseling clients like T-Mobile and Microsoft — and served as an attorney advisor to the Smithsonian Institution. Technology, media, and entertainment law: exactly where the modern economy gets complicated.
Act III
2012 – Present
In 2012 she joined Geocaching HQ to run legal and business affairs. Fourteen years later she’s the Chief Operating Officer — co-developing enterprise strategy, overseeing HR and operations for a global brand, and still drafting the deals herself when it matters.
“Few executives can say they’ve won an Emmy, argued IP law, and steered a company through a pandemic pivot to remote work. The live-television years were the best training for the other two.”
Geocaching HQ
Co-develops business strategy and growth plans with the president and senior leadership — opening new market segments, aligning the organization around shared goals, and overseeing HR, operations, product development, ecommerce, and API licensing. Directs legal strategy end to end: every vendor contract, licensing deal, privacy policy, and partnership agreement. Built the company’s internal communications engine, led the pivot to remote and hybrid work through COVID-19, and created policy and training on generative AI and data privacy.
Geocaching HQ
Ran the company’s legal function while structuring business deals with tourism bureaus, municipalities, and partners around the world.
Geocaching HQ
Built the legal and business-affairs function from the ground up at one of Seattle’s most beloved consumer brands.
Davis Wright Tremaine LLP
Counseled clients including T-Mobile and Microsoft on corporate, employment, and IP matters. Seconded to T-Mobile’s legal team to review national ad campaigns for FTC, TCPA, and CAN-SPAM compliance. Drafted content and software licenses, terms of use, and privacy policies; led IP due diligence on M&A targets.
Smithsonian Institution · Washington, D.C.
The lawyer for America’s attic. Negotiated content licensing, IP, web development, filming, and publishing agreements across the Institution, and ran the expense-contracting process from RFP to award.
Nixon Peabody · San Francisco & Washington, D.C.
Trademark and copyright enforcement, M&A due diligence, and deal work across corporate, finance, and real estate — the full generalist foundation.
KNTV (NBC), San Francisco Bay Area
Covered Silicon Valley at full sprint — hundreds of stories on the companies and leaders remaking the economy, delivered live from the field and the anchor desk. Won an Emmy Award.
KLVX-TV, Las Vegas
Helped create the state’s first weekly half-hour business show, interviewing business and government leaders — and produced a weekly outdoor-adventures program, an early hint at where she’d land.
KTUU-TV, Anchorage, Alaska
Where it all started: covering everything, everywhere, on deadline — in Alaska.
Education: J.D., University of San Francisco School of Law, 2004 · B.S. & M.S., Journalism, Northwestern University, 1994