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Gretchen Cepek is general counsel and corporate secretary for Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America (Allianz Life®). In her role, she leads all of the company’s legal matters, serving the best interests of the company, its customers, and its distribution. She is the legal adviser for the executive management team and oversees litigation, corporate governance, product development, special investigations, regulatory matters, ethics, compliance, and government relations.

Cepek joined Allianz Life in 2009 as a vice president in the corporate legal department. In that role, she was responsible for supervising a team of lawyers who specialize in developing new products and who provide legal guidance to Allianz Life in the areas of distribution and operations. She was also responsible for the Government Relations function.

Prior to joining Allianz Life, Cepek provided strategic legal counsel for Woodbury Financial Services, a retail broker/dealer. Before that, she was a partner at Querrey & Harrow in Chicago specializing in commercial litigation.

Cepek has a BA in political science and history from Illinois Wesleyan University and a juris doctor degree from Valparaiso University School of Law. She serves as the board chair of the Minnesota chapter of the Make-A-Wish Foundation, is president-elect of the Association of Life Insurance Counsel and a member of the Life Insurance Council of New York board of directors. She previously served on the board of the Alzheimer’s Association of Minnesota-North Dakota. Cepek is also a past Working Mother of the Year honoree by Working Mother Magazine and in 2018, was named a “Women in Business” honoree by the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal. In 2020, she was recognized as a Women, Influence and Power in Law honoree by Law.com.