Deepa Damre Smith

General Counsel

Deepa Damre Smith is General Counsel at Matthews Asia. Prior to joining the firm in 2022, she served as the Head of the U.S. ETF Legal Team at BlackRock and has over 17 years of regulatory experience in asset management. During her tenure at BlackRock, she was primarily responsible for supporting all legal and regulatory matters for BlackRock’s U.S. ETF business, including the iShares index complex and other BlackRock active ETFs covering a variety of asset classes and investment strategies.  She was responsible for leading legal support for the iShares business during periods of significant growth and expansion in the U.S. and globally, and has diverse and deep experience across product development, operations, distribution, governance, capital markets, index/data matters as well as advising on complex regulatory, commercial and other strategic initiatives involving registered funds and ETFs. Deepa began her career as an Associate in the Corporate & Securities Group at Pillsbury Winthorp Shaw Pittman, representing private and public companies on corporate, securities, mergers and acquisition matters. She received a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a J.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law.