Senior Vice President, Chief Accounting Officer
Laura Howell is Senior Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer of Akamai. In this role, she oversees the global team responsible for external financial reporting, accounting, tax, payroll, and equity administration. She is based at Akamai’s global headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Prior to her current role, Howell held several positions in the finance organization, having joined Akamai in 2013. Her first role was leading SEC reporting and technical accounting, eventually becoming the Corporate Controller and later the Vice President of Corporate Finance. During her tenure, she has assisted Akamai in acquisitions, debt offerings, and implementations of significant new accounting standards, in addition to ensuring compliance with the various accounting and tax rules and regulations required of a global, publicly traded company.
She began her career at Deloitte, where she spent nearly 10 years serving public and private clients, primarily in the technology industry. Her client base included both large multinational and small start-up organizations, where she also assisted in the initial public offerings of some of her clients. In addition to her time at Deloitte, she also held SEC reporting and technical accounting roles at Progress Software prior to joining Akamai.
She holds a Master of Science in Accounting and Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, both from the University of New Hampshire. She has been a Certified Public Accountant in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for more than 20 years.