Chief Operating Officer

Greta S. Hansen, J.D.

Greta S. Hansen is the County of Santa Clara’s Chief Operating Officer, a position she has held since August 2022. Ms. Hansen is responsible for all operations of the County, the largest in Northern California, with nearly two million residents, over 22,000 employees, and an annual operating budget greater than $11 billion.

Prior to her tenure as Chief Operating Officer, Ms. Hansen developed a distinguished track record of leading high-impact litigation and developing innovative policies and programs designed to advance the well-being of residents of the county. She previously served as the County’s Chief Assistant County Counsel, where she advised and represented many County departments and lead the Office of the County Counsel’s Social Justice and Impact Team for 13 years. She has also led many significant projects and initiatives, including serving as one of the directors of the County’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic; leading initiatives to improve and preserve service delivery to county residents experiencing homelessness, mental illness, and substance use; and creating local policies to protect vulnerable county residents. Ms. Hansen also led successful legal efforts to block the Trump Administration from withholding federal funds from sanctuary jurisdictions; to hold former lead paint manufacturers accountable for lead clean-up; and to preserve hundreds of millions in funding for mental health services for children statewide.

Ms. Hansen was named one of Silicon Valley Business Journal’s Top 40 Leaders Under 40 in 2019, selected by California Lawyer Magazine as an Attorney of the Year and in 2021 and 2018, awarded the New Leaders Council of Silicon Valley’s Trailblazer of the Year Award in 2016, and was one of Public Justice’s Trial Lawyers of the Year for 2014.

Ms. Hansen received her bachelor’s degree from Brown University and her law degree from U.C. Berkeley. Prior to her work for the County, she worked on educational equity and racial justice litigation and policy initiatives at the ACLU of Northern California and served as a law clerk to the Honorable Stephen Reinhardt of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

She currently serves on the board of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, and previously served on the board of the Bay Area Chapter of the American Constitution Society.