Appointments: August 2013

Ecuador Gold and Copper

Ecuador Gold and Copper has announced the appointment of Sean Choi as chief financial officer and corporate secretary of the company. He replaces Angel Law, who has resigned from the position of chief financial officer and corporate secretary.

Choi has been a controller and a finance manager for the company since January 2011 and is a Chartered Professional Accountant and Chartered Accountant. He has three years of public accounting experience and five years of accounting and financial reporting experience in the mining industry in Canada.

Cline Mining

Cline Mining has appointed Paul Haber as its chief financial officer and corporate secretary. Haber is both a Chartered Accountant and Certified Public Accountant and holds Chartered Director designation as well. He has served as the chief financial officer of various Toronto Stock Exchange and Toronto Stock Exchange Ventures-listed companies and also sits on the board of several public and private companies.

Chase

Chase has announced that US Treasury official Darius Kingsley has joined the bank as co-general counsel of mortgage banking. He will share duties with Denise DesRosiers, who has been with the bank’s mortgage business for 21 years and most recently served as deputy general counsel of mortgage banking.

Kingsley has been chief of the Homeownership Preservation Office at the Treasury since 2011, after serving as deputy chief. Before that, he was senior counsel for the Office of Financial Stability for two years. The Homeownership Preservation Office oversees the federal government’s Making Home Affordable Program, including HAMP and HARP.

In a statement, Matthew Biben, general counsel of Chase Community and Consumer Banking, says: ‘Darius’ experience will be invaluable as we continue to invest in the mortgage business and focus on strengthening our regulatory and compliance framework.’ 

News Corp

News Corp has announced that Janet Nova, the company’s senior vice president and deputy general counsel, will be promoted to executive vice president and deputy group general counsel for 21st Century Fox, the media and entertainment entity to launch following the separation of the company into two independent, publicly traded companies.

In her new role, Nova will oversee the legal aspects of the company’s M&A activity, capital markets transactions and SEC and stock exchange reporting, and advise the company’s board committees. Nova will continue to report to Gerson Zweifach, the senior executive vice president, group general counsel and chief compliance officer for 21st Century Fox.

Nova has been a part of the News Corp general counsel’s office since 1997, including serving as the company’s interim group general counsel from June 2011 to February 2012. She joined News Corp from Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, where she was an associate in the firm’s corporate and securities practice.

Archer Daniels Midland

The board of directors of Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) has appointed Cameron Findlay senior vice president, general counsel and secretary. He will be responsible for the law, compliance and government relations functions, will be a member of the company’s executive committee, and will report to ADM chairman, CEO and president Patricia Woertz. Findlay replaces Marschall Smith, who is leaving ADM to enter private practice.

Findlay joins ADM from Medtronic, the world’s largest medical device manufacturer, where he served as senior vice president, general counsel and secretary since 2009. Prior to joining Medtronic, he was executive vice president and general counsel at Aon, a global insurance, risk management and human resources firm, from 2003 to 2009. 

In addition to his time as a general counsel, Findlay has had a distinguished career in government service, including at the White House as deputy assistant to President George H. W. Bush, at the US Department of Labor as deputy secretary, and at the US Supreme Court as a law clerk for Justice Antonin Scalia. Findlay has also been a partner in the global law firm Sidley Austin.

Chesapeake Energy

Patrick Craine, a partner with the law firm of Bracewell & Giuliani, has joined Chesapeake Energy as chief compliance officer. In this capacity he will report to Chesapeake’s general counsel, Jim Webb, and the audit committee of the company’s board of directors.

At Bracewell & Giuliani, Craine was a partner in the firm’s white-collar defense, internal investigations and regulatory enforcement practice and counseled companies, boards, committees, officers and directors in regulatory and compliance matters. He has also led numerous independent investigations for publicly traded companies. Before entering private practice, he served as an enforcement attorney with the SEC and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). He was also actively involved in the SEC’s and FINRA’s oil and gas task forces.

Fenway Sports Management

Fenway Sports Management (FSM), the sports marketing agency of Fenway Sports Group, has appointed Jennifer Flynn as general counsel. She will continue to serve the Boston Red Sox as senior vice president and assistant general counsel.

Flynn will oversee FSM’s strategic legal initiatives, including venture activities, and negotiate contracts relating to its exclusive property representation and sponsorship sales business: NBA MVP LeBron James, PGA Tour Playoff event the Deutsche Bank Championship, Major League Baseball Advanced Media, and Boston College Athletics.

Flynn will continue to work closely with Fenway Sports Group executive vice president of corporate strategy and general counsel Ed Weiss on legal matters across the company’s portfolio of sports properties, including the Boston Red Sox, Liverpool Football Club, Roush Fenway Racing and the New England Sports Network. Among other duties, Flynn will lead negotiations for content rights deals, provide counsel in connection with original programming initiatives and serve as Fenway Sports Group’s lead senior lawyer for all transactional matters.

Flynn’s career began with the Boston Red Sox after she received her law degree from Boston College. With the Red Sox, Flynn is responsible for handling a broad range of legal matters pertaining to its day-to-day operations, including the franchise’s activities and special events at Fenway Park. She has worked on contract negotiations for the NHL Winter Classic, Frozen Fenway, an NCAA Division One outdoor ice hockey series, professional football friendlies and annual summer concerts.

Flynn’s role also includes negotiating arrangements with all Red Sox rights holders, including their television and radio partners and their more than 100 corporate sponsorship partners. In addition, she advises on club-specific and league-wide licensing and intellectual property rights matters.

Berkshire Hathaway

Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance, which provides commercial property, casualty, healthcare, executive and professional lines insurance and programs for customers across the US, has appointed Ralph Tortorella III as senior vice president and chief legal and compliance officer. Tortorella was previously the global specialty general counsel at Liberty Mutual Group.

Tortorella was also general counsel of Liberty Mutual’s international and commercial insurance operations. Before that, he was senior partner at the national insurance services law firm of Ropers Majeski Kohn & Bentley, where he began his career as an associate and later founded the firm’s New York operation. 

ACE

ACE, one of the world’s largest multi-line property and casualty insurers, has announced the appointment of Joseph Wayland as general counsel. Wayland will be responsible for the company’s global legal affairs, including providing counsel on a full range of legal and business issues to the CEO, senior management team and board of directors, as well as leading the legal organization that supports the company’s business operations globally. Reporting to chairman and chief executive officer Evan Greenberg, Wayland succeeds Robert Cusumano, who has left the company to pursue other interests.

Wayland joins ACE from Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, where he worked from 1988 and became a partner in 1994. From 2010 to 2012, Wayland served with the Department of Justice, first as deputy assistant attorney general responsible for litigation for the antitrust division and then as acting assistant attorney general in charge of the division.

TeleTech Holdings

TeleTech Holdings, a leading global provider of technology-enabled customer experience solutions, has appointed Margaret McLean to the position of senior vice president and general counsel.

McLean will be responsible for facilitating TeleTech’s growth and investment goals from a legal and compliance perspective. She will advise the board of directors and executive leadership team on matters such as corporate governance, mergers and acquisitions, compliance and enterprise risk management.

McLean joins TeleTech from CH2M HILL, a $7 billion global engineering, construction and management company, where she served as chief legal officer and general counsel. During her 15-year tenure at CH2M HILL, she managed the legal and operational challenges for the company across 75 countries and 28,000 employees globally as revenue grew from less than $1 billion in 1998 to roughly $7 billion in 2012.

Prior to her time at CH2M HILL, McLean was partner for M&A and finance at Holme Roberts & Owen, a large full-service law firm representing US and foreign clients.