Appointments: February 2016

1) Martha Manning has joined Achillion Pharmaceuticals as executive vice president, general counsel and secretary.

Previously, she served as general counsel of iCeutica, a drug development company, from 2013 to 2016. Before that, she was chief legal officer of OraPharma from 2011 to 2012 when the Johnson & Johnson spinout company was acquired by Valeant. Manning joined OraPharma from Sandoz, the generic pharmaceutical division of Novartis, where she served as vice president and general counsel from 2008 to 2011. Prior to Sandoz, she was senior vice president, general counsel and secretary at biopharmaceutical maker Adolor Corp from 2002 to 2008. She began her legal career at the law firm of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius.

Manning received her JD from the University of Pennsylvania School of Law and her Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Massachusetts.

Duane Holloway

2) Ascena Retail Group has named Duane Holloway senior vice president and general counsel. He will serve on the company’s leadership team and report to President and CEO David Jaffe.

Holloway joins the specialty retailer, which sells clothing and accessories under the Anne Taylor, Loft, Lane Bryant and other brands, from CoreLogic, a real estate data, analytics and services provider, where he was vice president and deputy general counsel. Before moving to CoreLogic, he served in various executive positions at Caesars Entertainment Corp, most recently as senior vice president and chief counsel for operations and litigation. Prior to Caesars, Holloway practiced corporate law at Hogan & Hartson (now Hogan Lovells).

Holloway hold a BA from the University of Virginia and a JD from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.    

Ken Bertsch

3) Ken Bertsch, a partner at CamberView Partners, has been appointed as executive director of the Council of Institutional Investors following Ann Yerger’s departure in July 2015.

A graduate of Fordham University School of Law, Bertsch previously served as president and CEO of the Society of Corporate Secretaries and Governance Professionals, head of corporate governance and proxy voting at Morgan Stanley Investment Management, managing director for corporate governance analysis at Moody’s Investors Service and director of the governance engagement program at TIAA.

Lee Reichert

4) Molson Coors has appointed Lee Reichert as corporate secretary, supplementing his roles as deputy general counsel and general counsel for Molson Coors International.

Before joining Molson Coors in 2011, Reichert was a partner at Lathrop & Gage. Prior to his tenure with Lathrop & Gage, he practiced law at Kamlet Reichert and was a partner at Krendl & Krendl.

Reichert earned a BA from Colgate University and a JD from the University of Illinois College of Law.

5) Jorge Gracia has joined Sprint as senior vice president and general counsel, replacing Charles Wunsch, who held the position since 2008 and retired at the end of January. He will report to CEO Marcelo Claure.

Gracia has 25 years’ experience in international corporate law, most recently with Samsung Electronics America, where he served as senior vice president and general counsel since 2013. He previously spent 17 years at Alcatel-Lucent in a series of positions of increasing responsibility. Most recently, he was deputy general counsel of global commercial law, leading a team of about 200 professionals.

His other roles at Alcatel-Lucent included corporate counsel for the company’s two largest business teams, SBC and Bell South, both now part of AT&T, law vice president for various business functions such as Lucent’s Worldwide Services Group.

Gracia received a Bachelor in Business Administration from Florida International University and a JD with honors from the University of Miami School of Law.

Kim Rucker

6) Tesoro Corp has named Kim Rucker as executive vice president, general counsel and secretary, effective March 14, 2016. She will replace Charles Parrish, who is retiring after 11 years as general counsel and 22 years at the company.

Rucker most recently served as executive vice president for corporate and legal affairs, general counsel and corporate secretary of Kraft Foods Group from 2012 to 2015. Prior to that, she was Avon Products' senior vice president, general counsel and chief compliance officer. She also served as senior vice president, secretary and chief governance officer of Energy Future Holdings (formerly TXU Corp) from 2004 to 2008, corporate counsel for Kimberly-Clark Corp and a partner in the corporate & securities group at Sidley Austin.

A member of the board of directors for Lennox International, Rucker holds a Bachelors of business administration in economics from the University of Iowa, a JD from the Harvard Law School and a Master's in public policy from the John F Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Michael Regier

7) Michael Regier has joined Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) and will assume the newly created role of general counsel and secretary once VUMC legally separates from Vanderbilt University as a separate nonprofit entity. The separation is projected to occur in the late spring. He will report to Jeff Balser, MD, PhD., CEO and president of the reorganized VUMC.

Regier comes to VUMC from Atlantic Health System where he served as vice president for legal affairs and chief legal officer. Prior to Atlantic Health System, Regier was senior vice president for legal and corporate affairs and general counsel for VHA, the largest alliance of non-profit hospitals in the US. For more than a decade, he also served as senior vice president for legal affairs, general counsel and network corporate responsibility officer at Seton Healthcare Network and he also worked at the Chicago law firm of Gardner, Carton & Douglas,

He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Kansas and his law degree from the University of Virginia Law School where he was a Dillard Fellow. He is a member of the American Health Lawyers Association and the Association of Corporate Counsel.