Appointments: July 2014

1) Laureen Seeger has left the healthcare industry to become executive vice president and the new general counsel at American Express. She succeeds Louise Parent, who retired earlier this year after 20 years as general counsel and a total of 37 years at American Express. Tim Heine has served as the company’s interim GC since the start of 2014.

Seeger will lead the legal, compliance and ethics initiatives, later adding federal and state government affairs duties. She will report directly to chairman and CEO Kenneth Chenault and serve on the company’s operating committee. She served 14 years at McKesson Corp, most recently as executive vice president, general counsel and chief compliance officer, leading the law, public affairs and compliance departments, navigating the regulatory complexity of the healthcare space. . She became general counsel in 2006.

Isaac Torres
Carver Bancorp

2) Carver Bancorp, the holding company for Carver Federal Savings Bank has appointed Isaac Torres as vice president, assistant general counsel and corporate secretary. Reporting to James Raborn, counsel and senior vice president, Torres is responsible for the company’s legal, regulatory, and corporate governance functions.

Torres previously served as assistant vice president and assistant corporate secretary of MetLife. Before joining MetLife he was a lawyer at Hawkins Delafield & Wood, where he practiced in the areas of public finance and economic development. He began his career in the New York City Mayor’s Office of Management & Budget and was later appointed budget director of the New York City Department of Design & Construction.

He is a graduate of St. John’s University Law School, and received a BA in political science from Stony Brook University and a master’s in management and policy analysis from the New School for Social Research, where he was an Alfred P Sloan Fellow. He is a member of the Association of Corporate Counsel and the Society of Corporate Secretaries & Governance Professionals.

3) Calgary-based Ceiba Energy Services has named Peter Cheung as chief financial officer and corporate secretary. Cheung is a chartered accountant with nearly 20 years of accounting, capital markets, strategic transactions and treasury experience in public and private companies.

Most recently, Cheung was the vice president, finance and chief financial officer at Petrobank Energy and Resources. Before that, he served as treasurer at Compton Petroleum Corp, after having founded an investment management company. He has also been vice president and treasurer at Pengrowth Energy Trust and vice president at RBC Capital Markets Energy Investment Banking. Cheung graduated from the University of Calgary with a bachelor’s of Commerce with distinction.

Lucy Fato
McGraw Hill Financial

4) Lucy Fato has left Marsh & McLennan Companies to become executive vice president and general counsel of McGraw Hill Financial, effective August 4. She succeeds Kenneth Vittor, who is retiring after serving 19 years as general counsel and 33 years of service in total.

Fato served as vice president, deputy general counsel and corporate secretary at March & McLennan since 2005. Before joining Marsh, she was a partner at Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York. She is a member of the board of directors of Amref Health Africa and earned bachelor's and law degrees from the University of Pittsburgh.

5) McKesson Corp has appointed Lori Schechter as executive vice president, general counsel and chief compliance officer, replacing Laureen Seeger, who has joined American Express. Schechter will oversee McKesson’s general counsel organization, which consists of the law, public affairs, compliance and corporate secretarial functions for the company and its subsidiaries. She is also joining McKesson’s executive committee.

Schechter has served as McKesson’s associate general counsel since 2012. Previously, she was a litigation partner at Morrison & Foerster where she represented clients in complex litigation and investigations and served for four years as chair of the 500-lawyer global litigation department. She was named by the National Law Journal as one of the top 50 female litigators in the country. She received her bachelor’s degree from Cornell University in 1983 and her JD from Yale Law School in 1987.

Kristin Coleman
Sears Holdings

6) Kristin Coleman has been named as Sears Holdings’ new senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary.

Coleman previously served as vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary of Brunswick Corp, a manufacturer of marine and fitness equipment, bowling and billiards accessories and other products. Prior to Brunswick, she was a vice president and associate general counsel at Mead Johnson Nutrition Company. Coleman has also been an attorney at Sidley Austin. She earned her undergraduate degree from Duke University and graduated from the University of Michigan Law School.

Bess Joffe
TIAA-CREF

7) TIAA-CREF, a financial services provider with $569 billion in assets under management (as of 3/31/14), has appointed Bess Joffe as managing director of corporate governance, effective August 4. She will report to Jonathan Feigelson, senior managing director, general counsel and head of corporate governance, and will be based in London. Joffe will help lead, shape and drive the company’s corporate governance program and policies, including active ownership, public advocacy, thought leadership and proxy voting.  

Joffe most recently served as a vice president in investor relations at Goldman Sachs, where she led outreach to institutional shareholders on corporate governance policies and practices. Before joining Goldman Sachs in 2010, she was an associate director at Hermes Equity Ownership Services in London, a fund management company owned by the BT Pension Scheme, where she led corporate governance engagements for client holdings in the Americas.

She is a Canadian qualified lawyer from the University of Toronto and has worked in corporate and securities law at Stikeman Elliott, as well as at Fairvest in Toronto (now ISS Canada), and PIRC, a UK-based proxy research and advisory firm. She earned a bachelor’s degree from McGill University in Montreal.