Appointments: May 2013

Nordson
Nordson has announced the appointment of Gina Beredo to the post of deputy general counsel and assistant secretary in the company’s law department. Nordson engineers, manufactures and markets differentiated products and systems used for dispensing and processing adhesives, coatings, plastics, sealants, biomaterials, fluids and other materials, testing and inspecting for quality, and treating surfaces.

Robert Veillette, Nordson corporate vice president, general counsel and secretary, says in a statement that Beredo’s strong background in commercial, employment, real estate, insurance and environmental law should provide the company with ‘valuable experience in product compliance, mergers and acquisitions, ethics and compliance and a wide variety of other legal areas’.

Prior to joining Nordson, Beredo held the position of chief litigation counsel and director of compliance and ethics with American Greetings, a designer, manufacturer and seller of greeting cards and other social expression products. She has also worked at the Cleveland-based law firm of BakerHostetler. 

Supervalu
Supervalu, one of the largest grocery wholesalers and retailers in the US, recently announced that Karla Robertson has been named executive vice president for legal. She replaces Todd Sheldon, executive vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary, who will stay through May, when Robertson will assume the additional roles and responsibilities held by Sheldon, including the title of executive vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary. In this role, Robertson will have responsibility for overseeing the legal, risk management and asset protection teams for the company as well as working closely with Supervalu’s non-executive chairman, Robert Miller, and the company’s 11-person board of directors.

Robertson joined Supervalu in July 2009 as senior labor and employment counsel and was later promoted to vice president of the employment, compensation and benefits law functions. Prior to Supervalu, she served as senior counsel with Target and was an associate attorney at Faegre & Benson, where she practiced in both the employment and business litigation areas.

The Main Street America Group
The Main Street America Group, the super-regional property/casualty insurance company, has appointed two new assistant secretaries. Nancy Palmisano has been named assistant secretary and director, state filings, and Michele Seymour has been named assistant secretary and director, compensation and benefits.

Palmisano heads up Main Street’s state filings function. She is responsible for ensuring that the company is in compliance with applicable state regulatory requirements, particularly in connection with market conduct exams and other regulatory audits. Additionally, she oversees Main Street’s product filings in all states where the company conducts business.

Palmisano joined Main Street in 1994 as a customer service manager in its Information Systems and Services subsidiary. Her other roles at the company have included senior personal lines product analyst, lead personal lines product analyst, manager of state filings and compliance manager. Palmisano was promoted to her current position as director of state filings in 2009. 

Seymour oversees Main Street’s compensation and benefits function. She is responsible for planning, directing and managing the analysis, development and implementation of the company’s compensation, benefits and human resources information systems programs. Additionally, she oversees the administration of several departmental functions including payroll, compensation and benefits.

Seymour joined Main Street in 2002 as manager, compensation and benefits. She held this role until being promoted to director, compensation and benefits, in 2012.

Validus Holdings
Validus Holdings, a provider of reinsurance, insurance and insurance-linked securities management, has announced that Romel Salam has been promoted to executive vice president and group chief risk officer. He will report to John Hendrickson, Validus’ director of strategy, risk management and corporate development.

Salam has nearly 25 years of industry experience, most recently serving as chief actuary and chief risk officer of Validus Reinsurance. Prior to joining Validus Reinsurance in 2010, he was a senior vice president at Transatlantic Reinsurance, where he spent 20 years in positions of increasing responsibility. He is a fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society and a member of the American Academy of Actuaries.

Health Diagnostic Laboratory
Health Diagnostic Laboratory (HDL) has named Douglas Sbertoli of law firm LeClairRyan as vice president and corporate counsel of the growing health management and advanced testing company.

Sbertoli has practiced securities, corporate and public finance and business law since 1987. He has led the public finance practice group at LeClairRyan since 1993 and served on the management committee of the firm from 1999 until joining HDL. A graduate of the University of Virginia who earned a law degree at the College of William and Mary’s Marshall-Wythe School of Law, Sbertoli has advised public and private companies through mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures, real estate, environmental matters, securities offerings, and other business initiatives.

CATCo Investment Management
Judith Wynne has joined CATCo Investment Management, a Bermuda-based reinsurance-linked investment business, as group general counsel and company secretary. 

Wynne will report directly to Jason Bibb, CATCo’s chief operating officer and chief financial officer. She has a background in asset management, most recently serving as senior investment trust company secretary at Aberdeen Asset Management. A qualified solicitor and chartered company secretary, Wynne has more than two decades of experience in corporate governance, mergers and acquisitions, investments, and legal and compliance.

In this new role, Wynne will lead CATCo’s global legal, risk and compliance function, providing legal support to the board of directors and all business units globally, including human resources, sales, marketing, and product management and development, enhancing CATCo’s legal foundation.

In a press release, Bibb says: ‘As CATCo continues to expand its retrocessional customers and third-party service providers, it is imperative that the strength of CATCo’s legal counsel matches the expanded scope and objectives of the company’s operations. We are certain that Judith’s expertise across a variety of legal and corporate disciplines will help us achieve our corporate objectives.’

Annie's
Annie’s, a leading natural and organic food company, recently announced the appointment of Isobel Jones to the position of general counsel and secretary. Jones will serve as in-house legal counsel, managing legal and compliance matters and serving as a key member of Annie’s management team.

Jones will be based in the company’s Berkeley headquarters and will report directly to John Foraker, CEO of Annie’s. 

Prior to joining Annie’s, Jones most recently served as vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary of Peet’s Coffee & Tea, where she provided legal advice, guidance and support on corporate governance, securities compliance, employment and labor matters, litigation, contracts, intellectual property, investor relations, and other areas. From June 2003 to January 2012 she was associate general counsel at Del Monte Foods, where she was responsible for SEC reporting and compliance, corporate governance matters, mergers and acquisitions, support of the treasury and investor relations functions and other general corporate matters. She also spent ten years as an associate at a national law firm. 

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters
Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (GMCR), a leader in specialty coffee and coffee makers, has appointed Michael Degnan to the post of chief legal officer and corporate general counsel. 

Degnan, who has served as GMCR’s vice president and associate general counsel of operations since January 2011, replaces retiring chief legal officer, corporate general counsel and secretary Howard Malovany. 

Degnan originally came to GMCR through the acquisition of Keurig in 2006. He joined Keurig in 2004 as its corporate counsel, becoming vice president, corporate counsel and secretary in 2005 and adding the title of general counsel shortly thereafter. His experience prior to GMCR includes 11 years in private practice focused on general corporate and transactional law for Boston law firms Rich May and Craig and Macauley. Prior to earning his law degree in 1993, Degnan worked as a banking officer for Bank of New England. 

GMCR has also announced the appointment of Sonia Cudd as company secretary. Cudd, who has served as GMCR’s vice president and associate general counsel of corporate since April 2012, will continue to serve in that capacity while assuming additional responsibilities including secretary for the company.

Cudd’s experience includes 18 years of corporate, securities and governance practice with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, McCormick and the law firms Whiteford Taylor Preston and Blank Rome. She also served at the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance. Prior to earning her law degree, she worked as a financial analyst for Citicorp/Citibank.

RR Donnelley
Ron Schneider has joined RR Donnelley’s global capital markets group as director of corporate governance services.

Schneider will be responsible for providing thought leadership on emerging corporate governance, proxy and disclosure issues. He will work closely with RR Donnelley’s sales and service teams to assist clients on compliance issues critical to their success. His insight will be a key driver in the evolution of RR Donnelley’s market-leading compliance services offering.

Schneider has been involved with proxy solicitation and investor relations for over 30 years, is an active member of the Society of Corporate Secretaries and Governance Professionals and the National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI), and is a former director of NIRI’s New York chapter.