Appointments: May 2015

David Robinson

1) David Robinson has been named as executive vice president and general counsel for The Hartford, effective June 1. He succeeds Alan Kreczko who has been executive vice president and general counsel since June 2007.

Robinson joined the insurance and financial services company in 2006.  He has held numerous roles there, including leading the company’s legal efforts in property & casualty and group benefits, overseeing corporate law and serving as corporate secretary. Most recently, he drove The Hartford’s restructuring and transformation efforts.

Before joining The Hartford, Robinson served as deputy general counsel and in several other roles at Chubb. He has a background in commercial litigation and is a member of the Board of Overseers of the RAND Corporation Institute for Civil Justice. He received his bachelor’s degree from Wesleyan University and his JD magna cum laude from Cornell Law School. He also holds a master’s degree in accounting. He is admitted to practice in Connecticut.

Thomas Evans

2) Kemper Corp has appointed Thomas Evans as general counsel and Nan Hoff as deputy general counsel. Evans will report to chairman, president and CEO Donald Southwell, while Hoff will report to Evans. Former general counsel Scott Renwick will retire at the end of June.

Evans joined the insurer’s legal department in 1992 and has been associate general counsel and secretary since 2011. Prior to Kemper, he was a corporate litigator with Winston & Strawn. He earned his BA at Centre College and JD from the University of Notre Dame. He is a member of the Illinois Bar.

Hoff joined the company in 2004. Prior to joining Kemper, she was assistant general counsel at APAC Customer Services and counsel at FMC Corp. Hoff earned her BS and JD from University of Illinois, Champaign. She is also a member of the Illinois Bar.

3) Damien Atkins has been named general counsel and corporate secretary of Panasonic Corp of North America. He succeeds Robert Marin, who is retiring after nearly 40 years at the company, including more than 23 years as chief legal advisor.

Atkins joins Panasonic from AOL, where he served as senior vice president, deputy general counsel and chief compliance officer.  He earned his undergraduate degree from Stanford University and graduated from New York University School of Law.

Welcoming Atkins to Panasonic’s management team in a statement, Chairman and CEO Joseph Taylor said that his ‘expertise in leading mergers & acquisitions activities, managing corporate governance, and ensuring legal compliance in a global brand company aligns well with Panasonic's plan to grow significantly as a provider of diverse technology solutions for business.’

Joanne Raphael

4) PPL Corp has appointed Joanne Raphael, a 27-year veteran of the company, as senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary. She succeeds Robert Grey, who plans to retire on January 31, 2016. Grey, who has been PPL’s general counsel for two decades, will serve as executive vice president and chief legal officer until his retirement.

Raphael, who most recently was the electric and natural gas utility’s senior vice president and chief external affairs officer, has led the government relations and communications functions since 1998. She joined PPL in 1988 as an attorney in the general counsel’s office and served in various legal roles, including deputy general counsel, before assuming her external affairs role. Prior to PPL, Raphael was an associate in the Philadelphia office of Morgan Lewis & Bockius.

She serves on the boards of Team Pennsylvania Foundation, the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry, the Pennsylvanians for Effective Government's Political Action Committee and the United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley.

Raphael earned a bachelor's degree in economics and political science from Wellesley College and a law degree from Stanford Law School, where she served as note editor of the Stanford Law Review.

Laurie Harrison

5) Laurie Harrison has been appointed as vice president, general counsel and secretary at Shutterstock, a major global provider of commercial digital imagery and music.

Before joining Shutterstock, Harrison served as vice president and senior counsel, corporate affairs for multiline property and casualty insurer ACE Group. Prior to that, she spent nearly seven years as deputy general counsel at EnerNOC, a provider of energy intelligence software.

In addition to her time as in-house counsel, Harrison practiced general corporate and securities law for seven years at WilmerHale in Boston.  Laurie has a JD from Northeastern University School of Law and a B.A. from Georgetown University.

6) Silver Bear Resources has named Judith Webster as corporate secretary and investor relations manager, following the resignation of Brianna Davis.

Webster is a geologist with more than 25 years of experience in the mining industry, 15 of which have been in the investor relations and corporate governance fields. She has held senior level roles as IRO for many publicly listed and dual listed companies, including AXMIN, Guinor Gold, and Pangea Goldfields. Previously, she served as senior account manager for Barnes Organization, a Canadian IPO and IR Consulting firm, and senior geologist for MPH Consulting, a geological and engineering consulting firm.

Webster has extensive experience in corporate communications, stakeholder development, public offerings, private placement financings and corporate governance matters. She holds a BSc Geology from McMaster University, Canada.