Appointments: October 2013

Zoetis, a former business unit of Pfizer, has announced the appointment of Louise Parent, former executive vice president and general counsel of American Express, to its board of directors. She will serve on the compensation committee of the board.

Parent has deep experience in corporate governance and board matters gained during her tenure with American Express, where she worked extensively with the audit, compensation, and nomination and governance committees in her role as general counsel. She has also served on the operating committee and global management team of American Express for the last 10 years, and as a member of the board of American Express Centurion Bank. In April she announced her retirement from American Express after a 36-year career with company.

As a well-respected general counsel and leader at American Express, Parent brings perspectives that will be crucial as Zoetis becomes a fully independent company and further establishes its reputation as the world leader in animal health. She will provide the Zoetis board with valuable global management and corporate governance experience based on her years supporting such efforts at American Express.
 

Union Bank has announced that senior banking industry attorney Michael Coyne has joined the company as senior executive vice president and general counsel for the bank and its holding company, UnionBanCal. He succeeds retiring senior executive vice president and general counsel Morris Hirsch. Coyne, who will be based in San Francisco, will serve on the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ’s (BTMU) Americas Holdings Executive Committee, the primary policy-making group for BTMU operations in the Americas. He will also serve as general counsel of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Americas Holdings, BTMU Americas Holdings, and BTMU’s Headquarters for the Americas, functioning as the senior legal officer for BTMU’s operations in the Americas, including Union Bank.

As general counsel, Coyne’s responsibilities will include legal support for UnionBanCal’s board of directors; oversight of all corporate litigation and government affairs functions; legal oversight of M&A, regulatory matters, securities and credit transactions; and all of the bank’s internal and external legal support. 

Prior to joining Union Bank, Coyne had a highly successful 21-year career at JPMorgan Chase in New York, most recently as senior vice president, associate general counsel and co-head of litigation. From 1992 to 2004, he was a senior litigation staff attorney. In 2004 he was appointed senior vice president, associate general counsel and co-head of investment banking litigation. In 2010 he became co-head of litigation, responsible for all litigation and governmental investigation matters affecting the bank’s businesses worldwide.

Coyne has also worked at Rogers & Wells, a New-York based international law firm, specializing in securities, corporate and commercial, and real estate cases. 
 

Fibrocell Science, an autologous cell therapy company focused on the development of innovative products for aesthetic, medical and scientific applications, has appointed Greg Weaver as chief financial officer, senior vice president, treasurer and corporate secretary of the company. Weaver replaces Declan Daly, who will leave the company to reside full-time in Ireland. Weaver and Daly will work side by side through November 2013 to assure a smooth financial leadership transition.

Weaver brings more than 30 years of strategic and financial management experience to Fibrocell, where he will be responsible for the company’s day-to-day financial operations at the corporate offices in Exton, Philadelphia. He joins Fibrocell from oncology drug company Celsion, where he served as chief financial officer after six years on the firm’s board of directors.

Prior to Celsion, Weaver served as CFO for biotechnology companies Poniard Pharmaceuticals, Talyst, Sirna Therapeutics, Nastech Pharmaceutical, Ilex Oncology and Prism Technologies, and consulted for many others. During his career he has managed corporate and situation-specific financing strategies, dramatically increased multiple market-cap valuations, and overseen multiple product and service revenue channels and manufacturing supply relationships.
 

General Electric (GE) has announced the appointment of Peter Lefkowitz as chief privacy counsel.

Lefkowitz joins GE from Oracle, where he served as vice president of privacy and security and chief privacy officer. In this role he worked closely with Oracle corporate security on privacy and security oversight and compliance. In addition, he advised Oracle’s internal business functions and product and services businesses on structuring and managing cloud services, responding to security incidents and maintaining required information protection systems, policies, standards, registrations and certifications.

Prior to joining Oracle in 1998, Lefkowitz clerked for the Honorable Robert Coyle, Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California. 
 

AeroVironment, a technology solutions provider that designs, develops, produces, and operates an advanced portfolio of unmanned aircraft systems and electric transportation solutions, has announced the appointment of Douglas Scott as senior vice president and general counsel.

Scott comes to AeroVironment with nearly 20 years of experience leading the legal department of SAIC, a diversified Fortune 500 company that provides high-tech services and solutions in the national security, engineering, health, energy and environmental markets. Most recently, he served as SAIC’s corporate secretary.

Scott’s legal experience includes government contracts, a wide range of international matters, intellectual property, M&A, divestitures and strategic transactions, litigation, and employment issues. As an SAIC executive, his scope of responsibilities included managing the internal audit and ethics and compliance departments.
 

Ted Botner has been promoted to manager of law and corporate secretary of Murphy Oil. Botner succeeds John Moore, who has resigned as manager of law and corporate secretary to assume his new role as senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary for Murphy USA.

Botner joined Murphy in 2001 as an attorney at the corporate headquarters in El Dorado, Arkansas. He held several positions within the law department before being promoted to commercial manager for Murphy Sarawak, and was transferred to Malaysia in 2005. He transferred to Houston as assistant to the president of Murphy Exploration & Production in 2006. In 2007 he was promoted to general manager, Malaysia, and in 2010 he returned to the law department of Murphy Oil in El Dorado as senior attorney.

In his new role, Botner will report to senior vice president and general counsel Walter Compton.
 

Forma Therapeutics, a pharmaceutical company that creates transformative small-molecule cancer therapies, has appointed Christopher Kirby to the position of general counsel. Kirby was most recently vice president and global head legal for the biosurgery and renal divisions at Sanofi.

Prior to joining Sanofi, Kirby practiced law at Ropes & Gray, where he advised private equity sponsors, biotechnology companies, academic medical centers and other healthcare providers on a range of corporate matters and financing transactions.

Forma Therapeutics says that in his previous role, Kirby advised senior management on strategic business objectives, clinical development and commercial launch readiness, personalized medicine initiatives, and compliance and training standards, all of which are ‘activities that align with Forma’s growth trajectory’.

Kirby also has experience as a corporate lawyer and business professional who has provided global oversight of legal services to corporate divisions marketing a dozen patient-tailored products, skills the company says can help build Forma into an integrated pharmaceutical company.
 

Nuverra Environmental Solutions, one of the largest companies in the US dedicated to the removal, treatment, recycling, transportation and disposal of restricted solids, fluids and hydrocarbons, has announced that Christopher Kevane will join the company as executive vice president, chief legal officer and corporate secretary. Before joining Nuverra, Kevane was senior vice president and general counsel at Rural/Metro. Prior to that, he was a corporate attorney at Clear Channel Outdoor. He began his career as an attorney in the finance and securities group of Squire Sanders & Dempsey, an international legal practice.
 

Cambium Networks, a leading provider of wireless broadband access and backhaul network solutions, has announced the addition of Steve McKenna to the senior management team as general counsel.

McKenna brings a deep understanding of international law to Cambium Networks, along with significant experience in intellectual property, commercial disputes, technology development, insurance and general business matters. Prior to joining Cambium, he was vice president and general counsel of Telmar Network Technology, a telecomms company with operations in the US, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, South America and Africa. In that role, he successfully built the company’s legal department while also managing all legal matters in the US and across 20 countries. He was also a member of Telmar’s leadership team and sat on the boards of its Indonesian and Malaysian subsidiaries. 

Prior to his work at Telmar, McKenna spent 15 years in a variety of legal and business roles, including commercial litigator for a prestigious Chicago firm, founder and chief executive of a successful technology company that was sold in 2011, and partner at a Chicago intellectual property firm. 

His appointment is the latest in a series of executive appointments that Cambium Networks has made this year to further the company’s evolution and bolster increased demand for its products worldwide.