Appointments: October 2014

1) Castleton Commodities International has appointed Michael Goldstein as general counsel and corporate secretary.

Goldstein has been a commodity merchant executive for over 20 years. Before joining CCI in October 2014, he was the head of policy and strategy at JP Morgan Global Commodities. He also served as general counsel of RBS Sempra Energy for more than a decade and went on to serve as co-chief executive officer there. In 2011, when Societe Generale entered the North American natural gas and power trading business, Goldstein served as its co-CEO. Prior to the trading business, he was a corporate attorney at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.

Goldstein earned his JD from Emory University and has a Master’s from the Columbia University School of International Affairs. He also has a BA in English and International Affairs from Bucknell University.

Mary Francis

2) Chevron Corp has named Mary Francis as corporate secretary and chief governance officer, effective May 1, 2015.  Francis will assume the transitional position of deputy corporate secretary on December 1, 2014. She will succeed Lydia Beebe, who will retire on April 30 after 37 years with the from the global oil and gas company.

Chairman and CEO John Watson praised Beebe for providing exceptional leadership for 20 years on corporate governance issues and for her ‘vital role in helping the company implement processes to comply with new regulations, including Sarbanes-Oxley and Dodd-Frank.’  

Francis joined Chevron in 2002 as a trademark senior counsel. Between 2005 and 2009 she was lead senior counsel in Chevron Shipping Company and managing counsel of Pipeline and Shipping in Global Gas before being named general counsel for Chevron Asia Pacific in 2009. She has been chief corporate counsel since 2012.

Francis has a BA from Mount Holyoke College, a MBA from the UC Berkeley and a JD from the College of William and Mary.

Carey Roberts

3) Marsh & McLennan Companies has appointed Carey Roberts as deputy general counsel and corporate secretary. She will report to Peter J Beshar, executive vice president and general counsel.

Roberts has worked at Covington & Burling LLP for the past 17 years, becoming a partner in the corporate department in 2005. At Covington, Roberts advised a broad range of public and private companies on securities, finance, general corporate, regulatory, employee compensation and benefits, and intellectual property matters.

Roberts received her BA from The University of Chicago and her JD from The George Washington University Law School, both with honors.

Tony West

4) Former US Associate Attorney General Tony West has joined PepsiCo as executive vice president of government affairs, general counsel and corporate secretary, effective November 24, and will report to Chairman and CEO Indra Nooyi. West succeeds Larry Thompson, who is retiring after almost a decade of service.

Thompson served as PepsiCo's EVP of government affairs, GC and corporate secretary since June 2012. Nooyi said his ‘deep knowledge of the legal and regulatory environment, his unwavering sense of ethics and integrity, and his burning passion for our business’ have made ‘a lasting impact on PepsiCo.’

West has more than 20 years of experience in the public and private sectors. As Associate AG, he led the Justice Department’s efforts to protect Americans' civil rights, assist homeowners hurt by the financial crisis and secure access to criminal and civil legal aid regardless of income.

West previously was Assistant AG for the civil division, DOJ's largest litigating component. Earlier in his career, West was an Assistant US Attorney in the Northern District of California and also spent time as a state Special Assistant AG in California. He was also a litigation partner at Morrison & Foerster.

West graduated with honors from Harvard College, where he served as publisher of the Harvard Political Review, and received his law degree from Stanford Law School, where he was elected president of the Stanford Law Review.

Jill Gilmer

5) Zep, a leading consumable chemical packaged goods company has promoted Valerie Barney to vice president and chief legal officer and has also promoted Jill Gilmer to corporate secretary.

Barney joined Zep in 2012 as associate general counsel. Previously, she was an associate attorney at Hunton & Williams, where she was Zep’s external legal partner. She received her BA and JD from Georgia State University.

Gilmer joined the company in 2002 as assistant corporate secretary and has served as administrator of Zep’s director and executive benefit plans, assisting with the company’s investor relations’ program and serving as liaison to the company’s institutional investors on various governance related matters. She expects to receive a Master’s in Jurisprudence with a focus on Corporate Governance in spring 2015.

6) Xylem, a global water technology company, has appointed Claudia Toussaint as senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary, effective October 29. She will report directly to President and CEO Patrick Decker and her nomination to become a corporate officer of Xylem will be presented to the company's board of directors on October 15, 2014.

Toussaint has served as senior vice president, GC and secretary of the Barnes Group, an international industrial and aerospace manufacturer and service provider, for more than four years. Prior to that, she was GC, corporate secretary and chief ethics officer at Embarq before its acquisition by CenturyLink. She started her career as a transactional attorney at Morrison & Foerster.

Toussaint received her BA in Economics from UC Los Angeles and her JD from UC Hastings College of the Law.