Cargill hires HPE general counsel

Cargill has hired Rishi Varma as corporate senior vice president, chief legal and compliance officer, general counsel and corporate secretary, effective January 29.

He will succeed Anna Richo, who will become corporate senior vice president and strategic adviser to the general counsel and CEO until her retirement in September.

Varma is joining Cargill from Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) where he is senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary. During his 11 years at HPE, he has overseen corporate governance, M&A, commercial contracting, supply-chain matters, litigation, intellectual property and corporate securities. He also played a key role in the legal separation of Hewlett Packard Company into HPE and HP.

During his tenure, HPE has won a series of honors at Governance Intelligence’s Corporate Governance Awards. At the most recent ceremony in November 2023, for example, HPE was named governance team of the year (large cap) and took home the prize for best AGM.
 

Before joining Hewlett Packard Company, Varma was general counsel at petrochemical company TPC Group, and previously general counsel at Trico Marine Services, a subsea service provider. During his time at Trico he also held additional management roles, including COO and president.

Richo joined Cargill in January 2019 as corporate senior vice president, general counsel, chief compliance officer and corporate secretary. In her role she oversees corporate governance, global ethics and compliance, global security, government relations, law and shareholder relations. She is a member of Cargill’s executive team and a member of the board of the Cargill Foundation.

Before joining Cargill, Richo was executive vice president and general Counsel at UCB, a biopharmaceutical company based in Belgium. She was previously senior vice president and chief compliance officer at Amgen and chief litigation counsel, associate general counsel and vice president of law at Baxter Healthcare.

Brian Sikes, Cargill board chair, president and CEO, says in a statement: ‘We are thrilled to welcome Rishi, a highly respected attorney and business leader, to Cargill. His commitment to operational excellence and ensuring this is achieved in compliance with the highest legal and ethical standards builds on our strong culture of integrity.

‘We will miss Anna’s contributions and leadership. [She] led with purpose and passion to transform and integrate our legal, compliance, government relations, corporate governance, security and shareholder relations functions to operate with a strong focus on the customer. Her contributions strengthened our diverse and inclusive culture and will leave a lasting mark on the company.’