Univar hires new corporate secretary and general counsel

Jeffrey Carr

Univar has hired Jeffrey Carr as its new general counsel and corporate secretary, effective May 11. He will report to company chair, president and CEO Stephen Newlin and will be based in Downers Grove, Illinois.

According to a recent regulatory filing, Stephen Landsman, current executive vice president and general counsel of Univar, notified the company on March 1 that he would resign in order to accept a position with Syngenta as its head of M&A. Landsman has continued in his role to assist with the transition of Carr as his replacement but will soon leave Univar to complete his move, a spokesperson says.

According to Univar, Carr most recently served as president of ValoremNext, part of the ValoremGroup, a firm focused on changing the delivery of legal services. Nicole Nehama Auerbach of Valorem Law Group tells Corporate Secretary: ‘We are thrilled about this opportunity for Jeff. He’s a true visionary…We look forward to hopefully working with him in the future.’

Earlier in his career, Carr spent more than a decade as general counsel and secretary of FMC Technologies, a manufacturing company serving the energy, air transport and food processing industries. In that role, he was responsible for the oversight of governance, regulatory, compliance, commercial, litigation, securities and other corporate matters.

Univar is a global chemical and ingredients distributor and service provider operating hundreds of distribution facilities in North America, Western Europe, the Asia-Pacific region and Latin America.

‘Jeff’s comprehensive record of accomplishment as a general counsel in industry will be a tremendous asset to Univar,’ Newlin says in a statement. ‘Jeff has demonstrated the ability to deliver legal compliance services efficiently and effectively, all while acting as a key support resource for corporate business teams.’