Kirsten Hewitt, senior vice president, chief legal officer (CLO) and executive committee member with NYSE-listed Whirlpool Corporation, plans to retire having spent almost 25 years with the company. Whirlpool has recruited Ava Harter as her successor.
Harter will join the kitchen and laundry appliance company as senior vice president and CLO, effective December 1. She will be a member of the executive committee and report to chair and CEO Marc Bitzer.
Harter joins Whirlpool from Owens Corning, where she has been senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary since 2015. During her time at Owens Corning, she oversaw global legal operations, government affairs and corporate affairs for the company. Before that she was general counsel and chief compliance officer for Taleris America.
Earlier in her career, Harter worked at General Electric, The Dow Chemical Company and law firms Jones Day and Thompson Hine.
Hewitt joined Whirlpool as legal counsel in 1996. She was promoted to group counsel in 2004, to vice president and associate general counsel for North America in 2007 and to vice president and associate general counsel for international and global product organization in 2011. She became senior vice president of corporate affairs and general counsel of the company the same year. Before joining Whirlpool, Hewitt was a commercial litigator with law firm Mayer Brown.
During her time with Whirlpool, Hewitt and her team enabled some of the company’s most important acquisitions and divestitures, such as the Maytag, Indesit and Hefei Sanyo brands.
‘I am grateful for Kirsten’s 25-year career at Whirlpool Corporation and the indelible mark she has made on our organization,’ Bitzer says in a statement. ‘Kirsten created a lasting impact through the company’s values-driven culture. She has cultivated a legacy by exemplifying our enduring values and we wish her the very best as she begins her next adventure.
‘We are excited to welcome Ava to Whirlpool Corporation. [She] brings her deep legal experience and extensive global leadership to the company, and we all look forward to working closely with her in the future.’
Ben Maiden
Ben Maiden is the editor-at-large of Governance Intelligence, an IR Media publication, having joined the company in December 2016. He is based in New York. Ben was previously managing editor of Compliance Reporter, covering regulatory and compliance...
