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Omiyinka Doris steps aside as Vitaly Shmakov takes over as general counsel at Veon
Outgoing corporate secretary will stay on as strategic advisor Another week, another SEC update. This time, the regulator has confirmed that it will take a deep look at executive compensation disclosure requirements, starting with a roundtable later this month. The SEC, never one to let a disclosure rule gather dust, has decided it’s time to revisit the question of how – and how much – companies tell us about what they pay the people in charge. On June 26, the agency will gather an assortment of company reps, compensation advisers, lawyers and investors at its Washington HQ for a roundtable…
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Executive compensation disclosures are back on the (round) table
SEC asks whether rules are a compliance headache Firearm maker Sturm, Ruger has promoted its vice president of administration to take over as its vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary. Sarah Colbert will succeed current general counsel Kevin Reid, who is retiring after serving in the role since 2008. As a vice president, Colbert will maintain her role on Sturm, Ruger’s leadership team, a position she has held since June 2017. In this capacity, she will continue to help shape strategic decisions and guide cross-functional collaboration across the company, according to a press release. She will also take on…
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Sturm, Ruger loads Sarah Colbert into new role as general counsel and corporate secretary
She will succeed current general counsel Kevin Reid, who is retiring Dubai-based telecoms company Veon has appointed Vitaly Shmakov as its acting general counsel, replacing the outgoing Omiyinka Doris. The firm, which is listed on the Nasdaq and was formerly traded on the Euronext Amsterdam exchange, said that Doris had chosen to step aside from her role as of July 1, but would continue as a strategic advisor to the group’s CEO. She joined Veon in 2015 and has served in various legal and capital markets roles. Doris ‘played a pivotal role in steering Veon to sustained success’ at a…
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The week in GRC: Most legal chiefs and C-suite leaders want to maintain or expand DEI plans, survey finds
This week’s governance, compliance and risk-management stories from around the web – The majority of top executives across corporate America believe that companies should maintain – or even expand – initiatives to promote DEI, despite the government’s executive orders designed to compel them to do the opposite. Forbes reported that a new survey conducted by Catalyst, a consultancy focused on creating inclusive workspaces, in conjunction with the NYU School of Law’s Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging, found that 83 percent of C-suite leaders and 88 percent of legal leaders believe maintaining or expanding DEI is essential to mitigating…
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Starbucks orders up a new legal chief as Brad Lerman set to leave
Current CLO is due to depart ‘in the coming months’, according to an SEC filing Our more eagle-eyed readers may have seen that the SEC’s Investor Advisory Committee met again earlier this week, meeting for a series of discussion panels tackling several key issues facing the capital markets. Nestled among them was a panel addressing non-GAAP financial disclosures and another that examined the issue of pass-through voting and engagement with beneficial owners. The practice of pass-through voting refers to the process of investors having more of a say in how asset managers vote on the proxies of the companies that…
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Pass-through voting is in the SEC’s sights again, but what will change?
Regulator’s Investor Advisory Committee recently tackled the topic Coffee shop chain Starbucks will be searching for a new legal chief in the coming months after announcing it would be parting ways with current chief legal officer Brad Lerman. In an SEC filing, the company says that Lerman ‘would no longer serve’ in his role ‘as of a date to be determined’, but would continue to work as CLO until a successor was appointed. Lerman, who previously worked at medical device company Medtronic as general counsel before retiring in 2022, came out of retirement in April 2023 to become Starbucks’ CLO…
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Centrus Energy’s general counsel Shahram Ghasemian departs in management shake-up
Richard Emery steps in as acting general counsel as firm searches for replacement Shahram Ghasemian has stepped down from his position as senior vice president, general counsel, chief compliance officer and corporate secretary at Centrus Energy as part of a leadership shake-up. Following his departure, Richard Emery, who currently serves as the firm’s deputy general counsel and director of corporate compliance, will become acting general counsel, chief compliance officer and corporate secretary as the company finds a successor. Ghasemian will resign from his role on June 29 to pursue another opportunity, the NYSE-listed company says in an SEC filing. There…
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The sustainability Taliban, the eco right and why we need a new language for ESG: down the rabbit hole with Robert Eccles
How a liberal ex-hippy found common ground with conservatives in the increasingly polarized world of ESG When Robert Eccles wrote a piece calledGrift capitalism: The GOP’s brilliant strategy for ripping off ordinary Americans, it led to a challenge from a conservative friend of 20 years: if you can find a conservative that thinks sustainability is good for capital markets, will you stop ‘writing nasty stuff’ about Republicans? That led him to the position he speaks from today: a liberal ex-hippy who has found common ground with the so-called ‘eco right’. Eccles, a well-known author and lecturer who has been writing…
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The week in GRC: Ben & Jerry’s co-founder likens companies stepping down DEI policies as ‘appeasement’
This week’s governance, compliance and risk-management stories from around the web The week in GRC: Ben & Jerry’s co-founder likens companies stepping down DEI policies to ‘appeasement’ This week’s governance, compliance and risk-management stories from around the web – One of the co-founders of ice cream brand Ben & Jerry’s has said that corporate America’s retreat from adopting DEI policies under political pressure amounted to ‘appeasement’, the Financial Times reported (paywall). The often-outspoken Ben Cohen also said that consumers cared more than ever about corporate ‘purpose’, even as companies including Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and Walt Disney have scaled back diversity…
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Cross-party politics: new role for former Trump official at Microsoft as firm also hires Biden-era lawyer
CJ Mahoney and Lisa Monaco named to new roles at computer giant When’s the best time to start thinking about next year’s proxy season? If you ask the best-prepared corporate secretaries, that planning process starts as early as the end of the previous year’s, particularly if you have to rethink your process in any form. As the fulcrum of any company’s communication with shareholders and wider stakeholders, the proxy statement has evolved to become more than just a regulatory fulfilment: many of 2025’s proxy statements conveyed much more about a given organization’s purpose, message and strategy. And, as 2025’s proxy…