Ben Maiden and Ben Ashwell

Rishi Varma will join Cargill later this month 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…

Mike Carr will be promoted to succeed Matthew Hamel Matthew Hamel, executive vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary of Brown‑Forman Corporation, home to alcoholic drinks brands such as Jack Daniel’s, Woodford Reserve and Coopers’ Craft, will retire from the company on May 1. Mike Carr, who is at present vice president and associate general counsel for regional and corporate development at Brown‑Forman, will succeed Hamel at that time. Hamel joined the company in 2007. During his tenure as general counsel, he has led Brown‐Forman’s legal, compliance, risk and public affairs teams, overseeing activities related to corporate governance, regulatory compliance,…

Mark Shelton succeeds David Phelan in the role State Street Corporation has appointed Mark Shelton as executive vice president and general counsel, reporting to CEO and chair Ron O’Hanley. Shelton succeeds David Phelan, who announced his retirement last year. Shelton joins State Street from Barclays International where he was general counsel, a role in which he oversaw legal services related to client transactions and trading in addition to cross-border regulatory compliance, data security, privacy and ESG strategy. According to his LinkedIn profile, before moving to Barclays Shelton was co-chair of the financial institutions group at law firm Gibson Dunn &…

Georgia Magno has been with the company since 2010 Just 17 European companies put their climate plans to a vote in 2023, a drop from 36 the previous year, according to new research. The idea of putting a climate strategy up for shareholder approval – so called say-on-climate votes – emerged in 2020, with a number of companies offering investors the opportunity to vote on their forward-looking climate strategies across the following years. But it appears the trend receded last year, with just 17 such resolutions recorded in Europe, despite the region being typically more supportive of the idea. France,…

Horacio Gutierrez also changes title The Walt Disney Company’s top lawyer, Horacio Gutierrez, has agreed to extend his time with the company. Gutierrez has been Disney’s senior executive vice president, general counsel and chief compliance officer since February 2022. According to an SEC filing made late last month, his employment agreement has been extended to December 31, 2026. The original expiration date could not be determined immediately. As part of the amended agreement, his title has been changed to senior executive vice president, chief legal and compliance officer. He will continue to report solely and directly to the company’s CEO,…

Beth Collins has also worked at Caterpillar and the DoJ Beth Collins has joined Walmart as senior vice president and chief counsel for regulatory and specialty legal. In a Walmart notice to employees, Rachel Brand, executive vice president for global governance, chief legal officer and corporate secretary, says Collins will lead members of Walmart’s legal team specializing in health and wellness, financial services, labor and employment, antitrust and regulatory specialties such as environmental health & safety, trade, food safety, product safety and alcohol, tobacco, firearms and explosives. According to her LinkedIn profile, Collins was previously senior vice president, general counsel…

Patricia Walsh had been announced as taking on the role but decided to stay at Stripe, according to AIG – Reuters (paywall) reported that activist investor Elliott Investment Management said it was ready to nominate directors at Crown Castle International and push for the removal of the company’s executives and board members. The hedge fund firm said in a letter that the company needs ‘comprehensive leadership change’ and that it was ready to appeal to other shareholders to make changes to the 12-member board. It also wants the company to review its fiber strategy, including considering a possible sale of…