People

Kristina Fink was previously corporate secretary and chief governance officer at the financial services firm Voting at Centene Corporation’s recent AGM has shown significant investor support for a proposal asking the Fortune 500 healthcare company to set science-based goals for tackling climate change and adopt a transition plan. The proposal, filed by John Chevedden, secured 36.1 percent of the votes cast at the May 14 meeting – short of a majority but a level of support governance professionals widely view as significant. The resolution asks Centene to ‘issue near and long-term science-based greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction targets aligned with the…

Company to split top governance and legal role Governance Intelligence has released details of its 2024 Corporate Governance Awards and is now accepting nominations, which are due by July 26. The 17th Corporate Governance Awards will be presented at a gala ceremony in New York on Thursday, November 7. The awards celebrate outstanding achievements by the governance profession in areas such as hosting AGMs, compliance and ethics programs, ESG reporting, entity management, use of technology, proxy statements, investor engagement, corporate transactions, board assessments, director training and education and outstanding work by an independent director.Entries can be submitted – free of…

Anne Robinson succeeds Michelle Browdy, who is retiring IBM has hired Anne Robinson as senior vice president and chief legal officer, effective July 1. Robinson will join IBM from Vanguard, where she has been general counsel and secretary of the Vanguard funds since 2016. In that role she has led Vanguard’s global public policy, legal, compliance and investment stewardship functions. She will succeed Michelle Browdy, who earlier this year told IBM she planned to retire from her role as senior vice president for legal and regulatory affairs and general counsel, a role she took up in 2015.Robinson was previously managing…

Heidi Chen has been with the company and its former parent Pfizer for more than two decades Zoetis has announced in an SEC filing that Heidi Chen has stepped down as executive vice president, general counsel & corporate secretary and business lead of human health diagnostics, effective April 16. The filing states that Chen will continue as an employee adviser of the company until July 16 this year, after which it is anticipated she will be a non-employee consultant. According to her LinkedIn profile, Chen has been with Zoetis for almost 12 years. She took up her most recent position…

Hope Jarkowski succeeds Keir Gumbs, who joined Edward Jones as general counsel late last year Broadridge Financial Solutions has recruited Hope Jarkowski to become its new chief legal officer (CLO), effective May 6. She will join Broadridge from the NYSE, where she has been general counsel since 2022. Jarkowski succeeds Keir Gumbs, who was Broadridge’s CLO until November 2023 when he joined Edward Jones as general counsel to lead the firm’s legal and compliance teams. Before becoming NYSE general counsel, Jarkowski was head of equities for the exchange, with responsibility for strategy, product development and relationship management across the NYSE’s…

Colleen Batcheler has been with the car rental company since 2022 Almost half of companies are putting more resources toward their governance work preparing for proxy season, with very few dialing back, according to a new online poll from Governance Intelligence. In recent years, the governance work done in preparation for shareholder meetings has come into greater focus among investors and other stakeholders. That work ranges from shareholder engagement and writing the proxy statement to planning the AGM itself. The increasing attention has arisen in part due to the growing numbers of ESG-related shareholder proposals as well as high-profile shareholder…

Kellye Walker joining from Eastman Chemical Company Deere & Company, also known as John Deere, has hired Kellye Walker as senior vice president, chief legal officer (CLO) and head of worldwide public affairs, effective April 29. Walker will succeed Mary Jones, who has announced her intention to retire later this year, as the company’s general counsel. She will be responsible for the company’s global law and patent departments and will oversee its public affairs and environmental, health and safety functions. According to her LinkedIn profile, Jones has been with Deere & Company for almost 27 years and in her current…

Michaune Tillman was previously general counsel and corporate secretary at Worthington Steel NYSE-listed Corning has recruited Michaune Tillman as senior vice president and general counsel. Tillman most recently was general counsel and corporate secretary at Worthington Steel. According to her LinkedIn profile, she was previously general counsel at Worthington Steel Processing and, before that, spent six years as general counsel and vice president for human resources and compliance at Worthington Armstrong Venture. Across these roles, Tillman was responsible for corporate governance, compliance, litigation, commercial transactions, antitrust, environmental health and safety, cyber-security, data privacy, import/export, labor and employment and intellectual property…

Paul Washington is a former lifetime achievement award winner at the Corporate Governance Awards The Society for Corporate Governance has appointed Paul Washington as its new president and CEO, effective April 15. Washington most recently was executive director of the ESG Center at The Conference Board. In that role he led the think tank in addressing a variety of corporate governance, sustainability and corporate citizenship issues. He was previously senior vice president, deputy general counsel and corporate secretary at Time Warner from 2006 to 2018, having also held several other senior roles in the firm’s corporate legal department. During his…