Latest personnel moves at JPMorgan, SNC-Lavalin and PetroQuest
1) Carl Sottosanti has been promoted to senior vice president and general counsel at Penn National Gaming, succeeding Jordan Savitch, who had served as senior vice president and general counsel since 2002.
With 25 years of legal and business experience, Sottosanti will oversee all of Penn National’s legal and regulatory affairs. As deputy general counsel and vice president of legal and business affairs at the company since 2003, he was responsibility for development opportunities, mergers and acquisitions, commercial transactions, corporate governance matters and labor and employment issues.
Before joining Penn National, Sottosanti served for five years as general counsel at Sanchez Computer Associates, an international provider of banking software that was subsequently acquired. He also served from 1994 to 1998 as assistant general counsel for Salient 3 Communications, a diversified telecommunications holding company. He began his legal career in 1989 at the Philadelphia law firm Schnader Harrison, where spent five years as an associate.
2) SNC-Lavalin has hired David Wilkins as its chief compliance officer, to succeed current CCO Andreas Pohlmann, effective June 1, 2014, after a comprehensive transition period. After working closely with Wilkins to ensure the company’s continuing dedication to ethics and compliance excellence, Pohlmann will move into a consulting role, focusing on SNC-Lavalin’s ongoing World Bank compliance initiatives.
As CCO, Wilkins will report to group president and CEO Robert Card.
Wilkins has led the ethics and compliance program at Dow Chemical since 2008 and before that he served as general counsel of Dow’s wholly owned subsidiary, Union Carbide, and as vice-president and chief diversity officer of the American Red Cross.
‘With such high-caliber individuals joining forces, our goal of becoming a reference for ethics and compliance excellence in our sector is closer than ever,’ Card said. ‘David’s experience with Dow makes him a great match for an organization of SNC-Lavalin’s size and ambitions. We are extremely pleased to have him on board.’
3) JPMorgan Chase has confirmed that Chief Compliance Officer Cindy Armine left the company during the week of February 24 after a year in her position. Lou Rauchenberger, JPMorgan’s chief administrative officer, has been named as interim replacement, according to a staff memo from Chief Operating Officer Matt Zames, as reported by Bloomberg News.
According to a Wall Street Journal story published on February 26, Armine is moving to First Data Corp., the payment processor run by former JPMorgan executive Frank Bisignano, who left the investment bank last year when CEO Jamie Dimon named Zames sole chief operating officer. Bisignano hired JPMorgan’s former Chief Information Officer Guy Chiarello as president last year, according to the Journal story.
First Data would not comment on whether Armine has joined the company or not.
4) Edward Abels, Jr. has been named general counsel and corporate secretary at PetroQuest Energy, an independent energy company engaged in the exploration, development, acquisition and production of oil and natural gas reserves. Prior to joining PetroQuest, Abels acted as general counsel for Texas Crude Energy, was a shareholder at law firm Greenberg Traurig and held various in-house counsel positions at Statoil Gulf of Mexico, Union Oil Company of California and KN Energy.
5) Liquid Nutrition Group has announced the appointment of My Linh Lam as its corporate secretary, replacing Mathieu Gendron in the role. Lam has served as comptroller of the company since December 2013. She holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Concordia.
Liquid Nutrition Group is a growing hybrid retailer of functional beverages, fresh pressed juices, vitamins and supplements. Through its wholly owned subsidiary, Liquid Nutrition Franchising, it currently has franchise agreements for 14 stores in Canada and the US, as well as license agreements in the Bahamas and Middle East.
6) Sandra Quick has joined Meritor as senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary. She will be responsible for the automobile components manufacturer’s legal affairs and will manage the corporate legal department. In addition, Quick will direct legal activities related to corporate governance, acquisitions and divestitures, litigation, business standards compliance, regulatory compliance and intellectual property.
As a strong advocate of employee development and corporate diversity, she will also be a co-executive sponsor of the company’s Women’s Business Resource Group and will continue its efforts to advance and empower women at Meritor.
Quick was formerly group vice president and general counsel for the electronics and interiors division of Johnson Controls. Prior to that she served as vice president and general counsel for the North and South American operations of Johnson Controls’ Automotive Experience Group. She has also served as vice president, general counsel and secretary at Toyoda Gosei North America.
