AutoNation, America's largest automotive retailer, today announced the appointment of Coleman Edmunds to the position of Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. Coleman will serve as a member of the Executive Committee and report directly to Mike Jackson, AutoNation's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Mr Coleman joined AutoNation's legal department in 1996. From 2000 until his recent appointment to acting General Counsel, Coleman served as Deputy General Counsel. His areas of legal responsibility and expertise include securities, mergers and acquisitions, commercial transactions, manufacturer relations, government relations, litigation and compliance. Prior to joining AutoNation, Coleman was in private practice with the international law firm of Baker & McKenzie. 

HarbourVest Partners, a global private markets asset manager, has appointed Paula Drake as managing director and general counsel. Ms Drake will oversee all aspects of HarbourVest’s legal and compliance functions across the globe. Prior to joining HarbourVest, Ms Drake most recently served as managing director, global chief compliance officer and chief regulatory officer for Och-Ziff Capital Management Group, where she developed and led the overall compliance strategy for the firm’s global operations. Previously, Ms Drake was Associate Director, Chief Counsel, and Chief Compliance Officer for the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s Office of Compliance, Inspections, and Examinations (OCIE). Prior to that, she served as General Counsel and Chief Operating Officer for Oechsle International Advisors from 1996 to 2012, assuming the latter position in 2008. HarbourVest is an independent, global private markets asset manager with 35 years of experience and more than $40 billion in assets under management. The 

New Jersey pharma companyTeligent has appointed Martin Wilson as its General Counsel. Mr Wilson served as the Vice President and Assistant General Counsel for Endo Pharmaceuticals' generic arm, Par Pharmaceutical, a position he held for 18 months following the acquisition of Par by Endo in September of 2015.  Mr. Wilson was with Par for over 11 years prior to Endo's acquisition and served in a number of roles, most recently as Chief Compliance Officer.  

Pillarstone, an investment platform set up by US private equity giant KKR, has appointed  its first general counsel. Mark Knight joins the company from the London office of Kirkland & Ellis. He was previously seconded to the company which specialises on turning around underperforming and non-core European bank assets.  Mr Knight  had been at Kirkland since 2008 after joining from DLA Piper. 

Sean Major has been appointed executive vice president and general counsel  of Air Products from 1 May. Mr Major will be appointed as an executive officer of the company, reporting to Chairman, President and CEO Seifi Ghasemi and will assume the Company's GC responsibilities from Mary Afflerbach, vice president, corporate secretary and chief governance officer, who has been serving as the Company's GC on an interim basis. Major will be based in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Major joins Air Products from Joy Global, where he served as executive vice president, general counsel and secretary since 2007. Prior to Joy Global, Major served for nine years in roles of increasing legal responsibility with Johnson Controls, including as general counsel—Asia, and as vice president and general counsel—International. He began his in-house career with Abbott Laboratories as counsel—International after working for seven years in private practice with law firms in Chicago and Tokyo.