In a triple move, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has named two general counsel, and given the chief legal officer another title. Lauren Bright and Keith Matthews have been named general counsel for different parts of the foundation. Prior to joining the foundation in 2005, Ms Bright counseled trade associations, professional societies, public charities, and other nonprofit organizations at Shaw Pittman LLP (currently Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman) on a broad portfolio of federal and state legal issues. Prior to joining the foundation, Mr Matthews was counsel at O’Melveny & Myers where he counseled private equity funds in a wide range of transactions, including growth equity and venture capital investments and mergers and acquisitions. Connie Collingsworth is now promoted to the role of chief legal and operating officer. Prior to joining the foundation in 2002, she was a partner and member of the executive committee of Preston Gates & Ellis (now known as K&L Gates), where her practice focused on corporate securities law and private equity investments.

Myers Industries chief legal officer has been moved into the interim ceo role, following the resignation of the chief executive of the Ohio-based plastics maker. Andrean Horton, the company’s executive vice president, chief legal officer (CLO) and secretary, is serving as interim president and ceo. According to Myers, the board will hire a global executive search firm to assist in identifying a new full-time holder of the position. Ms Horton joined the company as executive vice president, CLO and secretary in October 2018. She had previously spent eight years at A Schulman in legal positions including executive vice president, cloand secretary.

The holding company for MetaBank, Meta Financial Group has hired a new general counsel. Anthony Sharett is appointed executive vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary. Mr Sharett previously worked at Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company in a variety of legal and business leadership positions, including as general counsel and interim president for Nationwide Bank and as the president of Nationwide Pet Insurance.

In a high-porfile move, an international investment bank has hired a former US treasury department adviser as its new general counsel. Michael Strauss is due to join the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in January at its London headquarters.

ACI EUROPE longstanding general counsel, Gérard Borel has stepped down after a distinguished career in aviation law and policy. Mr Gérard’s 35-year career in aviation has seen him work in Montreal, Paris, London, Monaco and Brussels. Olivier Jankovec, director general, ACI EUROPE commented “Gérard’s contribution to the work of ACI EUROPE over the past 19 years is considerable and he has the admiration and gratitude of the whole industry for all he has done to advance the airport business, support our association in its mission and assist airports across the whole continent.” The role will now be taken up by Bastiaan de Bruijne, who joins from the Royal Schiphol Group, where he has been Competition & Regulation Counsel since 2017.

Louisiana-Pacific has appointed Nicole C Daniel as svp, general counsel and corporate secretary. Ms Daniel joins LP from Ciner Enterprises and Ciner Resources in Atlanta, where she served as vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary. Ciner is the world’s largest producer of natural soda ash.

Reddit has announced its newest member of the executive leadership team is Benjamin Lee, vp and general counsel in executive. Bringing more than 20 years of experience at technology brands including Twitter, AirBnB and Google, Mr Lee most recently served as general counsel and head of legal and compliance at Plaid.