The Andersons, a diversified company rooted in agriculture, has announced the retirement of Naran U Burchinow as senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary. He will retire in March 2020. Christine M Castellano is to assume the general counsel and corporate secretary role. Mr Burchinow will provide transition assistance until his retirement. Ms Castellano is the former senior vice president, general counsel, corporate secretary and chief compliance officer for Ingredion Incorporated. She was promoted to the position in 2012 after serving for 16 years in legal roles of increasing responsibility in Ingredion's and its predecessor companies' U.S. and international businesses.

National cannabis consumer packaged goods company, and owner of Rise and Essence retail stores, Green Thumb Industries (GTI) has appointed Beth Burk as interim chief legal & compliance officer. GTI announced that Matt Miller has resigned from his position as General Counsel. Mr Miller served as the company’s first general counsel. Ms Burk has more than 25 years of experience as a legal and compliance strategist including 15 years with Aon, a Fortune 200 professional services firm, where she most recently served as global chief compliance officer.

Whitestone, a community-centered retail REIT, has announced the expansion of its legal team with the hiring of Peter Tropoli as general counsel. At Whitestone, he will be responsible for leading the legal department and will be part of the strategic management team reporting to ceo Jim Mastandrea. Mr Tropoli has an extensive background in corporate law, real estate, and executive management, most recently as senior counsel at the Chamberlain, Hrdlicka, Whites, Williams and Aughtry law firm. He has previously served as a general counsel, corporate secretary, and chief operating officer on the board of directors for Luby’s Inc.

Stéphanie Fougou has been appointed group general counsel and general secretary of the board at Ingenico Group, a global seamless payments company. Ms Fougou joins Ingenico’s executive committee and reports to Group’s ceo Nicolas Huss. Based in Paris, Ms Fougou has over twenty years’ experience in large companies and since 2018 has been group general counsel heading legal, compliance, insurance, risks and at ACCOR.

X4 Pharmaceuticals, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, has appointed Derek Meisner as general counsel. As general counsel, he brings more than two decades of experience providing counsel to public and private companies across key legal and operational functions, including regulatory compliance, debt and equity financings, mergers and acquisitions, strategic partnerships and corporate governance. Most recently, Mr Meisner held the role of general counsel at Genocea Biosciences, a Cambridge-based, publicly traded, clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company.

Vericel Corporation, a specialist in advanced therapies for the sports medicine and severe burn care markets, has appointed of Sean C Flynn as vice president and general counsel. He has served as corporate and litigation counsel for nearly 20 years, in both the public and private sectors.  Prior to joining Vericel, Mr Flynn held the position of vice president and general counsel of Verastem Inc., where he was responsible for all legal matters and supported the launch and commercialization of Copiktra. 

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP has announced that Denson N Franklin III, a partner in the firm’s Birmingham office, has been appointed senior vice president and general counsel of Birmingham-based Vulcan Materials Company. The firm said he will be transitioning from the firm over the next few months and will take on his new role in December. Vulcan is a construction aggregates producer. Mr Franklin has focused his practice on corporate, mergers and acquisitions, finance transaction, and federal and state securities matters.