London-based global gaming company International Game Technology has announced that Christopher Spears is joining the company to lead its legal team. As general counsel, Mr Spears will be responsible for overseeing all legal and corporate governance matters for the company and will report to IGT chief financial officer Alberto Fornaro. Mr Spears will replace Neil Abrams who is retiring from the company effective and who has transitioned to the role of senior advisor to the CFO until his retirement. Mr Spears has 19 years of experience in positions of increasing scope and responsibility with Caterpillar where he was group general counsel of commercial and international operations. Before joining Caterpillar, he was an associate attorney in the corporate and securities practice group with Greenebaum Doll & McDonald.

Marriott International has appointed Rena Hozore Reiss as general counsel, reporting to president and CEO Arne Sorenson. Ms Reiss, who was most recently general counsel and corporate secretary at Hyatt Hotels Corporation, will take up the position on 4 December. She has previously worked at Marriott International in the legal department from 2000 to 2010 as associate general counsel.In her most recent role, Ms Reiss led a global legal team with offices in Chicago, Zurich, Hong Kong, Beijing and Delhi supporting all facets of Hyatt's business. She also oversaw the company's risk management team and corporate transactions group. Prior to joining Marriott, Ms Reiss was a partner at Counts & Kanne, Chartered, in Washington, DC and served as an associate general counsel for the Miami Herald Publishing Company. Ms Reiss succeeds Ed Ryan, Marriott's general counsel since 2006, who recently announced his retirement.

Tunstall Real Estate Asset Management has appointed Nicola Burke as general counsel.She joins from Goodwin Proctor where she gained over 12 years experience advising private equity investors, international corporates, financial institutions and investment managers.

Indianapolis based company Celadon Group has prommoted Chase Welsh to executive vice president – risk management and general counsel.  In addition, he will serve as secretary of the Celadon board of directors.  Mr Welsh previously served as vice president of risk management. He takes over from Ken Core who retired from the group after 17 years of service. The company also announced the hiring of John-Thomas Young as vice president-risk management and assistant general counsel. Mr Young has been employed at Scopelitis, Garvin, Light, Hansen & Feary, a law firm based in Indianapolis with expertise in the transportation industry.

Engineering and construction company Parsons has promoted Michael Kolloway to become its new general counsel. He will succeed Clyde Ellis who is retiring from the company. Mr Kolloway was promoted from vice president and deputy general counsel for the Americas for Parsons.  Prior to Parsons, he was formerly senior vice president and assistant general counsel for operations and risk management at AECOM, another global engineering firm.