Puerto Rican bank Popular Inc has appointed its Chief Legal Officer Ignacio Alvarez as President and Chief Operating Officer. In his role, Alvarez will report directly to Richard Carrión, Popular’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Alvarez has been with Popular since June 2010 serving as Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer. Before joining Popular, Alvarez was a founding partner of Pietrantoni Méndez & Alvarez LLC, a San Juan, Puerto Rico based law firm, from September 1992 to June 2010. He has also been named a director and President of Banco Popular de Puerto Rico, Popular North America, Inc. and Banco Popular North America.

 In addition, Javier Ferrer was appointed Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Chief Legal Officer of Popular. He was also appointed Secretary of the Board of Directors. Ferrer joins Popular from Pietrantoni Méndez & Alvarez LLC, where he was one of the firm’s founding partners since 1992. Javier also served as President and Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors of Government Development Bank for Puerto Rico. 

Johnson Controls has made a number of new appointments. Grady Crosby, vice president and global general counsel for the company's power solutions business, was elected to become a corporate officer and appointed to become vice president of public affairs and chief diversity officer. Crosby is also taking on the role of president of the Johnson Controls Foundation, succeeding Charles Harvey. It has also promoted Brian Cadwallader, who is currently vice president and assistant secretary for Johnson Controls. From 1 October, he becomes vice president, secretary and general counsel for the company. He had also served as group vice president and general counsel of the company's building efficiency business. Cadwallader, who has been with Johnson Controls for 25 years, succeeds Jerome Okarma, who will retire from the company at the end of the year.

Tom Pastore has been appointed general counsel and corporate secretary of multunational privately held Guardian Industries.He joined the legal department in 1996 and has held a number of positions. Mr Pastore joined Guardian’s legal department in 1996 and has held a number of positions including serving as Assistant General Counsel, Associate General Counsel and Assistant Secretary before being appointed General Counsel of Worldwide Flat Glass in 2011. He has been responsible for litigation, employment matters, international trade and many other issues, and has supervised attorneys in Europe, North America, Latin America, the Middle East and Asia. Mr Pastore succeeds David Jaffe who retired as General Counsel.

Cerulean Pharma Inc has apponted Alejandra Carvajal as general counsel. She joins the company after ten years with Millennium: The Takeda Oncology Company, where she was associate general counsel. She was previously a lawyer with law firms Day, Berry & Howard and Hill & Barlow. Cerulean is a leader in Dynamic Tumour Targeting.