OYO Hotels & Homes is strengthened its senior leadership with the appointment of a new general counsel. The leisure group says it is part of the company’s efforts to continue to invest in and attract world-class leadership, to drive accelerated growth in one of its home markets - China - as well as international markets. Shella Ng joins as the general counsel of OYO China and will be a key member of OYO Jiudian leadership board. She will be responsible for end-to-end support on all strategic and inorganic initiatives, contract management, dispute resolution, litigation management, setting up risk and compliance framework and policy advocacy. A veteran with a rich corporate-in house experience, Ms Ng is a qualified solicitor in both Hong Kong and England & Wales. She was one of the founding members at Yum! Brands, Inc and headed Division Counsel of Yum Brands, Inc. leading the legal function for their KFC and Pizza Hut businesses in Greater China. Most recently, she was the chief legal officer and corporate secretary of the board of directors of Yum China Holdings, Inc., an independent company listed on the New York Stock Exchange after it was spun off from Yum Brands, Inc. OYO Jiudian (Hotel) in China is now the Middle Kingdom’s second-largest hotel chain and has footprints across 320 cities with nearly 10,000 hotels and 450,000 rooms. The company’s global footprint spans across 85 countries including the U.S., Europe, U.K., India, Malaysia, Middle East, Indonesia, Philippines, and Japan.

LendingCrowd, a fintech lending platform, has appointed Robbie McKenzie to the newly created post of general counsel and chief risk & compliance officer. A dual-qualified lawyer holding practising certificates in both Scotland and England, Mr McKenzie will lead LendingCrowd’s legal, risk and compliance function and act as anti-money laundering officer. He joins LendingCrowd from London-based private equity fund manager Pollen Street Capital, where he was chief risk and compliance officer. He has also held senior legal, risk and compliance roles at Avant, Dollar Financial Group, Bank of Scotland and RBS. Stuart Lunn, founder and ceo of LendingCrowd, said “Few organisations of our size employ an in-house general counsel. However, LendingCrowd is committed to being a leader in regulation and compliance, rather than simply meeting our statutory obligations.

Irish lawyer Elizabeth Dunne has been appointed as senior legal counsel at Petronash. The company, headquartered in Dubai, offers engineering and manufacturing services to customers in the oil and gas industry. Ms Dunne is dual qualified to practise as a solicitor in Ireland and in England and Wales. In a statement, Petronash said “Elizabeth brings with her a rich experience in dealing with legal issues such as; counselling companies and their internal teams on contract interpretation and commercial risk, development and implementation of corporate governance, contractual and compliance policies, mitigation of any claims and disputes and managing strict contractual compliance.”

Opus Bank has appointed Angelee J Harris as evp and general counsel. She will be a member of  the Opus executive committee. Ms. Harris is responsible for managing the legal affairs of Opus Bank, as well as the coordination, oversight, and management of Opus Bank’s retained counsel. She succeeds Carlton Langer, who served as interim general counsel since joining Opus in November 2018. Paul Taylor, chief executive officer and president of Opus, stated “Angelee is a highly regarded attorney, who has been representing financial institutions for 20 years in a wide variety of corporate, regulatory, and securities matters.” Mr Taylor thanked Mr Langer for his interim service “over the past year, during which time the bank resolved several legacy issues and completed the search for a new General Counsel.” Ms Harris joins Opus from Banc of California, where she most recently served as executive vice president, general counsel. She is a member of the State Bar of California, the Utah State Bar, and the American Bar Association.