Around the house

Tech startup Citymapper has appointed its first ever general counsel in the form of Hughes Hubbard & Reed-trained lawyer Alice Hou. Launched in London five years ago, the Citymapper app uses publicly available data to offer users the fastest and cheapest ways to navigate around cities using public transport, taxis, by bike or on foot. The app is currently available in 29 cities worldwide and recently raised $40m in Series B financing from Index Ventures and Benchmark Capital. Ms Hou has joined the company from US-based business consulting company Sapient, where she served as legal director.

Meanwhile, Bank of Ireland general counsel John Bennett has departed the company to join Santander UK as its new chief operating officer and senior counsel for legal and regulatory. Mr Bennett joined Bank of Ireland in 2013 and officially joined Santander at the start of this month. He joins a 35-strong in-house legal team headed by bank’s director of legal, compliance, regulatory affairs and anti-money laundering John Collins, who himself left his role as general counsel for Royal Bank of Scotland earlier this year to join Santander.

Online personal styling service Stitch Fix has named Scott Darling as its new chief legal officer. Mr Darling carries more than 18 years’ experience working as a lawyer in Silicon Valley and has served as chief legal officer and general counsel for several other tech-based companies – most notably, for online residential real estate portal Trulia. Mr Darling presided over a period of considerable growth at Trulia that eventually led to a successful initial public offering and the eventual $2.5bn sale of the company to online real estate database Zillow.

Cloud-based HR software company Zenefits has promoted chief compliance officer Joshua Stein to the role of general counsel, effective 17 November. Mr Stein has helped steer the company through several compliance mishaps in the last year, including allegations that Zenefits has sold insurance in some parts of the US without proper licenses and the subsequent resignation of former CEO Parker Conrad. He will be replacing former Zenefits GC Hillary Smith, who has left the company to join mobile payments company Square Inc as its new general counsel.

Finally, Blueknight Energy Partners has named industry veteran Joel Kanvik as its new general counsel. Mr Kanvik brings more than 20 years’ legal experience to Blueknight from a wide range of practice areas, including an extensive background in domestic and international affairs, business and environmental affairs, as well as transactional expertise. Most notably, Mr Kanvik served for 15 years in-house at crude oil and natural gas transporter Enbridge Energy Company, most recently as its director for US law and assistant secretary. He is replacing former Blueknight general counsel Chris Paul, who has left the role after three years.