AccorHotels, which owns Sofitel and Fairmont hotels amongst others, has appointed Stéphanie Fougou as general counsel. Ms Fougou leaves Vallourec to join the hotels group, and will also join the Executive Committee of the group. She is responsible for leading the Secretariat of the Board of Directors, the Legal Department, the Risk & Insurance Department and the Group Compliance Department. Previously, Ms Fougou worked for 13 years for the France Telecom / Orange group and held the position of Deputy Legal Director, in charge of international affairs.

Lionsgate has hired veteran executive Corii Berg as its general counsel, after 20 years at Sony Pictures. In his new role, Berg will be Liongate’s senior legal and business affairs executive, serving on its Executive Management Committee and senior decision-making team. He also will be involved in M&A activities, strategic investments and partnerships, initiatives related to Lionsgate’s capital structure and corporate financings, and the growth of Lionsgate’s content platform. He will report to Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer.

Philadelphia-based FMC Lithium has promoted Sara Ponessa to the role of general counsel. FMC Corporation currently operates its businesses in two segments – FMC Agricultural Solutions and FMC Lithium – but has announced plans to separate the latter to create a new, publicly traded lithium materials company later this year. In her new role, Ms Ponessa reports to ceo Paul Graves. She is responsible for all legal affairs and oversee government relations for the new company and serve as corporate secretary, taking the lead on compliance, ethics, securities law and other legal matters. She was most recently senior business counsel for FMC Lithium, and previously senior counsel for AstraZeneca.

Nokia has appointed their chief legal officer Maria Varsellona to the position of President of the company's tech and licensing business. The move expands the CLO role, giving Varsellona new executive responsibilities.

Nischal Hindia, the former legal director at Diageo India, has joined GlaxoSmithKline India as general counsel. It is understood that Mr Hindia would be replacing Kaizad Hazari, the executive vice president of legal and corporate affairs. Mr Nischal had joined Diageo from UBS in June 2013 but resigned from the company earlier this year.

The new Vallourec role of general counsel has been taken up by Rémi Dujon. Mr Dujon is a member of the Executive Committee and reports to Olivier Mallet, Member of the Management Board. Rémi is responsible for legal, compliance and sustainable development. He is also secretary of the supervisory board. From 2014 to 2018, he held the position of Legal Director of Orange Business Services.

Consumer Reports, the organization which assists consumers by publishing reviews of products, has appointed Michael Hubner to lead its legal department.

Swiss Biotech Enzyvant has hired industry veteran Tamara Joseph as new general counsel. The Swiss company focuses on developing innovative therapies for patients with rare diseases.

LinkedIn's Caroline Goulding is to be the company's data protection officer following the implementation of General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). She has left the San Francisco bay area for Dublin, which is a return home to Ireland for Ms Goulding. Her remit as the company’s first data protection officer is to help ensure that LinkedIn stays complaint with the GDPR.