Around the house

Yesterday, Royal Bank of Scotland announced the resignation of general counsel John Collins after just 11 months in the role. Mr Collins will leave the bank after a six-month notice period to join leading rival Santander UK, where he will hold the position of director of legal, compliance, regulatory affairs and anti-money laundering. During his tenure as GC, Mr Collins oversaw the $2 billion settlement of US litigation leveled against nine banks, including RBS, over alleged losses stemming from the rigging of foreign exchange markets. A spokesperson for RBS commented that there was no obvious successor for the role and described his exit as 'a loss' for the bank.

Meanwhile, Spirit AeroSystems has announced Stacy Cozad as the company's new senior vice president and general counsel. Ms Cozad has held various positions with Southwest Airlines since 2006, bringing an extensive working knowledge of commercial aerospace and litigation law to her new role. As GC, Ms Cozad will oversee all legal matters relating to Spirit's global business designing and manufacturing aerostructures for commercial aircraft.

UKTV announced last week that former Sky executive Samantha Hammonds is coming on board in the newly created role of general counsel. As the broadcaster's first ever GC, Ms Hammonds has been given the brief to help facilitate the execution of UKTV's commercial and corporate strategy, protect its intellectual property rights and minimise legal risks by providing proactive legal advice to other members of the company's leadership. Most recently, Ms Hammonds served as head of legal for content and copyright at Sky. She will join UKTV in January 2016.

In another first, the world's largest email marketing platform, MailChimp, has recruited Scott Culpepper as the company's inaugural general counsel. Mr Culpepper is a lawyer and registered patent attorney, who has previously served as partner at US law firm Thomas, Kayden, Horstemeyer & Ridley, and, more recently, as partner at Robins Kaplan. MailChimp commented in a statement: 'Under [Scott's] direction, we'll continue to establish our leadership in areas of compliance and privacy, and we'll move into new international markets more efficiently.' 

Finally, leading global research company GfK has named Anna Maria Vitek as the company's new senior vice president and general counsel for the Americas. Ms Vitek has already assumed her new position, working out of GfK's New York City office. As part of her role as GC, Ms Vitek will help structure, negotiate and document mergers globally while also managing external counsel in Canada, the United States and Latin America. Ms Vitek joins GfK from Avon Products, where she held the role of vice president, general counsel and chief compliance officer, Latin America.