Around the house: Dentsply Sinora shakes up legal team; former Revlon GC joins New York consultancy Accordion

This week’s roundup of top in-house hires also includes appointments at Zingeroo, Indara, Numeracle and McCalla Raymer

Richard Rosenzweig joins Dentsply Sinora from AngioDynamics Photo courtesy of Dentsply Sinora

Dentsply Sirona reshuffles with healthcare veteran

US dental machinery-maker Dentsply Sirona has hired Richard Rosenzweig as its new GC, with previous legal head Cheree Johnson becoming a special advisor to the company’s recently installed CEO Simon Campion.

The reshuffle comes after a troubled period for Dentsply, which hit the headlines last November when an internal investigation into its use of incentives also uncovered that it had overstated its earnings by around $27m for the nine-months ending September 2021. The company had parted company with its CEO, Don Casey, last April, while CFO Jorge Gomez, who had already departed by then, left his new job as Moderna’s CFO after just one day in post. 

Rosenzweig joins Dentsply from medical device provider AngioDynamics, bringing with him around 25 years of in-house experience across the healthcare industry. He will also serve as senior vice president for corporate development at Dentsply, which makes dental equipment such as x-ray machines and dental drills.

Campion said: “As a strong, collaborative leader with seasoned skills in building teams and setting and executing strategies, he will strengthen our management team during a phase of organisational changes.”

Prior to his time at AngioDynamics, Rosenzweig was a strategic consultant at RCR Strategic Advisors and vice president for law at C.R. Bard, which is owned by BD. He was also GC at Philbro Animal Health Corporation and defunct cancer lab company Impath, as well as director for worldwide licensing and acquisitions at Johnson & Johnson. He started his career in private practice, working at Kramer Levin, Akin Gump and Stroock & Stroock.

He said: “I am convinced that with the strong team, operational excellence and a strong focus on accountability we can unlock the full potential of Dentsply Sirona globally.”

Johnson was previously GC at US chemicals company W.R. Grace & Co, deputy GC at both spice-maker McCormick and Kraft Heinz Company and an IP lawyer for Cargill and 3M.


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Former Revlon GC resurfaces at Accordion

New York-based private equity-focused consultancy firm Accordion Partners has snapped up former Revlon legal head Penny Tehrani-Littrell as its new GC and managing director.

Tehrani-Littrell brings with her more than two decades of legal, regulatory and compliance experience across financial services, consumer products and retail. She will oversee all of Accordion’s legal and compliance matters. Accordion provides advisory services to private equity sponsors and their management teams, primarily supporting the CFO function.

Accordion said that throughout her career, Tehrani-Littrell has advised corporate leadership on M&A, divestitures, private equity investments, digital asset transactions, corporate transformations, financings, litigation and more, adding that she is passionate about providing strategic advice and practical solutions.

Tehrani-Littrell spent just under a year as acting general counsel and corporate secretary at Revlon, stepping down before the cosmetics giant went into bankruptcy in 2022. Prior to her time at Revlon, she spent 16 years at Japanese bank Nomura, most recently as head of corporate legal for the Americas based out of New York. She also previously worked in private practice, spending five years as an associate at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan. In between her stint at Revlon and joining Accordion, she worked as an independent advisor to seed and early-stage companies.

Revlon filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in June 2022 due to supply chain issues and a creaking debt load. The company has since entered a restructuring agreement, which will potentially enable it to exit bankruptcy next month. Tehrani-Littrell’s predecessor at Revlon, Cari Robinson, last month launched a consulting business, Black Dog Advisory.


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Zingeroo hires financial services heavyweight

US trading app Zingeroo has hired Peter Dolezal as its new general counsel, joining from investment platform ShareNett Holdings.

Dolezal brings with him around three decades of legal and regulatory experience in the financial services industry. He will also oversee legal matters for the company’s broker dealer subsidiary Z-Squared Securities.

Zingeroo founder and CEO Zoë Barry, who previously worked with Dolezal at New York-based broker-dealer DeMatteo Monness, said: “It’s always a milestone as a start-up founder when you're able to hire a former co-worker. I’m excited for the talent and expertise Peter brings to the firm.”

Dolezal spent just over four years as GC at ShareNett, where he also served as chief operating officer. Prior to that, Dolezal spent more than two years at Coleman Research Group as GC, chief compliance officer, corporate secretary and the leader of its executive management committee. He also had earlier in-house stints at DeMatteo Monness and Asset Alliance Corporation.

Before those in-house appointments, Dolezal worked in private practice at Glynn & Mercep, Hughes & Whitaker and White & Case. He also worked in a variety of other financial services roles, working at Byram Lake Capital as director of operations and trading, Bear Stearns as a vice president in the defunct investment bank’s equity capital markets unit and Salomon Smith Barney (at the time owned by Citibank), where he was a private banking estate planning lawyer.

Dolezal said: “Zingeroo has done an excellent job of prioritising compliance and I’m excited to help Zingeroo further innovate its unique fintech platform. It’s an exciting challenge and opportunity to be part of a team reinventing the trading experience within the confines of the current regulatory landscape.”

Indara snaps up Pacific National legal head

Australian mobile telecoms tower network Indara Digital Infrastructure has hired Kate Bowman as executive director for legal, risk and compliance.

Bowman joins from Pacific National – Australia’s largest private rail freight company – where she was GC, chief corporate services officer and company secretary. She brings with her more than 20 years of experience practicing corporate law. In her new role, Bowman will help improve the firm’s frameworks for risk mitigation, workplace health and safety, regulatory programmes and ESG practices. The company said Bowman’s role is intrinsically tied to its future growth strategy by embedding best practice corporate governance across the organisation.

Cameron Evans, Indara’s CEO, said: “Indara is focused on being Australia’s leading digital infrastructure provider and to do that we need to hire the right people to lead the business forward. Kate’s extensive experience in the logistics and infrastructure industry is complementary to Indara’s growth plan… We are keen to tap into Kate’s wealth of experience across legal and compliance to help us drive the organisation forward.”

Before her time at Pacific National, Bowman was also senior legal counsel at Australian seaport terminal operator Patrick and deputy GC at freight logistics company Asciano. 


Bowman said: “Telecommunications and connectivity are critical parts of our lives – and this is only becoming more important as the use of data grows. Indara is leading the way as an independent provider of critical infrastructure and has an ambitious growth plan. I’m excited to join the team at such a pivotal time.”

Numeracle appoints policy expert

US identity verification start-up Numeracle has hired Keith Buell as its new GC and head of global public policy.

Buell joins from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and brings with him more than two decades of experience as a telecommunications lawyer and robocall policy expert. As well as handling Numeracle’s legal matters, Buell will seek to steer global regulatory policy around illegal robocalls and texts and ensure regulation doesn’t impede legal communications. 

Rebekah Johnson, founder and CEO of Numeracle, said: “Over the course of Keith's career, he has demonstrated a dedication to advocating action to restore trust in communications from carriers, service providers, enterprises and government. His journey to restore trust and transparency to communications has always been in alignment with Numeracle’s mission and vision.”

Buell spent just under a year as a legal advisor in the FCC’s competition policy division, where he worked on phone numbering issues and merger reviews. He previously worked for almost two years as senior counsel at Tata Communications and almost eight years as senior counsel for federal regulatory and government investigations at mobile operator Sprint. He also spent more than eight years as assistant general counsel for commercial litigation at Verizon and started his career in private practice as a litigation associate at Arnold & Porter.


He said: “Over the last several years, I have watched Numeracle create the number reputation and identity management sectors from scratch. Numeracle has also led the entire telecommunications industry to recognise the importance of verifying the identities of legitimate companies so they can communicate with their customers."

McCalla Raymer promotes deputy GC

US real estate law firm McCalla Raymer Leibert Pierce has named Elizabeth De Silva as its new GC, stepping up from her previous role as deputy GC, which she had held since May 2020.

De Silva is replacing Susan Reid, who is stepping down after almost 13 years at the firm. In her role as deputy GC, De Silva tracked all litigation for the firm and ensured compliance with state and federal law. She has more than 20 years of experience in residential real estate law and mortgage banking.

Marty Stone, CEO of McCalla Raymer, said: “I’ve known Liz for over a decade before she started at McCalla, and always respected her insight and advice. I am very happy to have her as our general counsel and leading our compliance team.”

Prior to joining McCalla Raymer, De Silva spent five years as vice president and chief servicing counsel at Ditech Financial. Across her career she has handled several national and multi-state investigations and consent judgments, representing clients before the Department of Justice and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, among others.

De Silva said: “As deputy general counsel, I found a home at McCalla Raymer Leibert Pierce, and I now look forward to utilising my years of experience, both on the servicing and law firm side, to grow with my team.”

Reid has been practising law since the 1970s. She worked as national division counsel at the Lawyers Title Insurance Corporation until1987, before spending five years as East Coast counsel at HomeFederal Bank and then almost two decades at Fannie Mae, where she was associate GC.

 

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