ISS UK general counsel takes non-US role at Weight Watchers
Weight Watchers has appointed a new high-level in-house lawyer to focus on matters outside of the US with the hire of ISS UK general counsel Richard Reade.
Richard Reade
Reade, who led the Danish service provider’s UK legal team from January 2007 until the end of last year, has joined US-headquartered Weight Watchers as assistant general counsel (international), based at the company’s UK base in Maidenhead. He was previously a solicitor at Pinsent Masons (21 January 2008).
In his new role he will report to Weight Watchers’ New York-based general counsel, former Gibson Dunn & Crutcher lawyer Jeffrey Fiarman.
His replacement at ISS is Elena Zachariou, who previously spent a year as assistant general counsel after three years in the senior counsel role. She joined the company from Total UK as its second in-house lawyer in 2008 (17 December 2007).
ISS hired Slaughter and May for its planned takeover by UK security company G4S last year, but the deal failed (1 November 2011). The in-house legal work was mostly handled in the company’s Copenhagen headquarters by a team led by group general counsel Bjørn Raasteen.
In an internal note to staff, ISS interim CEO Matt Brabin commented: “I would also like to thank Elena’s predecessor Richard Reade for his work over the five years he has been with us and also to wish him every success in his new role at the head office of Weight Watchers.”
A Weight Watchers spokesperson confirmed the appointment and said Reade would primarily focus on Europe and Australasia.
