Prudential hires Tesco GC for company secretary role

Porter, who first joined Tesco in 2008, previously spent 15 years at British American Tobacco. In his new role, he takes over the group company secretary function, which was previously occupied by Margaret Coltman.

Coltman was appointed as both group general counsel and company secretary in 2009, but it was later decided to separate the two roles due to the the increased scope of the company secretariat role in the wake of Prudential’s listings on the Hong Kong and Singapore stock exchanges in 2010, a spokesperson at Prudential told The Lawyer.

Coltman remains a member of Prudential’s executive committee and oversees the group’s 100-strong legal team. In 2011, alongside director of group legal Simon Ramage, she led a panel review of the group’s external legal advisers, which saw saw both Linklaters and Norton Rose win first-time appointments (7 April 2011).

Meanwhile, Tesco has appointed former BP associate general counsel Adrian Morris as group general counsel following Porter’s departure.

Morris’s appointment comes as Tesco’s corporate and legal affairs director Lucy Neville-Rolfe prepares to retire in January 2013 after a 15-year tenure at the supermarket giant.

Tesco is also looking to recruit a permanent legal director in China. Currently Berwin Leighton Paisner’s former chair Peter Robinson is on secondment as acting legal director in Shanghai while the group finds someone to fill the role on a permanent basis (18 May 2012)

It is understand that one of Morris’s first tasks as general counsel will be to run a review of Tesco’s external law firms at some point next year.