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Woolworths appoints former Coles GC
Former Coles general counsel Dr Richard Dammery has returned to the in-house fold after leaving Minter Ellison to head Woolworths’ legal team.
Justin Whealing
Dammery (pictured) was appointed as the chief legal officer and company secretary of Woolworths at the start of this month.
Dammery declined to be interviewed about his new role when approached by Lawyers Weekly.
As a member of the corporate team at Minters in Melbourne, Dammery acted on a host of significant transactions. These included advising Dulux on its demerger with Orica, acting for Computershare on the acquisition of Serviceworks and acting for Pacific Brands on multiple transactions.
Dammery replaces Peter Horton, who left Woolworths to head QBE Australia’s legal team.
Horton started in that role in June.
A competitive process
Executive search agency CTPartners were engaged by Woolworths to search for Horton’s replacement.
Jason Johnson, the Asia Pacific managing partner with CTPartners, told Lawyers Weekly the role attracted many high quality candidates.
“The Woolworths chief legal officer role is one of the leading GC roles in the country and naturally the interest from leading general counsels and partners was very high,” he said. “Accordingly, Woolworths were able to pick from the best and the brightest talent in the market. Richard certainly represents an outstanding appointment as he is a leading corporate partner who brings broad experience, including deep domain experience following a number of years as GC of Coles.”
