2013 FINALISTS
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Brandon Lombardi General counsel and secretary Sprouts Farmers Markets, LLC Lombardi represented Sprouts while at Greenberg Traurig, going back to when Sprouts was a relatively small, Arizona-only, family-run operation. He developed the trust of its executive leadership so that when the time came in late 2011 that Sprouts’ current ownership — a large New York-based private equity group — determined that Sprouts needed its first in-house counsel, they sought him out. In the 10 months Lombardi has been at Sprouts, he successfully led Sprouts’ merger with Sunflower Farmers Markets, growing Sprouts to a 148-store chain of natural and organic grocery stores, with nearly 12,000 employees and $2 billion in 2012 projected revenue.
54 AB | January-February 2013
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Harriet MountcastleWalsh Vice president and General counsel Honeywell International Since assuming the role of aerospace general counsel in 2005, MountcastleWalsh has forged a successful vision for the Honeywell Aerospace, Law, Contracts and Export (LC&E) function. Some highlights: ● Developed policies, procedures and best practices to streamline functionalization and reduce total expenses by more than 35 percent. ● Consistently strives to upgrade talent in her 400-person department through hiring efforts and through a training, mentoring and development process. ● Enabled growth at Honeywell through the development of its patent portfolio and IP licensing. ● Proactive litigation management has helped reduce Honeywell’s spending on outside counsel by more than 50 percent.
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Susan Navran executiVe Vice president, external operations Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona After serving many years as general counsel, Navran is currently serving in a business role. During her tenure as general counsel, Navran reduced the size of BCBSAZ’s outside counsel budget by hiring qualified counsel; created basic contract templates and parameters; improved communication within department and with customers through regular meetings, updates and intake processes; instituted client satisfaction surveys and improvements based on input; implemented rotation of lawyers to broaden access and knowledge of business; and instituted required reports and a regulatory filing log and follow-up procedure.