Jeff Benjamin

Biography

 Mr. Jeff Benjamin has been Senior Vice President, Chief Ethics & Compliance Officer and General Counsel at Avon Products, Inc. since September 12, 2012. In a career spanning more than forty years prior to his retirement from Novartis Corporation in 2011, Mr. Benjamin developed expertise in litigation, corporate transactions, antitrust, environmental regulation, equal employment opportunity, product liability and ethics and compliance. In his career at Ciba and Novartis, Mr. Benjamin exercised responsibility for the representation of his company in potentially material litigation and government investigations and with his colleagues, built a solid track record of successful resolutions. He is also known in the legal profession as a leader who recruits and develops high caliber talent. From 1996 to 2011, he served Novartis Corporation in a variety of General Counseling positions. From 1997 to 2010, Mr. Benjamin served as Chief Ethics & Compliance Officer until 2011. In 1996, after the announcement of the Ciba Geigy-Sandoz merger agreement, Mr. Benjamin became General Counsel of Ciba-Geigy Corporation, counseling the Board of Directors and representing Ciba-Geigy Corporation in Federal Trade Commission proceedings that ultimately led to the largest corporate merger in history up until that time. From 1986 to 1996, he served as Vice-President, Associate General Counsel and Legal Department Director at Ciba-Geigy Corporation, in that time he helped institute its first formal compliance program. He served as Deputy Compliance Officer at Ciba-Geigy Corporation since 1980. Mr. Benjamin served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Ethics & Compliance Officer Association from 2005 to 2011 and upon his retirement, was recognized with Emeritus status. He serves on the Ethics Resource Center's Advisory Group with respect to the 20(th) anniversary of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines for Organizations. Since 2002, he has been a member of the Advisory Board of the Brennan Center for Justice. Mr. Benjamin has appeared as a speaker in many ethics and compliance and continuing legal education seminars. Mr. Benjamin began his formal legal career as a Litigation Associate with Kronish, Lieb, Shainswit, Weiner & Hellman. He served as an intern at the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York. Mr. Benjamin received his J.D., cum laude, from New York University Law School in 1971 and a B.A. in Government from Cornell University in 1967.

Research Interest

 Dermatitis