Eaton has chosen a new chief legal officer from its own ranks after losing its top lawyer to Intel earlier this month. 

Taras ‘Terry’ Szmagala Jr is taking over from April Miller Boise as CLO having joined the American-Irish power management company back in 2007 and served in a number of roles including deputy general counsel and, most recently, senior vice president of public and community affairs and corporate communications. 

In his new role Szmagala, who is based in the Dublin-headquartered company's Cleveland, Ohio administrative centre, will serve as counsel to Eaton’s executive management team and its board of directors, and will lead its global legal team as well as the corporate governance and compliance functions. He will report to CEO Craig Arnold.

Szmagala's previous roles include group counsel with Fortune 500 company Avery Dennison and in private practice with Squire Patton Boggs in the firm’s offices in Cleveland, Ohio and Washington DC as well as in Kyiv, Ukraine. 

Nancy Berardinelli-Krantz, meanwhile, has also been promoted to deputy chief legal officer, reporting to Szmagala. She has spent more than a decade at Eaton in a number of senior legal roles interspersed with a stint at The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, where she was senior legal counsel for Americas. 

Before first joining Eaton in 2011 she worked as an associate in the trial practice and government regulation group at Jones Day in Cleveland and Washington DC and is also a veteran of the United States Army.  

Berardinelli-Krantz served as senior vice president and general counsel for Eaton’s electrical and industrial sectors before her most recent promotion and the company said she would continue to head the sectors’ business legal teams as she worked with Szmagala to lead the law department. 

Eaton has been listed on the NYSE for nearly a century and reported revenues of $19.6bn in 2021. The company serves customers in more than 170 countries. 

Miller Boise spent two and a half years as the company’s top lawyer before it emerged earlier this month that she was set to join Intel as executive vice president and chief legal officer. She will join the tech giant early next month to lead its global legal, trade and government affairs team and succeeds Steven Rodgers, who retired this year after more than two decades at Intel.