Securitas Direct Verisure Group is the European market leader in monitored home alarm systems through its Securitas Direct and Verisure brands. Mr. O’Halloran will join the company with a strong legal and commercial track record; having worked in legal and business development roles in both small and large companies most of his career. He joins Verisure from Jones Day, a leading global law firm, where he was a Partner in the Corporate/M&A practice in London. Before joining Jones Day, Ben worked as General Counsel - European Transactions & U.K. for the General Electric Company. In his 12 years with GE, Ben led M&A and joint venture transactions across its various business units, principally in Europe and also in Africa and the US. In a dual-role, he served as the lead country lawyer for GE's legal teams in the UK.

"Ben’s broad experience and perspective make him not only a great Chief Legal Officer but also an excellent business leader," said Austin Lally, Group Chief Executive Officer."We are thrilled to have him join the Company’s Leadership Team. Ben’s appointment is a great example of the Company becoming a destination for world-class talent."

“Leaving the collegial world of a growing firm like Jones Day was a difficult decision, but after Verisure had approached me, I realised a chance to join the team would be a very rare opportunity. It is a fantastic leadership role in a successful, innovative and fast-growing business—in the middle of the upcoming ‘smart-home’ revolution,” said Ben. “This kind of opportunity just doesn’t come along very often. I am tremendously excited, and I feel fortunate to be able to draw on the lessons and experiences I’ve picked up from working with my many friends at GE and Jones Day. I am looking forward to contributing to the company’s growth and leading the further development of the excellent legal team already in place.”

A dual-qualified English and Canadian lawyer with an MBA training, Ben is known for an interest in practical initiatives to drive legal productivity. At GE, he led the successful European transition to a new “fewer, deeper relationships” model with a handful of M&A panel law firms, also introducing various panel management practices aimed at maximising knowledge efficiencies by drawing law firms and internal teams closer together. He subsequently led GE’s global productivity project for M&A, introducing new project management approaches, sourcing models, software and providers to significantly improve time and cost efficiency in transactions. His recent deal list includes GE’s signing of the proposed €12B acquisition of the Power (electricity generation) and Grid (electricity distribution) businesses of Alstom SA; GE Oil & Gas’ $2.8B acquisition of the Well Support division of Wood Group plc; and GE Energy Management’s €3.2B acquisition of Converteam SA.

In his parallel role as GE’s UK General Counsel, Ben led various productivity-focused cross-business projects, government relations efforts on key legal developments (like evolving anti-corruption laws), and regular capability-building sessions for GE’s legal teams. “One of our goals in the Verisure legal team will be to match in the legal community the reputation that Verisure has in its industry for pioneering innovation,” said Ben. “In a few years time, we want to have developed key partnerships with law firms across Europe and Latin America—firms that will be keen to work with us because of the opportunity to learn new and effective methods for providing legal services (and to potentially then export those lessons to other clients as a value-add). We’re a fast growing company: instead of the cost-squeeze forced on many corporate legal departments by today’s low-growth environment, we’ll be focused on common sense, smart processes and selective use of technologies to partner in a win/win way with our law firms as our rapid growth continues.”

This CLO appointment is an enhancement to the Verisure senior management structure that will support the group’s ambitious plans for further growth, expansion and innovation.