Stephen Krull, Vice President, General Counsel, and Company Secretary of La-Z-Boy / Courtesy photo
Stephen Krull, the outgoing General Counsel of La-Z-Boy Inc., didn't sit around planning on succession. He began nursing two of his in-house executives to serve as the furniture maker's next legal boss long before him announced his resignation Late last year and his foresight has led to a smooth and successful change in leadership.
The only difficult part of the process was choosing between two GC internal candidates, Uzma Ahmad and Raphael Richmond. Richmond was the senior director of corporate compliance and labor law at La-Z-Boy, while Ahmad was the senior director of corporate law and assistant secretary.