MacElree Harvey

Firm partner John F. McKenna was recently elected Vice President of the Chester County Estate Planning Council.

The CCEPC includes attorneys, accountants, insurance agents, stockbrokers, trust officers, and nonprofit directors, as well as other specialists in related professions. Its goal is to assist members in rendering better services to their clients by highlighting pertinent developments within the field of estate planning.

“I am looking forward to assisting our president and our board in providing our members with informative and interesting programs and continue to provide our members with the information and tools necessary to improve their services to their customers and clients,” said McKenna.

At MacElree Harvey, McKenna heads the firm’s Trust and Estate Litigation Group.

Chester County Intermediate Unit

Friends and family gathered this summer to congratulate 16 newly graduated practical nursing students (who will take the NCLEX examine to become LPNs) from the CCIU’s Practical Nursing Program.

The graduates were students from sixth class to graduate from the West Grove location at the Technical College High School Pennock’s Bridge Campus.

Class president Taylor Inzaina led the class in the Practical Nursing Pledge and then introduced the guest speaker, Susan Decker, a certified wound, ostomy, and continence nurse at Bryn Mawr Rehabilitation Hospital.

In addition to the TCHS Pennock’s Bridge Campus in West Grove, the CCIU’s Practical Nursing Program also has cohorts at the TCHS Brandywine Campus in Downingtown and the TCHS Pickering Campus in Phoenixville.

Vanguard

Joseph P. Brennan has been appointed to a newly created position of Vanguard’s Global Chief Risk Officer and a member of its senior leadership team. In his new role, Brennan, 49, will assume responsibility for the firm’s current enterprise risk management organization, in addition to all facets of enterprise security and investment risk management.

“We believe centralizing our risk management functions under a single senior leader will benefit both our clients and Vanguard,” said CEO Tim Buckley. “Joe’s vast and varied investment management and leadership experience both in the U.S. and abroad make him the ideal candidate to integrate and enhance our capable and strong global risk management teams.”

Brennan joined Vanguard in 1991 and worked as an analyst and trader in the company’s Fixed Income Group. He then moved to the Portfolio Review Department, which is primarily responsible for investment manager search and oversight, eventually leading the group for five years. In 2009, he was named chief investment officer of the Asia Pacific region and served on the senior leadership team of Vanguard Australia. In 2013, he assumed responsibility for Vanguard’s Equity Index Group.

Realm Therapeutics

After disappointing clinical study results for one of its new drug candidates, the Malvern-based pharmaceutical company is exploring the possible sale of its assets, writes John George for the Philadelphia Business Journal.

Realm has hired an advisor “in relation to a strategic review that has been initiated by the company, which may include the potential sale of the company as a possible outcome.”

.