Advent Technologies appointed Kevin Brackman as its new finance chief. Brackman most recently served as CFO of Myers Industries. Before his promotion to CFO in 2018, he was Myers’ chief accounting officer and corporate controller. Before that, he was director of financial planning and analysis, financial reporting, and technical accounting at Ingersoll-Rand. Earlier in his career, he held a variety of positions at Chiquita Brands International, including assistant corporate controller and controller of North American operations. Brackman replaces Bill Hunter, who left the company. Hunter had served as CFO of Advent following its merger in February 2021 with AMCI Acquisition Corp., where he was CEO.
BJ’s Restaurants promoted CFO and president Gregory Levin to president and chief executive officer, effective September 1. Levin has served as the company’s CFO since joining BJ’s in September 2005. Before that, he was chief financial officer and secretary of SB Restaurant Company. He also served in several roles at California Pizza Kitchen, most recently as vice president, chief financial officer, and secretary. He began his career in the audit department at Ernst & Young. The company’s vice president of strategy and financial planning and analysis, Thomas Houdek, will be appointed senior vice president and CFO.
Vanguard Renewables appointed Emily Smith as chief financial officer. Before joining the dairy waste-to-energy project developer, Smith was senior vice president of corporate development and operations at Energy Recovery, where she led the company’s manufacturing, procurement, quality assurance, and safety operations, as well as its corporate development and marketing teams. She previously served as vice president of corporate development, vice president of marketing, and director of financial planning and analysis with Energy Recovery. She also previously served as a controller for Aegion Corporation and an analyst with Merrill Lynch Investment Banking.
CFO Rashid Varachia will leave video game maker Codemasters at the end of the month. The departure comes after the company was acquired by EA earlier this year. Varachia joined Codemasters in 2012 as vice president of finance, where he was responsible for all finance, human resources, IT, and company secretarial matters. He was promoted to CFO in 2015. Before joining Codemasters, he was the divisional finance director at Technicolor Home Entertainment services.
Supply chain services company A&R Logistics named Philip Gillespie as its new chief financial officer. Gillespie has more than 30 years of experience running successful finance teams and most recently served as CFO of Highline Warren, a distributor of automotive chemicals and products. He has also held the CFO positions at Vertellus Specialties and within Honeywell.
Patrick Shearer has joined single-serve coffee producer NuZee as its new finance chief. Shearer has over 25 years of experience in accounting, finance, transactions, and management. He has held numerous senior leadership positions during his career and has experience in a variety of industries, including food and beverage. Shearer was previously a partner in the risk and financial advisory services practice of Deloitte. Shearer succeeds Shanoop Kothari, who will leave the company no later than August 16.
MIB Group hired Tracy Harris as chief financial officer. Harris brings over 20 years of experience focused on strategic, operational, and financial leadership activities to the risk assessment group. She has previously served as CFO for several organizations, including for the venture fund that invests in education technology companies for the University of Maryland Global Campus. Harris has been a governance fellow with the National Association of Corporate Directors since 2014 and is a board member for CareFirst Blue Cross Blue Shield.
Aeglea BioTherapeutics hired Jonathan Alspaugh as CFO. He joins the biotechnology company from Evercore, where he most recently served as a managing director in the firm’s corporate advisory business and was involved in mergers and acquisitions and equity financings to support the strategic growth of clients in the biopharma space. Before that, Alspaugh was a member of Barclays Capital’s global healthcare investment banking team.
The Vomela Companies promoted Brian Roux to chief financial officer. Roux, who is currently senior director of corporate finance, joined the company in 2007 as controller and became part of the mergers and acquisitions team, assisting with 16 acquisitions for the company and appreciating sales growth of up to 400%. In 2010, he was promoted to director of corporate finance when C2 Imaging joined Vomela.
Michael Welch will join automotive retailer Asbury Automotive Group as finance chief on August 9. Welch joins the company from automotive retailer Group 1 Automotive, where he was the vice president and corporate controller since June 2019. Before that, he held several positions with GPI of increasing responsibility. Welch began his career at Price Waterhouse.