- Gonelli’s Gone:
Towers Perrin announced the appointment of Mark L. Wilson as the New York-based firm’s new CFO. Wilson joins the management and human resource consulting firm after serving as VP of finance at Thomson Learning, a textbook publishing and IT training company. Before that, Wilson was controller and CFO at MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings Inc. where he worked for 12 years. Wilson will replace Pat Gonelli, who retired from Towers Perrin in 2000 after serving as CFO since 1991.
- Szach’s Zapped:
Scott Szach the former CFO of the now-defunct Griffin Trading Co., a Chicago-based commodity futures firm, was charged with one count of wire fraud for diverting firm funds to finance unauthorized stock trades in the 18 months before the firm’s collapse in December 1998. Szach plans to plead guilty to the charge, his attorney told yesterday.
Federal officials said Szach diverted more than $5.56 million from a firm bank account to a brokerage trading account to fund the unauthorized trades, while falsifying Griffin’s books and records to conceal the transfers.
Szach faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Federal sentencing guidelines call for a sentence of 21 to 27 months and a fine of $5,000 to $50,000.
- New Convert: Conversion Services International Inc., an East Hanover, N.J.- based developer and service provider of E- business technology, has appointed Mitchell N. Peipert to the CFO position. Prior to joining CSI, Peipert served for nine years as SVP of operations and controller at TSR Wireless LLC. Peipert replaces Michael Segraves, who in 1999 took home $255,000 in annual salary and bonus and an additional $19,700 in other compensation.
- Music to Mac’s Ears: Record company BMG Entertainment announced that CFO Tom McIntyre has resigned to pursue new interests according to a company spokesperson. McIntyre joined BMG when it was created nearly 14 years ago, has held several finance positions, including SVP and board member at the company. The announcement came after recent changes in BMG management as a consequence of its alliance with Napster Inc.
- Crossed Connection: AT&T Corp. announced the appointment of Oscar Munoz as VP and CFO of AT&T Consumer. Munoz joins the telecom giant from Qwest Communications International Inc., where he served as SVP of finance and administration. He will succeed Lee Anne Lowman, who became CFO of AT&T’s International Ventures organization.
- Fresh Squeezed Juice: Tribeworks Inc., a San Francisco-based provider of software and services for multimedia applications, appointed Robert C. Davidorf as CFO. Davidorf most recently served as general manager at Los Angeles-based ARTISTdirect and was previously CFO at Mjuice.com, a provider of secure MP3 delivery technology.