• Christopher M. O’Meara, formerly controller of Lehman Brothers Inc., was promoted to chief financial officer of the global investment bank. He succeeds and reports to Dave Goldfarb, who has been named chief administrative officer. O’Meara joined Lehman in 1994; his other roles have included CFO of investment banking and head of financial management information.
• New York-based fashion retailer Polo Ralph Lauren Corp. named Tracey Travis senior vice president and chief financial officer, effective January 3. Most recently, Travis held the positions of senior vice president of finance at the apparel group Limited Brands Inc. and CFO of Limited Brands’s intimate brands division. Before joining the Limited, she was CFO of the Americas group at American National Can. Travis replaces Gerald Chaney, who is leaving Polo Ralph Lauren to pursue other interests.
• Philadelphia-based Sovereign Bancorp Inc., the parent company of Sovereign Bank, said chief financial officer James D. Hogan will be retiring April 30, 2005, after four years with the company. He will be succeeded by Mark R. McCollom, who is currently CFO of Sovereign Bank, managing director of strategic planning, and chief accounting officer. McCollom joined the company in 1996 as vice president and corporate development officer of Sovereign Bank. In February 2005, he will relinquish his role as chief accounting officer when Thomas D. Cestare joins the company in that position.
• OfficeMax Inc., the Itasca, Illinois-based office-supply chain, named Brian P. Anderson chief financial officer. Anderson most recently held the same position at Baxter International Inc. His appointment follows last year’s purchase of OfficeMax by Boise Cascade Corp., which recently sold off its timber assets to focus on the office-supply business and took on the OfficeMax name. Chris Milliken was named president and chief executive officer of the new company.
• Another Baxter alum made a move to LeapFrog Enterprises Inc., which tapped Bill Chiasson as chief financial officer. Chiasson joined the Emeryville, California-based developer of educational technology toys after five years as senior vice president and CFO of Levi Strauss & Co. Before working at the apparel maker, Chiasson held positions including senior vice president of finance and information technology for the Kraft Foods unit of Philip Morris as well as vice president and controller for several divisions of Baxter Healthcare. He succeeds Jim Curley, who had been CFO since 2001.
• BellSouth Corp. made a number of executive changes. Pat Shannon was named senior vice president of finance; he joined BellSouth in 1997 as vice president of finance and took on the additional role of controller earlier this year. Reporting to Shannon will be Lynn Wentworth, who was promoted to vice president and chief financial officer of the communications group. Wentworth joined BellSouth’s finance organization in 1985 and became vice president and treasurer in 2003.
Mark Droege will succeed Wentworth as vice president and treasurer. Droege, who is currently vice president and chief financial officer of the Latin American group, joined BellSouth in 1986 and was named to his present position in April 2000.
Finally, one-time chief financial officer Isaiah Harris was named president of the company’s advertising and publishing group. Since joining BellSouth in 1997, Harris has served as chief financial officer for BellSouth Telecommunications Inc., vice president of corporate finance, and president of consumer services. He became president of BellSouth Enterprises in January 2004. In his latest role, he succeeds the retiring Elmer Smith.
• Robert S. Falcone retired as chief financial officer of BearingPoint Inc., the McLean, Virginia-based business consulting and systems-integration firm. Falcone had served as the company’s CFO since 2003. Until the company names a new finance chief, his duties will be divided between Jeffrey M. Anderson, head of global financial services, who will lead finance and administration, and Thomas G. Wilde, head of managed services, who will lead finance operations.
• Duston M. Williams is the new executive vice president and chief financial officer of Milipitas, California-based information storage company Maxtor Corp. Williams spent 13 years at Western Digital Corp., including almost four years as its chief financial officer. After leaving Western Digital in 1999, Williams served as the finance chief for several start-up companies, including Netigy Corp., Rhapsody Networks, and Aruba Wireless Networks. He succeeds Michael Bless, who left Maxtor in October.
• James D. Belt was appointed chief financial officer of DBM, a human-resources consultancy. Before joining DBM, Belt was finance chief of BC Components Holdings BV, a manufacturer of electronic components based in the Netherlands. Belt has also served as controller for AMP Inc., a manufacturer of interconnection systems.
• Kevin Pendergest is leaving his post as chief financial officer of Sun Healthcare Group Inc. at the end of the year to pursue other interests, following a restructuring at the Irvine, California-based company. Sun Healthcare has begun its search for his successor; if a new finance chief hasn’t come on board by the time Pendergest leaves, senior vice president and corporate controller Jennifer Botter will serve as interim CFO.
• Mosaic, a field sales and marketing company, named Kelly Parsons senior vice president and chief financial officer. Before joining Mosaic, Parsons was CFO of Accenture’s human-resources services subsidiary. Previously, she was group director of finance for Perot Systems Corp.; Parsons also spent 10 years with PepsiCo Inc.’s finance department.
• Transkaryotic Therapies Inc. promoted chief financial officer Gregory D. Perry to senior vice president. Perry joined the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based biopharmaceutical firm last year as vice president and CFO. Previously, he was senior vice president of finance and business development at the life sciences division of PerkinElmer Inc.