• Insurance giant American International Group Inc. promoted two finance executives. Steven J. Bensinger, who joined AIG as treasurer in 2002, will take on the additional titles of controller and senior vice president. He will continue to report to vice chairman and chief financial officer Howard I. Smith.
Bensinger takes over the controller position from Michael J. Castelli, who was named chief administrative officer and senior vice president and will also continue to report to Smith. Castelli joined AIG in 1989 as assistant vice president and controller of the company’s domestic general insurance operations. He was promoted to vice president, controller, treasurer, and later CFO of that unit. Castelli became AIG’s vice president and deputy controller in 1998, and controller in 2000.
• Michael D. Fleisher has been named executive vice president and chief financial officer of Warner Music Group and will report to chairman and chief executive officer Edgar Bronfman Jr. Fleischer joins the New York-based music company from technology consultancy Gartner Inc., where he was chairman and chief executive officer for five years, following a term as Gartner’s CFO. Michael Ward, Warner’s interim CFO, will return to his full-time position as managing director of Bain Capital — where, incidentally, Fleischer worked before joining Gartner.
• In more news from the music industry, EMI Group Plc., the world’s third- largest record company, hired Martin Stewart to replace Roger Faxon as chief financial officer, effective February 1. Stewart was CFO of chief financial officer of British Sky Broadcasting Group Plc. from 1998 until last year. Faxon will move to EMI’s music publishing unit in New York as chief operating officer on February 1 and will become the joint CEO of the unit on April 1, 2006.
• The J. M. Smucker Co. named vice president and treasurer Mark R. Belgya chief financial officer. Belgya, who joined the Orrville, Ohio-based jam maker in 1985, will remain treasurer. He succeeds former CFO Richard K. Smucker, who will continue as president and co-CEO.
• Applebee’s International Inc. announced that H.G. Carrington Jr. will join the Overland Park, Kansas-based restaurant chain in the newly created role of senior vice president of finance, effective January 10. He will report to executive vice president and chief financial officer Steve Lumpkin. Carrington’s experience includes CFO and operations stints at California Pizza Kitchen, U.S. Restaurant Properties Inc., and Spaghetti Warehouse Inc. Before working in the restaurant industry, Carrington spent 14 years in investment banking.
• R.H. Donnelley Corp. named Robert A. Gross vice president and controller. He had been vice president of finance at Cary, North Carolina-based business publisher since last September, after Donnelley’s acquisition of SBC Communications Inc.’s directory publishing business. Gross joined DonTech — a partnership between Donnelley and SBC — in October 1992 as manager of budgets and strategic planning; he became controller in 1993 and was named vice president and chief financial officer in 1997.
• Brightpoint Inc. appointed Paul Sansom as chief financial officer of its European division. From 1998 through 2004 Sansom worked for PepsiCo, most recently as director of international corporate finance for its Europe, Middle East, and Africa region. He will report to Frank Terence, CFO of Plainfield, Indiana-based mobile-phone distributor.
• Enesco Group Inc. announced that Paula Manley will join the Itasca, Illinois-based maker of giftware and collectibles as chief financial officer, effective January 24. Previously, Manley was CFO of Follett Higher Education Group, an outsource provider of college bookstores. She has also served as the CFO of Einstein Noah Bagel Corp. and Gulfstream Bagels and as franchise controller for Burger King Corp.
• Gary L. McArthur, formerly vice president of corporate development at Harris Corp., is now vice president of finance and treasurer at the Melbourne, Florida-based communications technology company. McArthur, who will report to senior vice president and chief financial officer Bryan R. Roub, succeeds treasurer David S. Wasserman, who is retiring from the company.
• Bellingham, Massachusetts-based Opus Inc., a marketer of home and garden products, promoted chief financial officer and vice president of operations Michael Reilly to president and chief operating officer. As president, Reilly succeeds John Stone, who is now chairman and chief executive officer.
• Deborah A. Smeltzer joins Dynavax Technologies Inc. as vice president of operations and chief financial officer. Smeltzer moves to the Berkeley, California-based biotechnology company from Applied Biosystems, where she served as vice president and general manager of the company’s genetic analysis business after serving as vice president of finance. Earlier, Smeltzer was vice president and CFO of Genset SA, a Paris-based genomics company.