• Amid accounting woes, Delphi Corp. — which intends to issue restated financials by the end of this month — announced that it has accepted the resignations of treasurer Pam Geller and former vice president of treasury, mergers and acquisitions John Blahnik. The company named vice president of corporate audit services John Arle as vice president and treasurer, effective immediately.
Arle will report to acting chief financial officer John D. Sheehan, who continues to hold the positions of chief accounting officer and controller. Sheehan became acting CFO in March upon the resignation of vice chairman and chief financial officer Alan S. Dawes. At that time, Delphi also announced that chief accountant and controller Paul Free had left the company and that Blahnik had been reassigned to a non-officer position.
• White Plains, New York-based tech conglomerate ITT Industries Inc. named George E. Minnich senior vice president and chief financial officer, effective July 1. Minnich has spent the past 12 years at United Technologies Corp., most recently as vice president and CFO of the Otis Elevator Co. unit, and before that, in the same roles for United’s division Carrier Corp.
• Rod Sherwood is retiring as senior vice president and chief financial officer of Gateway Inc. later this year. Sherwood, who joined the Irvine, California-based PC maker in October 2002, has no immediate plans. Before joining Gateway, Sherwood served as executive vice president and CFO at Loudcloud Inc. (now Opsware Inc.). He has also held positions including finance chief of Hughes Telecommunications and Space Co., as well as corporate vice president and treasurer.
Gateway also appointed Neal West principal accounting officer. West, who joined the company earlier this year as vice president and corporate controller, succeeds Kelli Richard, who held the position since early 2004. Before joining Gateway, West had an 18-year career at APL Logistics, most recently as vice president and CFO.
• Severn Bancorp Inc., the parent company of Severn Savings Bank FSB and Hyatt Commercial, announced that Cecelia Lowman has stepped down as chief financial officer; she will remain with the Annapolis, Maryland-based company as controller. No reason was given for the change. She will be succeeded as CFO by Thomas G. Bevivino, who has worked in the finance and accounting industry for over 25 years, according to a company statement.
• Indianapolis-based air carrier ATA Holdings Corp. named Francis J. Conway interim chief financial officer to help with the company’s reorganization under bankruptcy protection. Conway, a managing director with Navigant Capital Advisors LLC, was previously a national managing partner at Deloitte & Touche’s Reorganization Services Group. At ATA, he replaces finance chief Gilbert Viets, who will stay on as assistant to the chairman and a member of the board. He will also work on several projects including the sale of ATA’s subsidiary travel club, Ambassadair.
• Los Angeles-based Univision Communications Inc. announced that senior executive vice president and chief strategic officer Andrew W. Hobson was named to the additional position of chief financial officer. In that role he replaces Jeffrey Hinson, who resigned to pursue other interests in Dallas, where he and his family reside. Hobson joined Univision in 1993 as an executive vice president; previously he was a principal at Chartwell Partners.
• W.A.C. Lighting, a maker of track lighting, appointed Gloria Yonkin chief financial officer. Before joining the Garden City, New York-based company, Yonkin was director of business transformation for a business consulting firm. In addition, her experience includes stints as finance chief for NEC Computers, North America; vice president of operations and controller, and later director of worldwide procurement, for Packard Bell NEC; finance chief for Century Mold Co.; and several finance roles for Bausch & Lomb.
• Trenton, New Jersey-based newspaper publisher Journal Register Co. promoted executive vice president and chief financial officer Jean B. Clifton to president and chief operating officer. Joseph W. Pooler was hired as senior vice president and CFO to succeed Clifton. Clifton has been with Journal Register since its inception in 1990; Pooler joins the company from Pegasus Communications Corp., a direct broadcast satellite television provider, where he was senior vice president and CFO.
• Jabber Inc., a provider of real-time messaging products, named Stuart Lucko chief financial officer and vice president of operations. Lucko has been handling finance at Denver-based Jabber since its founding in 2000.
• Three Five Systems Inc. said interim chief financial officer James E. Jurgens resigned for health-related reasons. Jurgens will continue to serve as a part-time consultant to the company, which provides specialized electronics manufacturing services to original equipment manufacturers.
• Specialty Risk Services, a property/casualty third-party administrator for workers’ compensation and general liability claims, appointed John Darden chief financial officer. Darden joins the Hartford-based company from Acordia Inc., a Wells Fargo company, where he was senior vice president and CFO. He has also held chief financial officer positions with SGS North America Inc. and GAB Robins North America Inc.
• Vernier Networks, which provides clientless network access management products, named Bhupi Singh chief financial officer. Singh, who has previously held the top finance job at technology companies including Avolent, Volera, and LynuxWorks, also spent 15 years at Apple Computer in a number of positions, from financial controller to senior director of finance, worldwide research, and development, where he oversaw all financial and planning activities for Apple’s worldwide R&D.