• General Motors announced the departures of company controller Paul Schmidt and chief accounting officer Peter Bible. Schmidt will step down later this year after 37 years with the company; Bible has resigned “to pursue other career options,” effective June 1. GM plans to combine the two positions and has hired Crist Associates to search for an external candidate.
• Northrop Grumman chief financial officer Wesley Bush has been appointed president of the defense contractor. Bush, who was named CFO less than a year ago, will retain those responsibilities until a successor is named. Previously, he served as head of Northrop’s Space Technology division from the age of 35, making him the youngest division head in Northrop history, noted the Los Angeles Times. Bush, now 45, may be next in line to become chief executive officer, speculated the Times, which added that chairman and CEO Ronald Sugar has announced no plans to step down anytime soon.
• Stanley Tulin, vice chairman and chief financial officer of AXA Financial and executive vice president and member of the executive committee of AXA Group, will retire, effective December 31. He will continue to serve the company in an advisory role as vice chairman emeritus. Tulin joined AXA Equitable in 1996 as senior executive vice president and CFO. Earlier, he was co-chairman of Coopers and Lybrand’s insurance industry practice and spent 17 years with actuarial firm Milliman and Robertson.
• EMC has promoted chief financial officer Bill Teuber to the newly created position of vice chairman. Teuber will continue to serve as CFO, a role he has held since 1997. He joined the information management and storage company in 1995 as vice president and corporate controller.
• Rona Fairhead, chief financial officer and a board member of Pearson, has been named chief executive officer of the company’s Financial Times Group. Fairhead will have responsibility for all Financial Times business units, associate companies, and joint ventures, which includes the Economist Group, the parent of CFO.com. She will be succeeded as CFO by deputy finance chief Robin Freestone; he will also join the Pearson board.
• The trustees of the Financial Accounting Foundation have appointed Thomas Linsmeier to a five-year term on the Financial Accounting Standards Board, effective July 1. Linsmeier is the Russell E. Palmer Endowed Professor and chairman of the department of accounting and information systems at Michigan State University’s Eli Broad College of Business. He succeeds current FASB board member Katherine Schipper, whose term will expire on June 30.
• The board of Vitesse Semiconductor has fired chief executive officer Louis Tomasetta, executive vice president and former chief financial officer Eugene Hovanec, and current CFO Yatin Mody. All three individuals had been put on administrative leave last month due to “issues related to the integrity of documents relating to Vitesse’s stock option grant process,” according to the company. Acting CEO Christopher Gardner and acting CFO Shawn Hassel were named to those posts on a permanent basis.
• Perma-Fix Environmental Services has tapped Steven Baughman to be vice president and chief financial officer. Most recently, Baughman served as vice president, finance, control, and analysis for Waste Management Inc.; he has also served as Waste Management’s international controller.
• Nu Horizons Electronics has hired Kurt Freudenberg as vice president of finance and chief financial officer, effective July 15. He succeeds Paul Durando who is retiring but will remain on the board. Freudenberg has held financial management positions including vice president of corporate finance for Henry Schein Inc., senior vice president of finance and group controller for Cendant Car Rental, accounting management positions at Avis Group Holdings, and director of finance at NBC News. He was also a senior manager for auditors Grant Thornton and Deloitte and Touche.
• Sona Mobile Holdings has promoted vice president of finance and corporate controller Stephen Fellows to chief financial officer. Previously, Fellows served as director of finance at 3Com. He has also held corporate and financial positions at Pennzoil and worked as an accountant at Arthur Andersen. Sona provides mobile technology for financial, gaming, and entertainment applications.
• Global Axcess has named company controller Michael Loiacono as chief financial officer, effective June 1. He succeeds David Surette, who is leaving to pursue other professional interests. Prior to joining the provider of ATM technology, Loiacono spent 18 years in the telecommunications and software industries, most recently as vice president of finance for InfiniRoute Networks. He has also served as vice president of finance for Reach Services and controller and director of finance for ITXC.
• PhotoWorks has appointed Wade Pfeiffer chief financial officer and chief operating officer. He succeeds, Werner Reisacher who last month announced his intention to resign from the Internet photo publishing company. Most recently, Pfeiffer served as CFO of Talisma; previously, he was the finance chief at X10 Wireless Technology and a senior manager at Ernst and Young.