• Zale Corp. has announced that Rodney Carter will serve as group senior vice president and chief financial officer, effective October 16. He is currently senior vice president and CFO of PETCO Animal Supplies. Carter’s predecessor, Mark Lenz, went on administrative leave in May. The jewelry company alleged he had failed to disclose a delay in payments to vendors in a timely manner.
• Marsh & McLennan Cos. has named CFO M. Michele Burns chairman and chief executive officer of Mercer Human Resource Consulting, an MMC subsidiary. She succeeds Michael Caulfield, who is retiring. To fill the CFO vacancy, the company promoted Matthew B. Bartley, who has served as MMC’s treasurer since 2001.
• Ned Hayes has joined Pillar Data Systems as chief financial officer. Hayes previously served as executive vice president of finance and CFO at Quantum Corp.
• Small Bone Innovations Inc. has hired Steve Ward as chief financial officer. Previously, Ward was vice president of finance and administration at International Technidyne for six years.
• Vertafore has named Joe Schick senior vice president and chief financial officer. Prior to working for the software company, Schick was the senior vice president of finance at Expedia, and he also served as the controller for Humongous Entertainment, a division of Atari. He has also held various finance positions with Westin/Starwood Hotels and Resorts.
• Urban Brands has named Anita Britt senior vice president and chief financial officer. Previously, Britt served as executive vice president of finance for Jones Apparel Group for 12 years.
• Patheon has appointed John Bell chief financial officer. During the past 20 years, he has held chief financial and operating officer positions in several industries, including automotive parts, real estate, and telecommunications. Patheon provides drug development and manufacturing services.
• Merlin International has promoted Stephanie Letendre to chief financial officer. Letendre served as the IT solutions provider’s controller since 2005.
• Turin Networks has appointed William Zerella chief financial officer and vice president of finance and administration. Previously, Zerella was CFO at Infinera, Calient Networks, Logictier, and he has held senior executive finance positions at GTECH and Deloitte & Touche.
• Convergence CT has announced that Brian J. Donahue, a former finance executive for Hewlett-Packard, is the technology company’s new chief financial officer and vice president.
• WPT Enterprises has announced that Scott Friedman, vice president of finance and corporate controller, will serve as chief financial officer. He replaces W. Todd Steele, who has accepted a position with a private equity firm. Friedman joined WPTE in 2004 from Sony Pictures Entertainment where he served as controller of Sony Pictures Digital. He previously spent five years in finance positions at Walt Disney. Steele will remain with the company through October 20.
• Plexxikon has appointed Fletcher Payne to vice president and chief financial officer. Previously, Payne was vice president of finance at Rinat Neuroscience, and he has held a variety of senior finance and treasury positions at Dynavax Technologies, Cell Genesys, Sun Microsystems, and IBM.
• HuntMountain Resources has appointed Ronald Schutz chief financial officer. His predecessor, Randal Hardy, who served as CFO since August 2005, has been promoted to president. Schutz served as the director of finance and risk management for Huntwood Industries.
• Clothing retailer Coolibar has appointed Dennis Thalhuber chief financial officer. Thalhuber was previously the CFO of Gentra Systems and vice president of finance and controller at Spine-Tech.