• Wal-Mart Stores has promoted Charles Holley to executive vice president of finance and treasurer. He was previously senior vice president of finance. Jay Fitzsimmons, currently senior vice president and treasurer, will retire January 31. Holley joined Wal-Mart from the Tandy Corp. in 1994 and served as senior vice president and CFO of Wal-Mart’s international division. He was promoted to senior vice president and controller of Wal-Mart Stores in 2003.
• Adelphia Communications Corp., currently under bankruptcy protection, has announced that its contract with Vanessa Wittman, executive vice president and chief financial officer, expired on December 31, and she no longer works with the company. She joined Adelphia in 2003.
• SafeNet has promoted John Frederick to chief financial officer. He had been serving as the interim CFO since October, when acting CFO, president, and chief operating officer Carole Argo stepped down as the result of the company’s investigation into its past stock option granting practices. At the time, Frederick was also given the title of chief accounting officer. Before joining SafeNet, Frederick served as vice president and corporate controller for Arby’s Restaurant Group.
• Merge Technologies has hired Steven Norton as chief financial officer. On January 8, he started work at the company, which does business as Merge Healthcare. Last June, the company announced that Scott Veech, CFO, treasurer, and secretary, and two other executives resigned following an independent probe into its accounting and financial practices. Before joining Merge, Norton was senior vice president and CFO at Manhattan Associates, and he also spent more than five years as an executive vice president and CFO with Concurrent Computer Corp.
• Aptuit has appointed Peter Adamski as chief financial officer. He most recently served as CFO of Barriersafe Solutions International. Adamski began his career at Arthur Andersen before joining Johnson & Johnson, where he spent 16 years in roles with increasing responsibility culminating in the CFO post at McNeil Specialty Products Co., which manufactures Splenda. Aptuit provides products to biotechnology companies.
• Software company BladeLogic has appointed John Gavin to chief financial officer. Previously, Gavin was the CFO for NaviSite and senior vice president and CFO at Cambridge Technology Partners. He also spent 12 years at Data General Corp., serving as director of corporate accounting and reporting, vice president and treasurer, vice president and corporate controller, and then CFO.
• Neocase Software has hired Caroline Philippon-Quereuil as chief financial officer. Prior to joining Neocase, she served as finance director with Art Technology Group. She was also finance manager at Unify Corp.
• AXA Financial has promoted Richard Dziadzio from deputy chief financial officer to CFO to replace Stanley Tulin, who retired. Dziadzio has been with AXA Group since 1994. He initially served as a senior analyst in AXA’s corporate finance department in Paris and later was promoted to corporate finance officer before becoming head of finance and administration for AXA Real Estate Investment Managers. He has also held the title of executive vice president of AXA Equitable Life Insurance Co.
• TeamStaff has named its chief financial officer, Rick Filippelli, president and CEO to replace Kent Smith. The staffing services company also asked three other executives to resign as part of a restructuring plan. Filippelli will continue to serve as CFO.
• Larry Shapiro recently joined Accurate Box, which prints and distributes consumer-goods packages, as chief financial officer. He previously worked at the company as vice president of finance and administration and left in 2002 to become a CFO at International Paper. Before rejoining Accurate Box, he was vice president and CFO at Bath Unlimited.
• Howard Sipzner has started his job as executive vice president and chief financial officer of Brandywine Realty Trust. He previously served as executive vice president and CFO of Equity One. He also worked at The Chase Manhattan Bank and its predecessor companies, and served in a vice president role for three years.