• Altera Corp. has tapped a 15-year veteran of General Electric for its new chief financial officer. Also holding the title of senior vice president, Timothy Morse joins the software company after serving as CFO and general manager of business development for GE Plastics. He has held a variety of other positions at GE Plastics, GE Appliances, and GE Capital. Morse succeeds James Callas, who had served as acting CFO and principal financial and accounting officer since October, when Nathan Sarkisian retired a few months earlier than expected as finance chief.
• Spirit Airlines has appointed David Lancelot as chief financial officer.
He will replace John Severson, who served as Spirit’s CFO since 1997.
Lancelot has more than 18 years of airline and finance experience.
• Scholastic Corp. will welcome Maureen O’Connell on January 22, when she joins the children’s publisher as its new executive vice president, chief administrative officer, and chief financial officer. Her predecessor, Mary Winston, executive vice president and CFO, is resigning. Saying in a press release that he was grateful for Winston’s service, Scholastic president and CEO Richard Robinson added, “When I told her of my plan to appoint a chief administrative officer, she told me she would prefer to pursue her career in finance and would seek other opportunities outside of Scholastic.” O’Connell was CFO of Barnes & Noble from 2000 to 2002 before joining Gartner as CFO and CAO, and later as president and COO. Most recently, O’Connell was CFO of Affinion Group. O’Connell has also held finance positions at Primedia, Newfield Publications, Newbridge Communications, and Publishers Clearing House.
• The American Basketball Association has appointed Darren Cioffi as chief financial officer. He is the CEO of Cioffi Business Management Services, a management consulting firm, and he is also the co-owner and CEO of the Strong Island Sound, an ABA professional basketball team.
• Kerry Steele will be the new senior vice president and chief financial officer of Harrington West Financial Group. She assumes the position from president and chief operating officer William Phillips, who had re-assumed the role in 2004 after Sean Callow resigned. Steele has served Los Padres Bank since 2004 in a variety of roles including controller and principal accounting officer. She was formerly the director of corporate accounting for World Minerals. She trained in public accounting at KPMG.
• AirDefense has appointed Tom Savini as chief financial officer. He previously served as vice president of finance at Movaz Networks. He has also held senior banking positions at Silicon Valley Bank, Sumitomo Bank, and Bank of America. AirDefense provides wireless security.
• Nandini Mallya, who became interim chief financial officer of Lincoln Park Bancorp and Lincoln Park Savings Bank last July, will now be the permanent CFO. She has been with the company for nearly 10 years and previously served as a vice president and treasurer.
• TranSwitch Corp. has appointed Theodore Chung as its interim chief financial officer while the semiconductor company searches for a permanent CFO. Theodore Quinlan resigned as vice president of finance and controller after three months with the company but will stay on as a temporary employee in the accounting function. He had stepped into the role “during a period of transition,” noted TranSwitch’s president and CEO, Santanu Das. Chung has been with the company since 2001 and was most recently promoted to vice president of business development. He has also worked at Lydstrom and Fahnestock & Co.
• NeighborWorks America has named Michael Forster as chief financial officer. He joins the nonprofit from National Ready Mixed Concrete Association, where he was vice president of finance and administration. He has also served as a consultant to the District of Columbia government and as a general partner with Mitchell & Titus. In addition, Forster spent time working for Arthur Andersen in its government services office.
• L-3 Communications has appointed Ralph D’Ambrosio as chief financial officer. The CFO position was formerly held by Michael Strianese, who serves as president and CEO. D’Ambrosio joined L-3 Communications in 1997, and most recently served as vice president of finance and principal accounting officer. He previously worked at Coopers & Lybrand as a senior manager in the accounting and auditing department.
• Guy Anthony has joined Quellan as chief financial officer. In addition to working 22 years with Intel, he has held senior financial positions at Stentor and Nektar Therapeutics. At Intel, Anthony held the positions of group controller for microprocessors and assistant treasurer for Intel Capital. Quellan manufactures “noise cancellation” chips.
• Alamo Group recently welcomed Dan Malone to the company as its new executive vice president and chief financial officer. Malone previously was executive vice president, CFO, and corporate secretary for Igloo. Before that, he was CFO of The York Group. He began his career in accounting with PricewaterhouseCoopers.
• Student loan company OneSimpleLoan has named Richard Lovell as chief financial officer. Lovell previously worked at The Brazos Group and in KPMG LLP’s risk advisory services practice. Lovell started his career in the banking industry, including service as vice president and finance manager of student loans at Barnett Bank (now Bank of America) and deputy controller for the Northwest Ohio affiliate bank of National City Corp.