• Erin Callan, CFO for Lehman Brothers Holdings, was demoted after the firm revealed it would take a $2.8 billion quarterly loss. Co-chief administrative officer Ian Lowitt replaces Callan, a longtime Lehman trader who took the CFO post last December.
• Kaplan Professional CEO Hal Jones has been appointed CFO and senior vice president of the firm’s parent Washington Post Company, succeeding John Morse, who will retire at year-end. Jones has been at Kaplan for 19 years. Before that he audited education, healthcare, and media clients at Price Waterhouse, where he worked for 13 years.
• The Blackstone Group has replaced its finance chief with former Merrill Lynch chief operating officer Laurence Tosi. The now ex-CFO, Michael Puglisi, who has been at Blackstone since 1994, will continue to work on special projects. Before taking the COO post at Merrill, Tosi was director of the investment bank’s 2,600-person finance team.
• First Data Corp. has promoted the senior vice president of finance of its international division, Phil Wall, to executive vice president and CFO. Wall takes over for Kim Patmore, who is leaving the company after nearly eight years at the finance helm. Wall has been with the global technology company since 2002.
• Steven Shawley has been promoted to senior vice president and CFO at Ingersoll Rand. After joining the company in 1997 through an acquisition, he has held such positions as senior vice president for Climate Control Technologies Sector, president of Climate Controls Americas, and controller.
• Schutt Sports has named Rollen Jones finance chief. He has experience at several other sporting-goods companies, including Pony, Taylormade, and Adidas. At Adidas, Jones was CFO of Latin America and managing director of Adidas Chile.
• Joseph McQuade is the new CFO at Ameriwest Energy Corp. McQuade’s most recent position was finance chief for Woodworker’s Supply Inc., which he held from 2003 to 2007. He was also president of Allagesh Oil Company and vice president of finance and board president Hawk Industries Inc.
• National institutional real estate investor CityView has appointed Richard Lange CFO. He had been a divisional president of Ryland Homes, one of the nation’s top homebuilders. He’s also had stints at Plute/DelWebb Homes, as vice president of operations, and Lyle Anderson Companies, where he was executive vice president and CFO.
• Courtney Cowgill will oversee finance at the adult nightclub operator VCG Holding Corp. as its CFO, chief accounting officer, secretary and treasurer, starting June 19. With 26 years of accounting experience, Cowgill comes to VCGH from Oceanic Exploration Company, where she served as CFO and treasurer.
• The former vice president of finance at Expedia, Brian Regan, will replace Ticketmaster CFO Susan Bracey, who resigned to pursue other opportunities. Regan most recently held various financial roles at LendingTree.
• John Witham, CFO of Minneapolis-based Wireless Ronin Technologies, has resigned. Vice president and controller Brian Anderson is taking over his duties.
• AirTran Holdings has promoted Arne Haak from vice president of finance and treasurer to CFO. Haak, who joined AirTran in 1999, has served in various financial planning, analysis, and investor relations roles. Before that he worked for US Airways.