Novartis, a Swiss pharmaceuticals group, has poached Jonathan Symonds, a managing director at investment bank Goldman Sachs, to become its new deputy CFO and CFO designate. Symonds, a former CFO at AstraZeneca, will join Novartis in September, initially reporting to finance chief Raymund Breu, who retires in March 2010.
Michael Smith has been hired by Dutch financial services group ING as CFO and chief insurance risk officer of its US annuity business. He joins ING from Lincoln Financial Group, where he spent 21 years in various roles, including CFO of its Life and Annuities division.
Greek telecoms group Hellenic Telecommunications Organization has named Kevin Copp, one of its non-executive directors, its first group CFO. Copp, who was previously head of M&A at Deutsche Telekom, will take the post in August.
At Telekom Austria, Siegfried Mayrhofer has been promoted to finance director of the fixed network division from his previous position as manager of the controlling and accounting department. Meanwhile, at Telekom Austria subsidiary Mobilkom Austria, Dino Dogan will take over as CFO in August. Dogan was CFO of Mobilkom’s Croatian subsidiary Vipnet since 2003.
Pietro Maranzana has been appointed as the new CFO of German pay-TV company Premiere, starting in June. He takes over from CEO Mark Williams, who had handled CFO responsibilities on an interim basis. Maranzana joined Premiere last November as senior VP for finance. According to Markus Tellenbach, Premiere’s chairman, the appointment is “acknowledgement of [Marazana’s] role in restructuring the financial situation of Premiere.”