Rob Riecker was promoted to the top finance spot at Sears Holdings, taking over for Jason Hollar. Riecker joined the firm in 2005 as assistant controller and most recently was controller and head of capital market activities.
Chris Capozzi
Chris Capozzi is the latest General Electric finance executive to land a CFO post with another company. Financial-services firm Freedom Financial Network hired him away from GE, where he most recently was chief risk officer. He had also been CFO of GE Capital Corporate Finance, CFO of GE Water, and a managing director of GE Energy Financial Services.
Land O’Lakes promoted Bill Pieper to finance chief, effective May 1. He succeeds Dan Knutson, who is retiring after having led the finance function since 2000. Pieper, who joined the company in 2005, is chief accounting officer and treasurer.
Home health-care management provider BioScrip has named Stephen Deitsch CFO and treasurer, replacing Jeffrey Kreger. Deitsch had previously been CFO and corporate secretary of Coalfire, a portfolio company of The Carlyle Group.
Northwest Natural Gas has appointed Frank Burkhartsmeyer finance chief, effective May 17. He formerly was president and CEO of Avangrid Renewables.
Black Box has named David Russo CFO and treasurer. He joins the company from L.B. Foster, where he also headed finance; before that, he was corporate controller at Wesco International.
Brian Ross has been promoted to the top finance spot at MTS Systems, which supplies high-performance test systems and sensors, effective May 12. He succeeds Jeff Oldenkamp, who has resigned. Ross is currently corporate controller.
Aviation-services provider AAR said CFO Timothy Romenesko will retire at year-end. He joined the company in 1981, was appointed corporate controller in 1991, and served as CFO and treasurer from 1994 to 2006. He was president and chief operating officer from 2007 until 2015 before being named CFO again in 2016. The company plans a search for his replacement.
Birch Communications has named Kevin Dotts finance chief. Previously, he led the finance function at Internap.
Ray Wallin has resigned from the top finance spot at NeoPhotonics, effective May 15. The company, which develops and manufactures optical network components, has begun a search for a replacement for Wallin, who has headed finance since 2013.
