Activision Blizzard promoted Armin Zerza to chief financial officer. Zerza joined the company in 2015 as CFO of Blizzard Entertainment and has assumed expanded roles and increased responsibility at both Activision Blizzard and Blizzard Entertainment. He currently serves as chief commercial officer of Activision Blizzard and chief operating officer of Blizzard Entertainment. Zerza joined the video game company after more than 20 years at P&G where he most recently served as finance chief for P&G’s Latin America division and its European Baby Care business as well as director of mergers and acquisitions. He will assume his new role in the company’s second fiscal quarter, following the retirement of current CFO Dennis Durkin.
After four years as CFO at Shake Shack, Tara Comonte is leaving the company to become CEO of TMRW Life Sciences, a biotech company focused on in vitro fertilization. Comonte will stay in her current role through May 7 to oversee the burger chain’s fiscal first quarter 2021 reporting period. A subcommittee of the company’s board of directors is leading Shake Shack’s search for Comonte’s replacement.
BeiGene promoted Julia Wang to chief financial officer, effective June 30. Wang joined the biotechnology company in June 2020 as senior vice president of enterprise optimization and deputy CFO. Wang was previously senior vice president of global business finance and corporate planning at Alexion Pharmaceuticals. Before that, she held leadership positions at Quest Diagnostics, including vice president of U.S. regional finance and enterprise commercial and vice president of finance, value creation. Before Quest, she worked at Johnson & Johnson, where she held senior leadership roles including CFO of various operating businesses, including Xian-Janssen, J&J’s pharmaceutical business in China. Earlier in her career, she led finance initiatives at PepsiCo. Wang succeeds Howard Liang, who is retiring.
Turo named Charles Fisher as the car-sharing marketplace’s finance chief. Fisher most recently served as executive vice president of corporate finance and development at Charter Communications. Before joining Charter in 2013, he was a senior managing director for telecoms and media at Guggenheim Securities. Earlier, he worked at Nomura Securities where he headed the media investment banking practice for the Americas.
Happify Health hired Bilal Khan as CFO. Before joining the healthcare platform, Khan was a senior vice president at Goldman Sachs where he worked in the technology investment banking group and helped lead digital healthcare efforts across the United States. His transaction experience spans companies such as Apple, Verily, GoodRx, SoFi, Affirm, and Snapchat. Previously, he was a part of the healthcare investment banking team.
Christian Lee joined Transfix as its new finance chief. Before joining the transportation solutions provider, Lee was managing director of WeWork Asia after serving as WeWork’s CFO for two years. His previous experience includes senior vice president, head of merger and acquisitions at Time Warner Cable, director of strategic finance at Time Warner, and an associate in the investment bank group at Citigroup.
Contentful appointed Carla Cooper as the company’s new CFO. Cooper joins the content platform from Salesforce, where she was vice president of finance and strategy. She previously led investor relations and planning at integration and API platform MuleSoft before the company’s IPO in 2017. Cooper moved to the Salesforce leadership team after it purchased MuleSoft in 2018. She previously held finance and investor relations roles at Eventbrite as well as Responsys, which she helped lead through an IPO and subsequent acquisition by Oracle.
Frontier Medicines hired Gregory Chow as chief financial officer. Chow joins the precision medicine company from Aptose Biosciences, where he was previously the executive vice president and chief financial officer. Before joining Aptose, he served as managing director and director of private placements at Wedbush Securities. Before that, he was a director in the private placements/equity capital markets group at RBC Capital Markets.
Cleaning products and solutions manufacturer Tennant Company appointed Fay West as CFO, effective April 15. West was previously chief financial officer at raw material processing and handling company SunCoke Energy. Before joining SunCoke Energy, in 2011, she was assistant controller at United Continental Holdings. Before that role, she served in several leadership roles at PepsiAmericas, including vice president of accounting and financial reporting and director of financial reporting. West replaces Thomas Paulson, who has served as interim chief financial officer since January 2021.
ORock Technologies appointed Patrick Deane as chief financial officer. Before joining the hybrid cloud service provider, Deane was CFO at hybrid cloud and infrastructure monitoring company observIQ. Before that, he was a CFO consultant at Nomad Financial. Earlier, he was vice president of finance at ad tech firm [x+1].