>>The new finance Socrates at Plato Learning, Gregory Melsen, might well need a philosophical approach in his new role…Earnings per share at South Bloomington, Minn.-based company should be off about 1 percent in Q1 2002, says Yahoo!.finance…Company, provider of computer-based educational and E-learning tools, vies with crowded field for attention of K-12’s…Good luck…Melsen takes over as CFO from COO John Buske…Buske had retained CFO title after being named to added post of COO in December…Melsen previously VP-finance, treasurer, CFO at American Medical Systems, maker of urological medical devices.
>>Elsewhere on medical beat, New York-based Health Management Systems, health-care software provider, promoted Philip Rydzewski yesterday to CFO and SVP…Rydzewski, 39, joined HMS last year as VP, controller…He replaces Robert Holster, the company’s president…Holster had been acting CFO since last June, when then-CFO Alan Bendes left, Reuters Securities says…During 1999 and 2000, Rydzewski braved New Economy, serving as VP-finance for Rainmaker Interactive, now-defunct start-up firm backed by venture capital…From 1990 until 1998, he was VP-finance and corporate controller for PHP Healthcare, diversified health-care services provider…HMS shares down a nickel Tuesday at $4.29 in a late-afternoon Nasdaq trade…Maybe Rydzewski can find cure…
>> Anthony Patti steps aboard Mystic Financial as company’s finance chief… Mystic is holding company for venerable Massachusetts-based Medford Co-operative Bank, established 1886…Patti to take charge of financial planning, interest-rate risk management, budgeting process, and technology…Previously served as CFO at Revere Federal Savings Bank for nearly 10 years…Patti might be on to something: Earlier this year, previous Mystic CFO Ralph W. Dunham stepped into CEO post…Dunham told CFO in September that he’d long lusted for the corner office, wasn’t really numbers cruncher … Mystic earned 26 cents per share for the quarter ended December 31, 2001, an increase of 8 percent over the year-ago period. Total assets increased to $311.2 million from $300.4 million in the prior quarter…Shares closed at about $14 apiece, dead even with the day before.
