FCC Public Safety Bureau Policy and Licensing Division Chief Tom Beers retired ... Sprint promotes Brian Miller to president-Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee region, and Brian Hedlund to president-Washington, D.C., Baltimore and Virginia region, though Hedlund remains director-general business sales until the new regional structure is completely rolled out next year ... As part of Crestview Partners' agreement earlier this month to buy what it described as a "significant stake" in cable operator WOW, Jeffrey Marcus, a Crestview partner, named chairman, succeeding Colleen Abdoulah, retiring as chairwoman and remaining on the board, effective Jan. 1 ... Scripps Networks Interactive promotes Senior Vice President Suzanne Underwald to that role for business and legal affairs, content distribution & marketing, new position, which includes some linear and digital operations.

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., promotes Nick Rossi to majority staff director, succeeding David Schwietert, leaving ... Best Best & Krieger confirms it has hired Drew Clark, ex-Kirton McConkie, as counsel, Municipal Law practice group, working on Internet technology, broadband deployment and intellectual property ... Information Technology Industry Council's IT Alliance for the Public Sector hires as senior managers, State, Local and Education Technology division Jordan Kroll, ex-Stateside Associates, and Liam Crawford, ex-National Governors Association ... Management changes at Apple: Jeff Williams promoted to chief operating officer; Johny Srouji promoted to senior vice president-hardware technologies; Phil Schiller’s role as senior vice president-worldwide marketing expanded to include responsibility for the App Store across all Apple platforms; Tor Myhren, ex-Grey Group, hired as vice president-marketing communications, effective in Q1, succeeding Hiroki Asai, retiring.

European Commission names Tiina Astola, Finnish Ministry of Justice, director general-justice and consumers, effective Feb. 1; effective immediately it names from the EC Sixtine Bouygues and Margaritis Schinas deputy-directors general, DG Communication; and moves Claire Bury to deputy director general-DG Communications Networks, Content and Technology, effective in January ... Time Inc. hires Jennifer Wong, ex-PopSugar, as president-Time Inc. Digital, new position ... Disney Consumer Products and Interactive Media promotes Courtney Holt to executive vice president-head, Maker Studios, succeeding Ynon Kreiz, Maker president, leaving the company effective Jan. 11 ... Nielsen promotes Steve Hasker to global president-chief operating officer, effective Jan. 1.

Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications names Sébastien Soriano, France's electronic communications and postal regulator, chairman for 2017, succeeding Wilhelm Eschweiler, German regulatory authority BnetzA, chairman for 2016 ... Rapid7 hires Harley Geiger, leaving Center for Democracy & Technology, as director-public policy, effective Jan. 4 ... LifeLock hires Sharon Segev, ex-Elo Touch Solutions, as executive vice president-general counsel-secretary, effective Jan. 11 ... Comcast hires Mauricio Piccone, ex-Endemol Shine Latino, as senior vice president-reality programming, NBCUniversal's Telemundo ... Penthera, supplier of download-to-go video software for mobile devices, hires Daniel Taitz, ex-Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, as chief operating officer.

Univision Communications promotes Sam Abiad to senior vice president-ad sales operations and local business strategy ... Palo Alto Networks hires Naveen Zutshi, ex-Gap, as chief information officer ... BusinessWire hires Robert Markel, ex-Virgin America, as chief information security officer.

Dish Network said it promotes: Erik Carlson to president-chief operating officer, succeeding Chairman-CEO Charlie Ergen, who also had been president, and also succeeding COO Bernie Han, who remains executive vice president-strategic planning; Vivek Khemka to executive vice president-chief technology officer; Brian Neylon to executive vice president-customer acquisition and retention; Warren Schlichting to executive vice president-marketing, programming and media sales; John Swieringa to succeed Carlson as executive vice president-operations; Rob Dravenstott to succeed Swieringa as senior vice president-chief information officer; and Senior Vice President-Corporate Controller Paul Orban also named chief accounting officer ... Sprint moves Kevin Crull to president-central area, Roger Solé to chief marketing officer, John Stevens to president-central Texas region, and Tim Donahue to president-Kansas and Missouri region, and hires Michael Miess, ex-Windstream, as president-North Carolina and South Carolina region.

Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing hires Vicki Lins, ex-United Way Worldwide, as president-CEO, after the September departure (see 1508170024) of John Lansing ... Patent and Trademark Office promotes Patrick Ross, ex-Warren Communications News, to acting chief communications officer ... Disney promotes Skarpi Hedinsson to chief technology officer, Disney|ABC Television Group ... Madison Square Garden Co. hires Joseph Percoco, ex-aide to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D), as senior vice president, new position, effective Jan. 4 ... Scripps Networks Interactive starts Scripps Lifestyle Studios, led by Senior Vice President-General Manager Vikki Neil ... Comcast promotes Jim Peelman to area vice president for the Southwest Bay, California Technical Operations group, succeeding Michael Valentin, who moved to area vice president-Northeast division ... Univision Communications hires Hilda García, ex-Entravision, as vice president-digital local media, Univision Digital, new position ... Yahoo said Max Levchin is resigning from board due to time considerations and "not due to any disagreement with Yahoo on any matter related to Yahoo’s operations, policies or practices."

Consumer Technology Association hires Tiffany Moore, ex-TwinLogic Strategies, as vice president-congressional affairs ... Viacom's Nickelodeon promotes Keith Dawkins to executive vice president-TeenNick and Nicktoons ... Rovio CEO Pekka Rantala stepping down, effective Jan. 1, succeeded by Kati Levoranta, promoted; company said as part of changes Mikael Hed, a board member, will lead Rovio’s media business, including licensing activities, and Wilhelm Taht, who has been head, Rovio Stars, will now lead games unit ... Avnet promotes Sean Valcamp to chief information security officer, new position ... Immersion Corp. hires Todd Whitaker, ex-Maxim Integrated, as vice president-marketing ... Fortrust hires Cynthia Choboian, ex-Commscope/TE Connectivity, as vice president-business development.

Patent and Trademark Office hires Hope Shimabuku, ex-Xerox, as director, new Texas regional office, new position, effective in January ... FirstNet said it names to user advocacy team as area leads Jeff King for regions I-V and Steven Smith, both ex-Immigration and Customs Enforcement, for regions VI-X; Lori Stone, ex-Maryland state official, for Region III; and Michael Varney, ex-Connecticut official, Region I; and as federal consultation liaisons Tiffany Perry, ex-CACI, and Charlotte Whitacre, ex-Department of Justice ... SiriusXM hires Jack Vaughn, ex-New Wave Entertainment, as senior vice president-comedy programming ... magicJack VocalTec hires Keith Reed, ex-Intuit, as general manager/senior vice president-enterprise sales.

Rejoining Willkie Farr is Daniel Alvarez, ex-aide to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, as a partner, Communications, Media & Privacy Department, focusing on cybersecurity, Internet and privacy ... Globecast hires Philippe Bernard, ex-Orange Group, as chairman-CEO, succeeding Olivier Barberot ... National Music Publishers’ Association promotes Charlotte Sellmyer to senior vice president-external affairs ... Disney promotes Renu Thomas to executive vice president-media operations, engineering and IT, Disney|ABC Television Group ... Copyright Clearance Center hires Boris Vulikh, ex-Google's ITA Software, as director-data engineering ... Sinclair launches digital news site Circa and hires as chief creative officer John Solomon, ex-Washington Times ... Gannett hires Joanne Lipman, Surrey Lane Media, as chief content officer, new position, and Daniel Bernard, ex-Time Inc., as chief product officer ... Scripps Networks promotes Courtney White to senior vice president-programming, Travel Channel.