Changes at Ford: Jim Hackett, chairman of Ford Smart Mobility, replaces Mark Fields who is retiring, as president-CEO, effective immediately ... Best Best law firm adds as assistant director-governmental affairs Ana Schwab, who worked on Capitol Hill and for other firms ... Neustar retains Sai Huda, ex-Fidelity National Information Services, as general manager-risk solutions ... SMS Assist adds Taylor Rhodes, ex-Rackspace, as CEO, succeeding founder Mike Rothman, remaining as chairman ... Tanium hires from Facebook Chris Bream as chief technology officer, succeeding in that post co-founder and CEO Orion Hindawi.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, leaving Congress June 30 ... Rachel Brand confirmed as associate attorney general ... Scripps Networks Interactive names Lois Nix, ex-Weather Company, senior vice president-chief financial officer, advertising sales division.
Comcast's Kyle McSlarrow, named to lead its national customer experience efforts as senior vice president-customer experience, effective in June, is succeeded as regional vice president, Washington region, by Amy Lynch, who was vice president-engineering operations, West division ... Alion Science and Technology appoints Steve Schorer, ex-DynCorp, president-CEO, succeeding Bahman Atefi, named vice chairman ... Blue Jay promotes Robert Young to chief financial officer ... Rachel Wolbers, ex-TwinLogic, says Engine hires her as policy director.
Jenner & Block hires ex-FCC officials for Communications, Internet and Technology Practice: Howard Symons as partner (see this section of the May 8 issue of this publication); Roger Sherman, as of counsel, effective June 7; and Johanna Thomas as special counsel ... Arizona Corporation Commission promotes at Utilities Division Eli Abinah to permanent director; and, at Legal Division, Robin Mitchell to assistant director-senior staff attorney; Maureen Scott to deputy chief-litigation and appeals, new post; and Scott succeeded by Wes Van Cleve as senior staff attorney.
Georgetown Law Institute for Technology Law and Policy names Gigi Sohn, also at Open Society Foundations, as a distinguished fellow at the institute ... New to 21st Century Fox: Audrey Cooling, ex-Glover Park Group, as vice president-Global Public Affairs and Policy group; reporting to her is Charlie Greene, ex-Commerce Department, named manager-public affairs and policy ... Computer & Communications Industry Association hires Joshua Landau, ex-WilmerHale, as patent counsel and lead blogger-CCIA’s Patent Progress ... Joining Wikimedia Foundation is Eileen Hershenov, ex-Consumers Union, as general counsel.
Wilkinson Barker hires ex-FCC member Kathleen Abernathy, most recently at Frontier Communications, to return to the law firm, as special counsel, and she may work with clients in sectors including in media, communications and technology ... Towerstream names Laura Thomas, ex-TNCI, as chief financial officer, succeeding Frederick Larcombe ... Ex-Bose veteran Pete Ogley named chief operating officer at Sennheiser ... Discovery Communications moves up Donna D'Alessandro to senior vice president-programming, Discovery Channel and Animal Planet ... Comcast adds J.D. Keller, ex-ADT, as regional vice president, Twin Cities region.
Frontier Communications hires Chris Levendos, ex-Google Fiber, as executive vice president-field operations; predecessor John Lass retires ... Sony Corp. hires Anthony Vinciquerra, Texas Pacific Group and ex-Fox, as chairman-CEO, Sony Pictures Entertainment, effective June 1, succeeding Michael Lynton, who announced in January he would step down this spring ... Comcast adds at NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations Azza Elsheikh, ex-American Express, as vice president-digital product management and design.
New to 21st Century Fox: Michael O’Leary, ex-O’Leary Global Solutions and MPAA, as senior vice president, in Global Public Affairs and Policy group ... Facebook hires Sandy Luff, ex-aide to then-Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., as executive branch public policy director, and Nu Wexler, ex-Twitter, as policy communications manager ... Intel moves Gregory Bryant to general manager, Client Computing Group, and he joins Management Committee ... Hulu hires from AMC Networks Joel Stillerman as chief content officer, new position.
Bill Baer, ex-DOJ, rejoins Arnold & Porter, as partner, effective June 1 ... Qualcomm Senior Vice President Dean Brenner now has that title for spectrum strategy and technology policy ... Public Citizen hires Alan Zibel, ex-Enterprise Community Partners, as research director-Corporate Presidency campaign ... Airwavz Solutions names Brad Davis, ex-ProctorFree, CEO and a board member ... At 21st Century Fox, Joe Marchese moves to president-advertising revenue, Fox Networks Group ... Zayo names Ed Morche, ex-Level 3, president-sales ... Senate 57-42 confirms Scott Gottlieb as food and drugs commissioner ... Spanish Broadcasting System moves up Donny Hudson to general manager-vice president, SBS Miami.
White House said Tuesday evening that President Donald Trump fired FBI Director James Comey; we couldn't reach anyone at the bureau to comment by our deadline ... Attorney and ex-state Sen. Keith Jordan named to Tennessee Public Utility Commission to fill balance of an unexpired term, until June 30, 2018 ... Leaving NAB for 21st Century Fox: Jamie Gillespie becomes vice president in the Global Public Affairs and Policy group, effective June 5 ... Ready Wireless hires Joe Peterson, ex-Telit, as president, Ready IoT ... General Electric appointments include Mo Cowan, ex-ML Strategies and Mintz Levin, named vice president-litigation and legal policy, and Kevin Ichhpurani, ex-Ernst & Young, as executive vice president-global ecosystem and channels, GE Digital ... Polycom hires Tarun Loomba, ex-SanDisk, as executive vice president-solutions management.