New CIOs at PR Newswire, eDiets, MediaWhiz and more

Plus: Energy drink company Boo Koo Holdings hires a former Snapple CIO as its president.

PR Newswire is spreading the word about its new CIO, James Slattery, whom it hired today. Slattery reports to Charles Gregson, CEO of PR Newswire, and divides his time between the company’s headquarters in NYC and its office in Jersey City, N.J. Slattery is no stranger to the newswire business. He most recently worked for Dow Jones and Company for 14 years. Slattery is credited with developing the technology that launched the Weekend Edition of the Wall Street Journal. His other accomplishments include coordinating the move of 140 editors from Dow Jones’ New York location to Jersey City, delivering the European and Asian versions of the Wall Street Journal‘s website, managing the launches of Dow Jones’ NewsPlus and Global Equities websites. For more information on Slattery’s work at Dow Jones and his prior experience, see the press release announcing his hire.

Beverage maker Boo Koo Holdings (soon to be known as Performing Brands) is quenching its thirst for executive management. The company announced yesterday that it had hired a new chairman and a new president. The new president, Joe Bayern, who begins his job in September, once served as the CIO of Snapple Beverage Group. Most recently, Bayern was chief strategy officer for Cadbury Schweppes Americas Beverages. He also previously served as the director of global strategy for Cadbury Schweppes in London. Prior to Cadbury, Bayern worked for Snapple as its SVP of operations, CIO and chief strategy officer.

Ed Forman gave up his CIO and CTO position with direct marketer Targetbase and joined database marketer Merkle as the vice president of professional services in its commercial database group.

eDiets isn’t skimping on IT management. The Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based diet and fitness website hired Laura Klein as its CIO. She most recently served as CIO, chief security officer and vice president of IT at Sheridan Healthcare, a provider of outsourced healthcare services for hospitals. In her new role, she reports to eDiets CEO and President Steve Rattner.

MassMutual CIO Michael Foley made his deputy CIO a senior vice president on June 18. Bob Casale, 41, had served as a corporate vice president since May 2007. In his role as deputy CIO, which Casale has held for five month, he leads the life insurance company’s enterprise technology group. Casale has worked for MassMutual for 13 years. In the press release announcing Casale’s promotion to SVP, CIO Foley attributed his deputy’s success to his “exemplary leadership skills, superior technical knowledge” and “keen understanding of how IT should partner with the business.”

Qwest CIO Girish Varma hired Sami Syed into a new position inside the IT department: vice president of systems engineering and program management. Syed joins the Denver-based telecom provider from AOL Time Warner.

Sal Guido joined online advertising company MediaWhiz as its CIO. Guido is a veteran of the online advertising industry. He most recently worked for another online advertising firm, Miva, as its SVP of technology. Previously Guido worked for New Media Technology as its CTO and for Viacom International as its vice president of infrastructure. His career in online media was interrupted by a stint at Tyco International, where Guido managed a $155 million budget as the conglomerate’s director of enterprise computing.

PGP Corporation named Hires Steven Soderberg”>Steven Soderberg (not the film director) its CIO. Soderberg, 47, joins the data protection company from baked goods manufacturer Otis Spunkmeyer where he was CIO. During his three-year tenure with Otis Spunkmeyer, Soderberg led the creation of a centralized server and storage architecture and

prepared IT for Sarbanes-Oxley compliance. Prior to Otis Spunkmeyer, Soderberg worked for The Robert Mondavi Company for eight years as its SVP and CIO.

The Milwaukee Business Journal reports that Jeanine Wasielewski will lead IT as CIO of MillerCoors, the joint venture that SABMiller and the Molson Coors Brewing Company are forming on July 1. Wasielewski most recently served as Molson Coors’ CIO.

TMG Health, a provider of business process outsourcing services for Medicaid and Medicare health plans, appointed Bob Masterson as its CIO. Masterson comes to the King of Prussia, Penn.-based company from CitiGroup. During his six-year tenure with CitiGroup, Masterson served as head of technology for CitiBank’s North American operations, head of architecture and data warehouse development for CitiGroup’s North American retail business, head of transaction systems development, and vice president of IT for healthcare systems within the global consumer business. Prior to Citi, Masterson was CIO of Highlands Insurance Group, an AIG affiliate; CTO, divisional CIO and VP of operations for AIG; president of Genesis Associates, head of systems development at TRW Financial Systems, CIO of Quest Vision Systems and director of IT at Scientific Calculations.