Filed under: Chicago executives

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Orbitz CFO Marsha Williams to retire

ct-biz-orbitz-marsh.jpgBy Julie Johnsson
Marsha Williams, 59, plans to retire by years’ end as chief financial
officer at Orbitz Worldwide Inc., the global online travel company
announced Tuesday.
 
Williams joined Orbitz in 2007 as it prepared to go public, spinning out
from parent company Travelport. As Orbitz restructured amid a rocky
travel market over the past 18 months, she led efforts to trim $45
million in operating and capital costs and to attract new capital to
shore up its capital structure, said Barney Harford, president and CEO
of Orbitz Worldwide.

Williams held key financial positions at many iconic Chicago companies
over a 37-year-career that began with First National Bank of Chicago,
where she worked from 1973 to 1988. She served as treasurer of Amoco
Corp., which she left in 1998; chief administrative officer at Crate and
Barrel until 2002, and executive vice-president and chief financial
officer at Equity Office Properties Trust.

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CEO Mulally: Mercury’s demise won’t derail Ford

By Kathy Bergen |
The demise of the 72-year-old Mercury brand may lead to the closing of
some dealerships in major markets but will not alter Ford Motor Co.’s
expectation for solid profitability this year and next, Alan Mulally,
Ford’s chief executive, said in Chicago  Tuesday.

“We have a few too many dealers in the larger metro areas,” Mulally told
reporters immediately after his keynote address at the Chicagoland
Chamber of Commerce annual meeting, which drew 1,400 business people.

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CME: Fast trading not to blame for flash crash

Reuters | Last month’s dramatic plunge in U.S. share prices was
probably due to stock market fragmentation and not to high-speed
trading, Craig Donohue, chief executive of the CME Group, said on
Tuesday.

“It has very little or nothing to do with high frequency trading and
very much to do with cash equities fragmentation,” Donohue told a
London derivatives week event.

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GM to award $7.5M in stock to 7 executives

Associated Press | General Motors Co. says seven executives will
get roughly $7.5 million in company stock as part of their pay packages.

The company says in regulatory filings that the executives include North
American President Mark Reuss, Vice Chairman for Product Development
Tom Stephens and President of GM Europe Nick Reilly.

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Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce has new head

From Crain’s Chicago Business | Deborah DeHaas, a managing partner at Deloitte LLP in Chicago, has been named chair for the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, the first woman to hold that position in the organization.

Get the full story: chicagobusiness.com.

DeHass to take chair at Chicagoland chamber

From Crain’s Chicago Business |  Deborah DeHaas,  a managing partner at Deloitte, will be the first woman to head the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce. She takes the post from James Tyree, CEO of Mesirow, next week.

Read the full story: chicagobusiness.com

Lampert gets $756M of stocks from ESL fund

From Bloomberg | Sears chairman Edward Lampert withdrew about $756 million of assets from a hedge fund based in Greenwich, Conn., that he founded more than 20 years ago. He will receive a second payout by the end of July, according to regulatory filings.

Get the full story: businessweek.com.

Brazilian named chairman at Baker & McKenzie

By Ameet Sachdev | A
Brazilian will become the new chairman of Baker & McKenzie, the
Chicago-based law firm that is one of the largest in the world. The
firm said Thursday that Eduardo Leite was elected head of the firm’s
executive committee, which is its primary management team. He will
succeed John Conroy on Oct. 30.

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Barnett replaces Cole at helm of Ebony

By Phil Rosenthal | Amy DuBois Barnett has been named the new editor-in-chief of Chicago-based Johnson Publishing Co.’s Ebony magazine, replacing Harriette Cole, who is leaving the company.

Get the full story: Tower Ticker.

Fed’s Evans: Targeted asset buying is effective

From Bloomberg | Chicago Federal Reserve President Charles Evans said targeted asset
purchases are more effective at responding to financial crises than
injections of cash.

Get the full story: businessweek.com.

Baxter shuffles financial executives

By Bruce Japsen | Deerfield-based medical product
giant Baxter International named Chief Financial Officer Robert Davis
president of the company’s renal business, and replaced him with a
long-time finance executive.

Davis, who becomes corporate vice president and president of Baxter’s
Renal Business, fills a position left open by the retirement of
30-year-veteran Bruce McGillivray. Meanwhile, Robert Hombach, previously
corporate vice president and treasurer, becomes corporate vice
president and chief financial officer.

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Motorola ups value of stock awards for co-CEO

By Wailin Wong | Motorola Inc. has sweetened the terms of the employment agreement for
co-Chief Executive Greg Brown, increasing the value of stock awards he
will receive when the company completes its planned separation into two
independent businesses.

Motorola has targeted the first quarter
of 2011 for the split, with Brown leading the enterprise mobility and
networks business, which makes network infrastructure, as well as
communications gear for public safety agencies and businesses. Co-CEO
Sanjay Jha will lead the other company, comprising mobile phones and
cable television set-top boxes.

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Motorola reaches promotion deal with Verizon

Dow Jones Newswires-Wall Street Journal | Motorola Inc. has
reached a deal with Verizon Wireless to ensure some of its upcoming
smartphones will be heavily promoted by the largest U.S. carrier, a big
boost as Motorola tries to turn around its struggling handset business.

The new phones are a key test for Motorola co-Chief Executive Sanjay
Jha, who needs to demonstrate he can deliver a string of winners and
reverse losses as he tries to prove his mobile devices division can be
a stand-alone business.

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Massachusetts state fund chief to join Chicago firm

Reuters | The executive director of Massachusetts’ $44 billion state pension fund,
one of the first to make big bets on hedge funds, is resigning and
moving to a Chicago-based asset management firm.

Michael Travaglini, 47, who has headed the state fund for six years,
will join Grosvenor Capital Management LP in July as a managing
director. He will market the firm’s portfolios to public pension funds.

Grosvenor, a fund of hedge funds firm that helps select a portfolio of
hedge funds for clients, is one of a handful that Massachusetts uses to
make its bets in the loosely regulated $1.6 trillion hedge fund
industry. Hedge fund investments have significantly boosted the state
fund’s returns over the last few years.

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Tribune pursues $14.9M in bonuses for 35 execs

By Michael Oneal
|
Tribune Co. plans to pay 35 of its top executives $14.9 million in additional 2009 bonuses, a court filing revealed late Monday, despite pointed opposition to the proposal from several key constituents in its 17-month-old Chapter 11 bankruptcy case.

The company describes the bonuses, devised as two plans, as rewards for steering the company through bankruptcy court while generating total operating cash flow of $494 million in 2009.

The payments would supplement $42.1 million in management incentive bonuses the court allowed Tribune Co. to pay in February to approximately 670 managers, including most of the executives included in the most senior group.

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