Compliance Week regularly tracks various personnel moves, board appointments, product releases, customer wins, and industry gossip in the corporate governance realm. Submit announcements to Compliance Week’s Jaclyn Jaeger.

Compliance Officers, General Counsels, Corporate Secretaries

Toronto-based beverage company Cott Corp. has announced that four senior executives will be dismissed as part of the $1.7 billion company’s restructuring plan. Departing are Mark Halperin, chief legal and ethics officer and corporate secretary; Tina Dell’Aquila, the company’s vice president, controller, assistant secretary, and principal accounting officer; John Dennehy, president of the North American business unit; and Kerry Morgan, vice president for corporate communications.

Philadelphia-based Lincoln Financial Group has named Randy Freitag chief risk officer and treasurer. Freitag brings to this new combined function more than 10 years of actuarial, financial analysis, and risk management experience at Jefferson Pilot and Lincoln, including his most recent role as head of product risk and profitability management for individual markets.

Frazier

$22.6 billion drugmaker Merck & Co. has re-assigned Kenneth Frazier from his role as general counsel to president of global human health. Frazier, who has served as Merck’s general counsel since 1999, led the company through litigation over its withdrawn Vioxx drug after a clinical trial showed it increased the risk of heart problems. With Frazier as top lawyer, Merck had refused to enter into a broad settlement with plaintiffs, preferring to take on each case one by one.

O’Neill

PC manufacturer Lenovo has named Michael O’Neill as its new general counsel. O’Neill replaces Jim Shaughnessy, who has named general counsel at Orbitz Worldwide. O’Neill comes to Lenovo from private practice, having worked for the law firm Howrey as general counsel for international practices. Before joining Howrey, O’Neill worked at Honeywell for 16 years, where he held several senior legal positions, including general counsel for its Europe, Middle East & Africa group.

Chief Accounting Officers, Controllers

Waterbury, Conn.-based Webster Financial Corp. has named Jeffrey Brown its new chief accounting officer. Brown joined the $1.2 billion company in 1996, most recently serving as executive vice president of marketing, communications, and strategy. The company also named Donald Cyr, previously executive vice president and general auditor, senior operational risk officer. In this role, Cyr will be responsible for the company’s operational risk policy, enterprise risk management, corporate compliance, and corporate security functions.

Student Loan Corp., based in Stamford N.Y., has announced the retirement of Raja Dakkuri as controller and chief accounting officer. Joseph Guage, who joined the company in 2006 as assistant controller, will replace him. Prior to joining $1.9 billion company, Guage spent six years at Eastman Kodak where he held various financial and controllership positions.

Denver, Colo.-based Newmont Mining Corp. has tapped Roger Johnson as controller and chief accounting officer. Johnson joined the $5.1 billion company in 2003, and has held numerous positions, including assistant controller, operations controller, and regional controller for Australia.

Coca-Cola Enterprises has announced Joseph Heinrich has been named chief accounting officer. Heinrich has been in various finance positions in the $24 billion company’s European operations since 1996, including vice president of finance for the company’s European Group. Charles Lischer, current vice president and chief accounting officer, will transfer to London to replace Heinrich.

$2.2 billion R.H. Donnelly has appointed Karen Palczuk as interim controller and interim principal accounting officer. In addition to her role as interim controller, Palczuk continues to serve as assistant vice president of process and performance management, a position she has held since joining the company in 2006.

Denver-based Janus Capital has named Robert Blakley controller and principal accounting officer. Blakley will report to the company’s CFO Gregory Frost, who has relinquished his role as controller and principal accounting officer. Blakley, who joined the $1 billion company in 2002, has experience overseeing its key finance functions, including financial reporting, financial planning and analysis, and financial systems.

Board of Directors

Three directors of Tennessee Commerce Bancorp have resigned to protest a new pay plan that more than doubles the compensation of the board’s four insiders. The three leaving are Fowler Low, Winston Hickman, and Regg Swanson. Hickman, a managing director at Nashville-based T.W. Frierson Construction and Design Systems Builders, and Swanson, president of STAR Physical Therapy, both have served since 2000. The resignations reduce the board size to 10 members.

Prabhu

El Segundo, Calif.-based $5.7 billion Mattel has elected Vasant Prabhu as a new director and member of the audit committee. Prabhu is executive vice president and chief financial officer of Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide and has served in that capacity since January 2004. The appointment will be effective on Sept. 1, 2007.

From the Vendors

McNulty

U.S. Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, author of last year’s “McNulty Memo” that rewrote what prosecutors should consider when mulling whether to indict a company, will join the Washington, D.C., office of the law firm Baker & McKenzie as partner. In his new role at the firm, McNulty will be involved in business crimes and investigations litigation, and corporate compliance and risk management practices. He will also work closely with the firm’s global dispute resolution practice.

The Nasdaq Stock Market announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Directors Desk, a privately held firm that provides technology to boards of public and private companies. The acquisition follows closely on the heels of Nasdaq’s recent launch of Board Recruiting, an online matching service for companies and board members.

Boston-based LogicManager, maker of enterprise risk management software, has announced the release of LogicERM v3.0, a product enhancement created to help companies take advantage of Auditing Standard No. 5. The new software is designed to reduce the time and efforts needed to accomplish Sarbanes-Oxley compliance.