Source: http://worldcityweb.com/home/MIA/publications/magazine/6/623/

WorldCity People

by Mary Dempsey

New chairman at Bacardi

Facundo Bacardi has been named chairman of Bacardi Limited, the liquor company started by his great, great grandfather. The 38-year-old founder and president of private equity and real estate company BacardiWorks in Miami had been deputy chairman at his family’s company for three years. He is the ninth chairman in the history of 143-year-old Bacardi Limited, the largest privately held spirits company in the world.

Bacardi replaces Ruben Rodriguez, who retired after holding the chairman’s seat since 2000. Under Rodriguez, the company, which has offices in Miami, saw unprecedented sales and earnings growth. Rodriguez also oversaw the company’s acquisition of Grey Goose vodka and Cazadores blue agave tequila.

The board of directors of Bacardi Limited also appointed Adolfo Danguillecourt and Barry Kabalkin as vice chairmen. Danguillecourt, 45, is a member of the Bacardi family and has served as a director since 2001. Kabalkin, 50, was executive vice president from 1997 to 2000, and orchestrated the company’s $2 billion acquisition of Dewar’s Scotch whisky and Bombay Sapphire and Bombay gins in 1998. He rejoined Bacardi as a director in 2004.

Gittens takes seat on JetBlue board

Angela Gittens, the former director of the Miami-Dade Aviation Department, has joined the board of directors at low-cost JetBlue Airways. “She has superb credentials and a wealth of aviation experience,” says JetBlue CEO David Neeleman. “She has successfully developed several major airports into customer-friendly, operationally sound and profitable enterprises.”

At the helm of Miami-Dade County Aviation, Gittens launched a $4.8 billion capital development program for Miami International Airport. She previously managed Atlanta’s Hartsfield Jackson International Airport for five years. In May, she became vice president of airport business services at the Miami office of HNTB Corp., an engineering, design and planning company that provides consulting services to 17 airports in the United States.

Ibargen elected to PepsiCo board

The Miami Herald’s former publisher and chairman, Alberto Ibargen, has joined the board of directors of PepsiCo, the world’s second-largest soft-drink producer. Ibargen, 61, takes the seat previously held by Solomon Trujillo, who had been on the board since 2000. Trujillo was recently named CEO of Australian telecom company Telstra Corp. Ibargen is president of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, which promotes excellence in journalism.

Ryder CFO leaves

Tracy Leinbach has announced that she is leaving her position as executive vice president and CFO of Miami-based truck-leasing company Ryder System. Leinbach has been at Ryder for 20 years. Her departure is expected to occur in February 2006. In a separate development, Ryder announced that Gregory Hyland, president of the company’s management solutions business unit, has left to become CEO at Walter Industries, a Tampa homebuilding and financing company. Ryder CEO Greg Swienton assumes Hyland’s duties, which include supervising rentals and leases in the United States.

Hern directs security at Port of Palm Beach

Ken Hern has been promoted to the position of director of security at the Port of Palm Beach. For the past two and a half years, he has served as manage of port security, working with state, federal and local agencies to keep the port in compliance with government security mandates. “Ken Hern has proven his ability to initiate and implement policies and procedures that are essential in the post-9/11 environment,” says Lori Baer, the port’s executive director. Among other things, Hern has played a key role in facilitating county and state interagency training exercises at the port.

MasterCard hires American Express exec

MasterCard International has added Ivan Ochoa, a 20-year veteran with American Express, to its Latin American operations. Ochoa has been named vice president of business administration for Latin America and the Caribbean. He will be based in Miami and report to Javier Perez, the company’s president for Latin America and the Caribbean. At American Express, Ochoa was most recently the vice president of corporate travel operations, reengineering and quality for American Express Latin America, based in Brazil. At MasterCard, Ochoa, a native of Colombia, takes on corporate communications, business planning and human resources responsibilities.

New division chief at Souvenir Direct

John Petko has been hired to head the promotional products division of Souvenir Direct, a wholly owned subsidiary of China Direct Trading Corp. in Davie. Petko has extensive experience in the souvenir and gift-sales sector, including threeyears in Hong Kong, where he designed, sold and sourced licensed products. He will serve as the company’s liaison for some 20,000 product distributors throughout the United States. “The flow of promotional products inquiries has continued to grow to a point where we needed to find a full-time employee, and I can’t be happier that John is filling that need,” says Souvenir Direct CEO Howard Ullman.

Citibank promotes two executives

Citibank has promoted Calixto Garcia-Velez to the position of president of Citibank California/ Nevada, based in San Francisco. Garcia-Velez, who joined Citibank in 1993, is on the board of directors for Citibank and the corporate board of advisors for the National Council of La Raza. He is the immediate past chairman and an executive committee member of the Beacon Council and serves on the board of the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce. Carlos Dvila replaces Garcia Velez’s as president of Citibank Florida and takes on the additional position as head of Citibank Puerto Rico. Dvila, who will be based in Miami, had served as Citibank’s region manager in Puerto Rico.

SEC counsel joins Akerman Senterfitt

Jayne Blumberg, formerly the senior counsel at the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Enforcement Division, has joined the litigation group at law firm Akerman Senterfitt. She will concentrate on securities litigation and regulatory proceedings, as well as corporate governance. At the SEC, she gained attention for her prosecution of high-profile corporate fraud cases. Blumberg, who will work out of the law firm’s Miami office, also is a former assistant U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey. In that capacity, she was assigned to a number of cases, including the campaign fraud investigation involving then-Sen. Robert Torricelli of New Jersey.

At the same time, Michelle Bougdanos has joined Akerman Senterfitt’s litigation group in Fort Lauderdale. She was previously an associate with Bressler, Amery & Ross, in both New York and Florida, representing broker-dealers and financial consultants before the National Association of Securities Dealers and the New York Stock Exchange. She has also represented traders in regulatory inquiries before the Securities and Exchange Commission and the New York Stock Exchange.

Changes at Andrx

Pharmaceutical company Andrx has named Robert Goldfarb as senior vice president, general counsel and secretary for the pharmaceutical company. Goldfarb, who has been with the Fort Lauderdale company for five years, previously was vice president and assistant general counsel. Prior to joining Andrx, he was a partner with Hughes, Hubbard & Reed. In his new position, he replaces Scott Lodin, who resigned after 12 years with the company.

Andrx, which develops and sells generic versions of pharmaceutical products, including birth-control pills, also announced that its president, Angelo Malahias, will temporarily assume take on the additional role of CFO to fill the vacancy left by the resignation of John Hanson. Hanson was CFO for eight years.

Danon leads Miami unit

International law firm Hunton & Williams has appointed Sam Danon as the administrative head of its Miami litigation team. Danon is one of four partners who opened the Miami office six years ago in an expansion of the Virginia-based company. The Miami office now has more than 50 attorneys. Danon focuses on commercial litigation, particularly franchise disputes, class actions, contract disputes, product liability and corporate compliance. Hunton & Williams has offices in the United States, Singapore, Beijing, Bangkok, London and Brussels.

New member on Nabi board

Nabi Biopharmaceuticals in Boca Raton has elected Leslie Hudson to its board of directors. Hudson is president and CEO of New Jersey-based DOV Pharmaceuticals, which develops drugs for central nervous system disorders. Hudson has served in several senior management positions, including vice president of discovery research at Glaxo Wellcome, general manager at Pharmacia Corp. and executive vice president and chief operating officer at Repligen Corp. “For more than 30 years, Les has held a number of strategically important positions within the biotechnol- ogy and pharmaceutical industries and in academia. We will benefit from his expertise and experience,” says Nabi CEO Thomas McLain.

New co-directors named at public relations firm

Rodrigo Ocampo and Adolfo Salgueiro have been named co-directors of the international division at the Apple Organization. The Miami-based public relations firm specializes in real estate and the hospitality industry. They will handle Spanish-language media in the United States and Latin America and publications in Europe.

Ocampo has extensive experience working in Texas and, in 2000, served as public relations coordinator for the secretary of economic development in Bogot. Salgueiro previously worked as director of account services for Hispana Public Relations. He has also managed Hispanic-marketing efforts for the Florida Marlins.

Neoris exec team expansion

Neoris, the IT consulting firm based in Miami, has added four vice president positions to its U.S. management team.

Ed Thompson leaves i2 Technologies to become the new Neoris vice president of U.S. operations. Mike Caghren, who also leaves i2 Technologies and was CIO of the Sport Authority, becomes vice president of retail. Sandy Phillips, an ex-senior vice president at Jackson Health System, has been named vice president of health care, and Nancy Troutman, who was COO of NeorisLogistics, moves up to the position of vice president of transportation and logistics.

Changes at Beacon Council

Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Alvarez has appointed Ralph Gazitua to serve as his appointee to the Beacon Council, the county’s economic development partnership. In a separate announcement, the council elected Dominique Virchaux as its vice-chair in charge of international affairs. Gazitua is CEO of logistis company WTDC, based in Miami. He is also CEO of the Miami Free Zone, the privately owned industrial park in Doral that serves as a tarifffree trade zone for foreign cargo. Virchaux is managing director of Virchaux & Partners, a Miami-based executive search firm. He is a founding board member of FTAA Florida.