Telecommunications Industry Association hires Ashley Simmons, ex-ITS America, as communications director, effective March 15, succeeding April Ward, who moved to FirstNet as senior media adviser ... Zynga names board member Frank Gibeau CEO, succeeding Mark Pincus, who will be executive chairman ... Sprint hires Robert Hackl, ex-Vodafone, as chief experience officer/president-national sales, effective April 1; at end of that month, Chief Experience Officer Bob Johnson will leave ... AT&T moves Bill O’Hern to senior vice president-chief security officer ... Maxwell Technologies hires Jörg Buchheim, ex-Hella KGaA Hueck, as senior vice president-chief sales officer, succeeding Michael Finger, leaving for personal reasons ... Millennium Space Systems hires Bob Newberry, ex-U.S. Air Force, as executive vice president-chief marketing officer ... IDC promotes Phil Carter to chief analyst, IDC Europe.

Wilkinson Barker hires media and telecom lawyer Derek Teslik, ex-Cooley, as counsel ... CSG promotes Ken Kennedy to executive vice president-product development and adds to board Marwan Fawaz, Sarepta Advisors ... Nielsen promotes Megan Clarken to president-product leadership ... Western Union promotes Jacqueline Molnar to chief compliance officer ... Krish Prabhu, president of AT&T Labs and chief technology officer, also added to University of Texas at Arlington as research professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering.

Satellite Industry Association hires Charity Weeden, ex-Lquinox Consulting, as senior director-policy ... Kentucky Communications Network Authority names Chris Moore, ex-FCC, executive director ... CSG hires Brian Shepherd, ex-TeleTech, as executive vice president and president-Global Broadband, Cable and Satellite business ... Discovery Communications hires Michael Lang, now at Lang Media Group, as executive vice president-international development & digital, new position, effective in April ... Spectralink hires industry executive Doug Werking as CEO, succeeding Dan Mondor, who left for personal reasons.

Immersion Corp. names CEO Victor Viegas interim chief financial officer until a permanent replacement is found for CFO Paul Norris, who is retiring ... Zazoom Media Group, digital video producer, hires Greg Morey, ex-E.W. Scripps, as executive vice president-revenue ... Palo Alto Networks adds to board Frank Calderoni, Red Hat ... MobileIron adds to board Ken Klein, Tintri ... Hawaiian Telcom said (see 1602260058) it agrees with its top investor Black Diamond Capital Management to nominate the investment firm's John Fontana or another representative at each of the next three annual meetings to be on the telco's board.

Intel hires for Global Public Policy team as directors-government relations and senior counsels Jaclyn Louis, ex-aide to Reps. Steve Chabot, R-Ohio, and Tom Marino, R-Pa.; Cisco Minthorn, ex-aide to Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker; and Norberto Salinas, ex-House Judiciary Committee ... Level 3 CEO Jeff Storey takes medical leave for about two months related to what the company said was "successful surgery for a recently diagnosed heart condition," and then returns on a limited basis, and full recovery is expected; until he returns, Sunit Patel named interim CEO, and remains chief financial officer ... National Association of Tower Erectors board member elected to executive committee for upcoming year is Jim Tracy, Legacy Telecommunications, as chairman; Kevin Dougherty, Millennia Contracting, added to board ... Malwarebytes adds to board Justin Somaini, SAP.

Discovery Communications Chief Financial Officer Andrew Warren to leave at the end of this year ... Xilinx Chief Financial Officer Jon Olson retiring, effective in May, and will remain through July in an advisory role; Lorenzo Flores promoted to senior vice president-CFO ... EMC's Virtustream, cloud-services provider, hires John Hill, ex-Veyance Technologies, as chief operating officer, and moves Simon Walsh from within EMC to Virtustream managing director-strategic markets.

Scripps Networks said it has moved David Arroyo to chief ethics and compliance officer, new position, and he continues to supervise internal legal teams on litigation, intellectual property, data security and privacy, labor and employment, ratings research and bankruptcy, while Andy Broyles is promoted to senior vice president-internal audit, and Timon Marshall moves to senior vice president/head-legal, international ... Zayo hires Wendy Cassity, ex-Thompson Creek Metals, as general counsel, and moves Dave Jones to chief technology officer, succeeding Scott Beer, who left the company in late 2015 ... YipTV hires Louis Holder, ex- Innovaci, as chief technology officer ... FiberLight hires Jim Hintze, ex-BTI Systems, as senior vice president-sales.

Harris Wiltshire hires Michael Mullinix, ex-FCC International Bureau, as technology policy adviser ... Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., promotes Adrian Arnakis to committee deputy staff director, succeeding Nick Rossi, previously promoted (see 1512170042) to staff director ... Verizon hires Mark Connon as global chief mobile officer, AOL Platforms & Advertising, new position; it said he had worked as executive vice president-platform business at Millennial Media, which the carrier bought in October ... James Pitaro named sole chairman of Disney Consumer Products and Interactive Media, after co-Chairwoman Leslie Ferraro’s departure from the company to pursue marketing and consumer engagement projects, with Disney her first client.

At FCC, at the Media Bureau: Mary Beth Murphy promoted to deputy chief and Hillary DeNigro to associate chief; Murphy succeeds Sarah Whitesell, hired by the Legal Resource Center on Violence Against Women as co-director; Brendan Holland promoted to succeed DeNigro as Industry Analysis Division chief and Martha Heller succeeds Murphy as Policy Division chief; Chief Jonathan Chambers leaving Office of Strategic Planning, plans not disclosed ... New America's Open Technology Institute said it hires Brooke Hunter, ex-Engine, as chief of staff/director-strategic initiatives, and promotes Sarah Morris to director-open Internet policy, and Ross Schulman to co-director, Cybersecurity Initiative.

Towerstream Chairman Philip Urso adds title of interim CEO, succeeding outgoing CEO Jeff Thompson, who resigned to pursue other opportunities; Arthur Giftakis promoted to chief operating officer ... Talend, big data software firm, hires Barbara Cadigan, ex-Electronic Arts, as senior vice president-people.