• etrials Worldwide (Morrisville, North Carolina) reported the appointments of two new members of management, naming Michael Mickens VP of sales and client services and Chuck Piccirillo VP of product development. Mikens joined etrials from Cerner and Piccirillo was with Hill-Rom's HealthCare IT Solutions business. etrials is a provider of eClinical solutions that optimize clinical-trial management and accelerate time-to-market.
  • John Derr was named senior VP and CIO of Golden Living (Fort Smith, Arkansas). Prior to joining Golden Living, Derr was executive director of the Foundation for the Advancement of Care for the Elderly in Washington. Golden Living provides senior healthcare services.
  • The Securities and Exchange Commission (Washington) said that Thomas Kim has been named chief counsel and an associate director of the agency's division of corporation finance. Kim has served as counsel to SEC chairman Christopher Cox since 2006, having joined the staff of the commission as counselor to the general counsel.
  • Skilled Healthcare Group (Foothill Ranch, California) said that it has hired Dev Ghose to become executive VP and CFO upon the departure of the current treasurer and CFO, John King. King and the company mutually agreed to end King's employment following the filing of year-end reports in late March 2008. Ghose will join the company on Jan. 17 during a transitional period until King's departure. Ghose was international managing director at Green Street Financial Advisors. Skilled Healthcare's subsidiaries operate nursing and assisted living facilities.
  • TherOx (Irvine, California) reported that Shelley Thunen has been named CFO. Most recently, Thunen served as executive VP and CFO of IntraLase. TherOx is focused on developing its Supersaturated Oxygen Therapy that is designed to salvage heart muscle in acute heart attack patients.
  • Kirti Kamdar was named senior VP of R&D of Vnus Medical Technologies (San Jose, California). Most recently, Kamdar was senior VP at Cardiac Dimensions. Vnus makes medical devices for the minimally-invasive treatment of venous reflux disease.