Alice Varisano will serve as CFO and vice president of human resources for Excel Technology (East Setauket, New York), a manufacturer of laser systems and electro-optical components. Prior to joining Excel, Varisano was a principal with Ernst & Young.

Paul Echenberg has been named chairman of the board of E-Z-EM (Lake Success, New York), a manufacturer of contrast agents for gastrointestinal radiology, replacing co-founder Howard Stern. Stern has been named chairman emeritus and will remain on the company's board. During Stern's tenure at E-Z-EM, he co-founded both Surgical Dynamics and AngioDynamics, which was spun off to E-Z-EM shareholders last October. Surgical Dynamics was sold to U.S. Surgical in 1996. Echenberg has been a director of E-Z-EM since 1987. He has served as chairman of the board of E-Z-EM Canada since 1994 and was chairman of the board of Surgical Dynamics. He was also elected as chairman of the board of AngioDynamics in February 2004.

W. Jeffrey Allard, PhD, has been named vice president and chief scientific officer for Fujirebo Diagnostics (FDI; Malvern, Pennsylvania), a developer of in vitro diagnostics, Allard previously was vice president of clinical research and development at Immunicon. FDI manufactures diagnostics, with an emphasis in oncology.

Charles Craig has been named president of the Georgia Biomedical Partnership (GBP; Atlanta). Craig previously served as the author and editor of Ernst & Young's Global Biotechnology Reports, director of publications for the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO; Washington) and managing editor of BioWorld Today, sister publication of Medical Device Daily. Craig is GBP's second president and the first to occupy the position full-time. GBP, founded in 1989, is an affiliate of BIO and represents Georgia's life sciences industry.