Labor & Employment

In recognition of its support of national defense and the uniformed service community Safeway received the Military Officers Association of America’s highest honor.

Safeway was presented with the organization’s Distinguished Service Award at an event in Washington, D.C., in recognition of its outstanding support as an employer of Guard and Reserve members and veterans. The Military Officers Association of America (MOAA) ’s highest honor. MOAA was founded in 1929 and has 380,000 members.

Guy Hayward was named CEO of Massmart to fill a position currently held by Grant Pattison, the executive who engineered the sale of a majority stake of the South African retailer to Walmart.

Pattison joined Massmart in 1998 and served as CEO since 2007, helping to engineer the sale of a majority stake in the company to Walmart several years ago. Assuming the CEO role on June 1 will be current COO Guy Hayward. He joined Massmart in 2000 as CFO and was later named COO and also played a key role in the Walmart and Massmart transaction.

Versatile Systems, a multi-disciplinary technology company with solutions across the mobile, digital signage, IT infrastructure, software and hardware landscape, has appointed Vicki Turjan as chief financial officer.

The company is turning to Turjan to enhance its growth and increase operational efficiencies.

River's End Trading Company, a supplier of apparel and accessories to the promotional products and ad specialty industries as well as the imprinted sportswear and uniform markets, has appointed former Lands’ End executive John Maher as CEO.

The company also announced a capital investment from GCI, a leading private equity firm. Financial terms were not released.

Zynga, a leading social game developer, has appointed former Best Buy executive David Lee as CFO and chief accounting officer, effective April 14. Lee will report directly to CEO Don Mattrick.

He succeeds CFO and CAO Mark Vranesh who is leaving the company. Vranesh will work with Lee over the next month to ensure a seamless transition of responsibilities, according to the company.

Walmart president and CEO Doug McMillon today issued a statement congratulating Sylvia Mathews Burwell on her nomination as Secretary of Health and Human Services.

San Francisco -- Zynga Inc. named former Best Buy executive David Lee as CFO, effective April 14, as the online games company and creator of “Farmville” seeks to return to growth. He will replace current CFO Mark Vranesh who has decided to leave the company.

Lee was previously the senior VP of corporate finance, treasury, mergers and acquisitions and corporate strategy at Best Buy.

Salt Lake City -- Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne has relinquished his role as chairman of the company. In other moves, co-president Stormy Simon was named president of the online discount retailer.

Byrne will continue to serve as CEO, while current executive vice chairman Jonathan Johnson assumes the chairman responsibilities Byrnes has held since 2006.

New York -- Increasing tax burdens (76%) are the top concern of retail CEOs, according to PwC’s 17th Annual Global CEO Survey. Worries about the tax burden were followed by the government response to the fiscal deficit and debt burden (74%), over-regulation (69%), the high and volatile prices of raw materials (68%), and exchange rate volatility (64%).

Boca Raton, Fla. -- Office Depot Inc. has been named to the 15th annual list of America’s Top Corporations for Women’s Business Enterprises (WBEs) by the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC). This marks the 12th year that Office Depot has been named to the list.