CIO Announcements from MEDecision, Republic Companies and Swagelok Company

John Deane, the CIO of Wendy’s who in May 2005 was promoted to EVP of operations, is leaving the company to “pursue other interests,” according to a press release from the Dublin, Ohio-based fast food chain.  Deane’s departure coincides with Wendy’s appointment of a new chief operating officer and comes a week after Wendy’s board of directors appointed an interim CEO to replace Jack Schuessler. Dave Near, a 37-year-old Wendy’s franchise operator, was named to the COO post. Near replaces Tom Mueller, who resigned as Wendy’s president and COO last September. The new COO expects to name a new EVP of operations to replace Dean in the next 90 days.  Deane joined Wendy’s in 2001 as its CIO. He is attributed with improving the company’s systems and making technology a core competency for Wendy’s.  His promotion last year to EVP of ops recognized the contributions he made to the business as CIO.  

MEDecision added Ronald Nall to its management team as its new EVP and CIO.  He succeeds Claire Annechini, who recently retired from the healthcare management software provider. Nall most recently was a consultant providing product management and customer support services to Fortune 1000 companies.  Prior to that, he was EVP of product delivery and services for SynQuest.  He also previously held executive IT positions at PowerCerv, Datalogic International and Computer Associates.

Republic Companies hired Frank Vaccaro as its vice president of information services.  Vaccaro comes to the Dallas-based insurance provider from CNA Insurance.  As one of CNA’s assistant vice presidents, Vaccaro led the technology strategy and decision-making for the enteprise billing and collection function, and had technology oversight responsibility for the finance, reinsurance, investment and actuarial business units.

Sylvie Bon accepted the VP and CIO post at Swagelok Company, a developer and manufacturer of fluid system component technologies. She most recently served as Oglebay Norton‘s vice president of administration and CIO, in which capacity she was responsible for IT, HR and supply chain. Bon joined Oglebay Norton as its CIO in 2002 after a 20-year career with label maker Avery Dennison.

Robert Peterson, the senior vice president of global IT solutions at Cadbury Schweppes joined Ants Software’s technical advisory board.