Bryan T. LaBrecque was named president and chief operating officer of Atlantic Southeast Airlines, a wholly owned subsidiary of SkyWest Inc.
LaBrecque brings 25 years of aviation experience to the position.
“Given the current challenges facing our industry, the role of president is a critical one,” says Jerry Atkin, chairman and CEO of SkyWest Inc., ASA’s parent company. “Bryan’s knowledge and experience, coupled with his passion for ASA and its employees, makes this selection an ideal fit. I’m confident in Bryan’s leadership as ASA and SkyWest Airlines begin together the quest to become the most successful regional airline alliance in the nation.”
Previously, LaBrecque served as acting president and senior vice president, operations, at Atlanta-based ASA. He also spent more than 17 years at Delta Air Lines with duties including director, Connection Carriers; general manager, Strategic Planning; chief engineer, Power Plant; as well as additional engineering positions within the airline. He began his career as a flight sciences engineer at Lockheed-California, now Lockheed-Martin.
LaBrecque earned his MBA from Georgia State University and a bachelor of mechanical engineering degree from Georgia Institute of Technology.
ARBY’S RESTAURANT GROUP INC.
Don Zimmerman joined Arby’s Restaurant Group Inc. as senior vice president and chief information officer. Zimmerman will oversee the strategic and operational IT infrastructure of the company, including the integration of ARG systems following the recent acquisition of Arby’s largest franchisee.
With more than 23 years of technology experience, Zimmerman most recently was vice president of IT for the Sears Information Technology organization, where he was responsible for Solutions Delivery, a function that architected, developed and implemented all technology-based solutions for the Sears Enterprise.
He also acted as enterprise CIO and held the top IT post for the Sears Credit, Home Services and Customer Care Network units. Additional internal IT responsibilities included enterprise architecture, telecommunications and enterprise managed services.
Prior to joining Sears, he spent 12 years with Frito-Lay Inc. and PepsiCo Foods International. His responsibilities ranged from systems and technical development to data center and help desk operations, as well as internal solutions consulting.
IMAGES USA
IMAGES USA hired Nicole Folkes as creative services production manager. Folkes works with the Creative, PR and Brand groups on all client jobs for print, radio, TV and interactive.
Prior to joining IMAGES, she worked with WING Latino, a division of Grey Advertising that specializes in U.S., Hispanic and Latin American advertising. Folkes’ client base included Pantene, Clairol, Nice ’n’ Easy, Kmart, Cover Girl, Smirnoff Ice and Crown Royal. On these accounts, she served as art buyer, print producer and traffic manager.
Folkes started her career as traffic manager at Ogilvy & Mather, then worked for Sheraton Hotels, Northwest Airlines, American Express, Unilever, KODAK, Motorola, IBM, SAP and AT&T Wireless.
Folkes is a graduate of Binghamton University, with a bachelor’s degree in fine arts and English literature.
GLOBAL PAYMENTS INC.
Global Payments Inc. appointed Tony Abruzzio vice president of U.S. Merchant Product Solutions. Abruzzio is responsible for the oversight and direction of Global Payments’ terminal-based certified application provider and related merchant product initiatives to meet the ever-changing needs of the market.
Abruzzio most recently was senior vice president and general manager for VeriFone Inc. and is credited with the integration of GO Software into its product line. Previously, he spent six years as executive vice president and general manager with GO Software, where he was responsible for developing its PCCharge product line into the industry-leading Windows-based payment processing solution.
Under Abruzzio’s leadership, GO Software developed RiTA, a JAVA-based, enterprise-level payment processing solution.
Abruzzio serves as chairman of the Technology Committee for the Electronic Transactions Association and is a member of the Green Sheet Advisory Council. He holds an MBA from Auburn University and a BBA in information systems from Armstrong Atlantic State University.
ELI
Joe Trueblood was promoted to chief operating officer and executive vice president of ELI. Trueblood served as senior vice president of sales, marketing and e-learning at ELI since joining the company in 2003.
Trueblood previously served as executive vice president, Americas, at AchieveGlobal, responsible for field sales, channel sales, alliances, customer service, custom development, consulting services and training services for Canada, Latin America and the United States.
