Telephone Firm Americast Appoints 5 Execs to Top Management Positions

Americast, a telephone company programming venture, has named five executives to senior management roles. David Loewith has been named senior vice president and chief financial officer; Jody Greenstone Miller, senior vice president for operations; Craig Newman, senior vice president and general counsel; Robert Rene, senior vice president and chief marketing and advertising officer; and Jonathan French, vice president for software development. Americast is a venture of Ameritech, BellSouth, GTE, SBC Communications and Walt Disney Co.

* J. Edward Shugrue has been promoted to a senior position in the Sony Pictures Entertainment corporate development group. Duncan C. Clark has been promoted to president of Columbia TriStar Film Distributors International, the position vacated by Shugrue.

* Susan Wyland has been named vice president and editorial director of Family.com, a new service provided by Disney Online.

* Catherine Schulman has been appointed senior vice president of production at Lobell/Bergman Productions.

* Christopher B. Forgy has been named president and chief executive for Outdoor Channel.

Jason Whittington has been promoted to run the sales department at Geffen Records.

* Richard Griffiths has signed on for five more years as president of Epic Records Group, a division of Sony Music. Polly Anthony, president of Sony’s 550 Music division, also extended her contract.