Turner Broadcasting Names VP

* Brad Turell has been named executive vice president for Turner Broadcasting System. Turell, who was chief of corporate communications at the WB Network, will continue to report to Jamie Kellner, the WB chief who was recently named chairman and chief executive of Turner, a division of AOL Time Warner. Turell will oversee all publicity and communications at the newly restructured Turner, which now includes the WB in addition to TNT, TBS, CNN and the company’s sports teams. He also will serve as strategic advisor to Kellner. Both executives are based in Burbank.

* Louis Feola was named president of Universal Pictures Franchise Development, a new unit that will seek to further exploit some of the studio’s most valuable entertainment franchises such as “The Mummy” and “The Land Before Time.” Feola, who previously headed Universal Family & Home Entertainment Production, will manage Universal’s consumer products business as well Universal Home Entertainment Productions and Universal Pictures Visual Programming, a unit that develops special interest direct-to-video movies and animation TV.

* Los Angeles-based Smart & Final Inc. said its Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Martin A. Lynch is retiring from the discount grocery retailer. Lynch, 63, will retire at the end of May after 12 years with the company. Succeeding Lynch as CFO will be Richard N. Phegley, currently the company’s vice president and treasurer. Phegley, 45, joined Smart & Final in 1996.

* Thomas Properties Group in Los Angeles has promoted Gino Polizzotto to director of construction management. Before joining Thomas Properties in 1999, Polizzotto was project manager for Bovis Construction. Polizzotto most recently managed construction of the California Environmental Protection Agency’s headquarters in Sacramento.