Bilbrey Named President of Danone Waters, N. America
* Danone Group’s World Water Division has announced the appointment of John Bilbrey as president of the newly formed Danone Waters of North America, which will be based in Pasadena. Formed to serve all the bottled water needs of consumers in the United States and Canada, DWNA includes the previously separate bottled water operations of the former Danone International Brands, Great Brands of Europe and McKesson Water Products Co. in the United States, and Naya and Aquaterra in Canada. Bilbrey succeeds Pedro A. Medina, president of World Water Division, who had also been serving as interim president of DWNA until this appointment was made.
* Christine Lawton has been named senior vice president of business affairs for Universal Studios Home Video with responsibility for all business and legal affairs. She is a former executive at DreamWorks SKG.
* VolumeFoods Inc., a food service industry e-commerce firm based in Encino, has appointed Eric Kassan as chief technology officer. A former executive at MValue.com, Kassan will oversee all areas of technology and engineering for the company.
* David Espenschied, former chief executive of Countrywide Home Loans’ electronic business division, has been tapped to manage the Web banking unit at Sanwa Bank California in Los Angeles. He will be a senior vice president and manager.
* Susan Garelli has been promoted to senior vice president of human resources at Disney Consumer Products in Burbank. Before joining Disney in 1999 she was a human resources executive at Avery Dennison in Pasadena.
* Allan Rosenthal, a certified public accountant, has been named to lead finance and accounting activities at Alera Technologies, a Van Nuys-based music-technology company.
* Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. has named Travis Rutherford senior vice president of MGM Consumer Products and MGM Interactive. He succeeds Doug Gleason, who has left the Santa Monica-based entertainment company to pursue other interests. Rutherford was head of licensing and merchandising at DreamWorks SKG.
