Anthony Gray has retired from SunTrust Banks after 20 years with the company. Gray, 60, was a money manager, with more than 31 years of investment experience. Robert J. Rhodes, 53, is taking over for Gray but will continue in his current role as senior vice president of Trusco Capital Management, a subsidiary of the company. SunTrust is planning to combine its three investment subsidiaries, Trusco Capital Management, STI Capital Management and Crestar Asset Management.
Business Services -- Staff Leasing, a Bradenton-based professional employer organization, has tapped Michael K. Phippen as CEO and chairman. Phippen, 47, has 20 years of experience in the industry and moves to Staff Leasing from Westaff, a Bloomington, Minn.-based staffing company, where he was CEO and president. Richard A. Goldman resigned as president of the company but will head one of its Florida subsidiaries.
Jim MacDougald has retired as president of Ceridian Benefits Services, a St. Petersburg-based benefits administrator that is a subsidiary of Minneapolis-based Ceridian Corp. MacDougald, 57, founded Ceridian Benefits Services in 1982 as Benefits Control, and went public with the company in 1994 under the name ABR Information Services. He sold ABR to Ceridian last year and will be replaced by William Povilus, 58, who was most recently COO of Ceridian Benefits Services.
E-Commerce -- Scott Schoenherr has been named COO of Jacksonville Beach-based E-DR., an e-commerce eyewear supplier. Schoenherr, 37, was most recently the general manager of Crucial Technology, a subsidiary of Micron Technology, a Boise, Idaho-based computer memory chip manufacturer.
Education -- After 23 years of service, Peter H. Armacost, 65, is out as president of financially struggling St. Petersburg-based Eckerd College. Also out is J. Webster Hull, vice president for finance of the private liberal arts college. The two resigned after board members of the institution realized that $13 million of the college's $34-million endowment had been spent in about a year and a half. Some of the loss is related to bad real estate investments. The college is looking for replacements for Armacost and Hull.
Paul R. Corts has been elected chairman of the Independent Colleges and Universities of Florida, which represents interests of independent colleges and universities in the Legislature. Corts has been president of Palm Beach Atlantic College in West Palm Beach since 1991.
Home Building -- Walter Industries, a Tampa-based home building company, has named Thomas J. Quinlan III executive vice president and treasurer. Quinlan was most recently senior vice president and treasurer of World Color, a printing company that merged with Montreal-based Quebecor Printing.
Mechanical Contracting -- S.I. Goldman Co., a Longwood-based mechanical contracting company, has tapped John C. Martin as CEO. Martin is also president of the company and has been working at S.I. Goldman since 1979.
Restaurants -- Dennis Malamatinas, 44, is out as CEO of Miami-based Burger King, part of United Kingdom-based Diageo, an international food and drinks company. Colin Storm, who is CEO of Guinness, also under Diageo, will replace Malamatinas until a new CEO is found.
Technology -- Jeffrey Rubenstein has been promoted to COO of Cenetec, a Boca Raton-based technology company. Rubenstein, 29, was most recently chief strategic counsel for Cenetec.
William Hohns has been named president of Orlando-based Magnetix. Hohns, 47, had been COO of the company since 1995. Magnetix provides audio, video and CD-ROM duplication services.
Changes at Bank of America
Veteran Bank of America executive Catherine P. Bessant has been promoted to president of Bank of America Florida, replacing Adelaide "Alex" Sink, who has been with the company for 26 years.
Bessant, 39, has been with the company since 1982 and was most recently president of Consumer Real Estate and Community Development Banking of Bank of America.
Sink, 52, had planned to retire at age 55 but stepped up her plans because of the reorganization of the Charlotte, N.C., bank and the retirement of CEO Hugh McColl. When asked by President Kenneth Lewis if she could commit for a longer term, she turned him down. "So they gave me nice incentives to leave three years earlier than planned," she says.
Sink joined NCNB bank, now Bank of America, in Charlotte, N.C., in 1974. In 1981, she led the opening of the bank's first commercial loan production office outside of North Carolina in New York. In 1984, she moved to Miami to expand clientele and in 1989 moved to Tampa to become consumer banking executive for the Tampa Bay region. In 1993, she was named president of the bank's Florida unit.
Sink plans to work on the campaigns of Democrats Bill Nelson, who is running for the U.S. Senate, and former Orange County Chairman Linda Chapin, who is seeking a congressional seat.
"Alex has made an extraordinary contribution to this company through the years," says Lewis. "We thank her for those contributions and wish her all the best in this new phase in her life."