GAMCO Investors Inc. of Rye said Jeffrey M. Farber was named chief financial officer and executive vice president finance/corporate development. Farber joined GAMCO from Bear Stearns, where he was senior vice president/finance and a senior managing director prior to JPMorgan Chase’s acquisition of the investment bank. Farber joined Bear Stearns in 2000.

Nutrition 21 Inc., the Purchase-based company that markets nutritional supplements, said this morning Michael A. Zeher is its new president and chief executive.

Zeher, who has more than 35 years in the health and personal care business, started yesterday, the company said.

He most recently was president and chief executive of Nutritional Laboratories International Inc. Before that, he was president and chief operating officer of Pharmaceutical Formulations, a privately held contract manufacturer of more than 100 kinds of pharmaceutical products.

In a statement released by the company, Zeher said: “I am delighted to join Nutrition 21. I believe this company is uniquely positioned to grow into a thriving and profitable business providing products to support active, healthy lives and improved cognitive function.”

He replaces Mike Fink and Gerry Butler, who have been serving as interim co-chief executives since March. They will now become co-chief operating officers.

Zeher was awarded an option to buy 1 million shares of the company’s stock at 36 cents a share. The option vests in three stages, meaning he can buy one-third of the shares on each of the first three anniversaries of his hiring.

Zeher was also named to the company’s board.

The company’s shares were trading at 37 cents, up a penny, at 3:05 p.m.

IBM Corp. of Armonk said this morning it has gotten a contract to help the Australian government with a project to reduce the burden businesses face in reporting information to regulators.

The company said its subsidiary IBM Australia Ltd. will earn $9.7 million (based on today’s exchange rates) for providing technology services as part of the initial phase of the project.

IBM said the partnership is intended to make it “faster, cheaper and easier” for businesses to file their reports. Government departments will encounter fewer mistakes in the reports from businesses and be able to process them faster, the company said.

Haights Cross Communications Inc. of White Plains said it closed on the sale of its Oakstone Publishing business to private equity firm Boston Ventures. The terms of the deal were not released.

The company also said it has put off plans to sell its test-preparation business, Triumph Learning, and its audiobook publishing business, Recorded Books.

Paul J. Crecca, the president and chief executive of Haights Cross, said the company made the decision because of conditions in the capital markets.

“With these factors, and considering the timeframe in which sale transactions could be completed, the HCC board of directors has concluded that the company should suspend the sale efforts for Triumph Learning and Recorded Books,” Crecca said in a statement released by the company.

Haights cross publishes educational materials for libraries and schools.

Electro-Optical Sciences Inc., an Irvington company seeking to develop an instrument to help doctors detect melanoma, has joined the Russell Microcap stock index. The company said Russell bases inclusion in its indexes on market-capitalization rankings and other attributes.

LeCroy Corp., the Chestnut Ridge company that supplies oscilloscopes, said today it has a new product line. The WavePro 7 is the first product series in the new Zi family of oscilloscopes. LeCroy’s oscilloscopes measure the strength of signals in computer chips.

IntegraMed America Inc., the Purchase-based company that runs fertility centers and vein clinics, said its preisdent and chief executive, Jay Higham, received the Ernst & Young Metro New York Entrepreneur of the Year 2008 Award in the healthcare category. The company said a panel of judges that included business, academic and civic leaders chose Higham. He received the award at a ceremony in New York City held last week.

An Armonk man will become the 18th chief executive in the history of New York Life Insurance Co., the largest mutual life insurance company in the country.

Theodore A. Mathas, 41, who has been the company’s president since last July, will add the chief executive’s duties starting tomorrow. He replaces Sy Sternberg, who is retiring as chief executive after 19 years with the company.

Sternberg, 65, will remain the chairman of the company’s board of directors.

New York Life has 15,000 employees in the United States, 50,000 agents worldwide and more than $280 billion in assets under management.

Mathas, who joined the company in 1995, will oversee all the company’s U.S. and international operations, including individual life insurance, retirement income, investments and long-term care insurance.

In a statement released by the company, Mathas said: “I’m honored to become CEO of New York Life, a remarkable company with a well-deserved reputation for delivering on our promises to policyholders and maintaining the most successful career agency system in the United States. A tradition of strong executive stewardship has played a key role in the company’s track record of success for 163 years, together with a belief in the core values of humanity, integrity and financial strength.”

Tremont Capital Management in Rye, an investment manager of a fund of hedge fund portfolios, said that Robert Schulman, chairman of the parent company Tremont Group Holdings Inc., is retiring effective July 7.
Schulman’s retirement follows a 2006 succession plan under which Rupert Allan, formerly managing director of Tremont’s London office, was named president and, later chief executive officer of Tremont Group Holdings. With Schulman’s retirement, Jim Mitchell will return to Tremont’s headquarters after four years in the London office. Mitchell will report to Allan.
Schulman joined Tremont in 1994 as president and chief executive. In 2001, Schulman helped arrange Tremont’s acquisition by OppenheimerFunds. Most recently, Schulman directed Tremont’s single manager products group, Rye Investment Management.

Billionaire Warren Buffett is scheduled to visit Mount Vernon tomorrow, dropping in on the former Michael Anthony Jewelers that, through a chain of acquisitions in recent years, is now owned by Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
Buffett will do a ribbon-cutting with Mayor Clinton D. Young at the business, now called Richline Group, at South MacQuesten Parkway, said Mark Hanna, Richline’s chief marketing officer. Buffett will later tour the facility, chat with a few employees, and pose for some pictures, Hanna said.
“Everybody is very, very psyched up about it,” Hanna said. The office employs more than 300.
Publicly-held Michael Anthony Jewelers was acquired in 2005 by Bel-Oro International, a Manhattan-based distributor of fine jewelry. Last year Berkshire Hathaway bought Bel-Oro and another jewelry company, Aurafin LLC, and combined them into Richline Group.
Hanna said the Mount Vernon office is the Northeast headquarters for Richline, which also has administrative offices in Tamarac, Fla. Anthony Paolercio, formerly co-chairman and chief executive at Michael Anthony, is now executive vice president of manufacturing and works out of the Mount Vernon office.
Manufacturing that was done in Mount Vernon is now done overseas, Hanna said.
Buffett is Berkshire Hathaway’s chairman and chief executive.

EpiCept Corp., a pharmaceutical company at The Landmark in Eastview, said it will offer 8 million shares of its common stock to the public for 25 cents a share. The company will also offer five-year warrants to buy another 8 million shares at an exercise price of 39 cents a share. The company expects to make $1.9 million from the offering. It said it will use the money for working capital, general corporate purposes, and to pay fees owed to a secured lender. The price of its stock dropped by 10.5 cents a share today, closing at 28.5 cents.

Seavest Inc., a White Plains investment management firm specializing in developing, buying and managing health care real estate, hired Jonathan L. “John” Winer, a former principal with Ernst & Young LLP, as executive vice president.

Winer started on Monday. His responsibilities will include arranging transactions, finding capital, and assisting with operational initiatives. While at Ernst & Young, he directed the Real Estate Capital Markets Advisory Group and the firm’s Healthcare Real Estate Advisory Practice.

Winer also speaks frequently at healthcare industry events. He has appeared at seminars sponsored by the Building Owners and Managers Association, Legg Mason and Columbia University.

Seavest controls a portfolio of more than 1.5 million square feet of medical office space around the country, with another 500,000 square feet under development.

Shares of struggling Armonk-based bond insurer MBIA Inc. rose for a second straight day today after the company said it might pay out a special dividend, buy back shares or start a new insurance company.

MBIA shares closed at $5.87, up 56 cents, or 10.56 percent. On Thursday, MBIA shares rose 46 cents, or 9.48 percent.

The company is looking for a way to use $900 million in a way that increases shareholder value. MBIA said in February that it would contribute the money to its insurance subsidiary.

But Standard & Poors this week took away the insurer’s top rating. That action came less than a week after Moody’s Investors Service indicated it might cut the rating.

The rating agencies’ announcements prompted MBIA chief executive Jay Brown to say Thursday in a letter to shareholders that the company might use the money for a new insurance company.

Brown added: “Most of you have correctly identified that we can significantly increase shareholder value by either a special dividend or a share buy-back, in addition to buying back a variety of debt instruments.

“And we intend to pursue all strategies to maximize shareholder value, while executing against our objective to maintain financial flexibility,” he wrote.

Shares of MBIA have dropped 90.92 percent the last year, mainly due to the company’s exposure to subprime mortgage loans.

MasterCard Inc., the giant credit card company based in Purchase, said this week it will drop 40-year-old transaction fees that European regulators have declared illegal.

The European Commission said last December the company had to devise an alternative to its interchange fees that doesn’t harm consumers. The commission said MasterCard would face a daily penalty of up to 3.5 percent of sales if it did not revise the interchange fees.

The interchange fees are paid from bank to bank on each cross-border payment transaction. The fees cost consumers as much as 13.5 billion euros (about $21 billion) a year, according to the European Retail Round Table, a lobby group for 14 retailers.

MasterCard said it would drop the fees as of June 21, but will continue discussions with the commission about a better way to structure the fees.

The company is also appealing the commission’s decision to the European Court of First Instance.

Nutrition 21 Inc., the Purchase-based company that markets nutritional supplements, this morning confirmed its earnings forecast for its fiscal fourth quarter. The company said it continues to expect revenues for the quarter to be in the range of the $10.8 million reported for the third quarter, which ended in March.

Nutrition 21 also said it expects its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization for the quarter to approach break even.

The company said it expects to produce consistently positive EDITDA in fiscal 2009, with revenues matching 2008 revenues.

Drew Industries, the White Plains-based company that supplies parts for recreational vehicles and manufactured homes, said Fredric M. Zinn, who has been chief financial officer since 1986 and executive vice president since 2001, has been promoted to president. He was also elected to the board of directors.

Leigh J. Abrams will give up the president’s role but remain chief executive and continue to serve on the board.

Drew also announced the promotion of Joseph S. Giordano III, formerly the corporate controller and treasurer, to chief financial officer and treasurer. Christopher L. Smith, who was the assistant controller, was named corporate controller.

The independent members of the board of directors of Hudson Technologies Inc., the Pearl River company that decontaminates refrigeration equipment, has approved raises for the company’s top executives, including Kevin Zugibe, the chairman and chief executive.

Zugibe’s base annual salary became $192,800, effective May 5, the company said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. He previously earned a base salary of $187,096, according to public filings.

Brian F. Coleman, the president and chief operating officer, receives $170,700. His salary had been set last year at $165,672. Charles F. Hawkins, the vice president of sales, got a raise to $159,700 from $154,960.

Stephen P. Mandracchia, the secretary and vice president for legal and regulatory matters, had his salary set at $145,900. His salary had been $141,570.

The board set the salary of Chief Financial Officer James R. Buscemi at $134,000, compared his previous salary of $122,824.
The base salary does not include bonuses, stock options or any other compensation.

Computer giant IBM Corp. of Armonk has opened a center in Pune, India to provide customers worldwide with business consulting services. The company said the new center is the fourth that IBM Global Business Services has opened in Pune. Pune is home to a number of equipment makers and auto industry experts, meaning the new center is a strategic location for IBM’s automotive clients, the company said.

Gamco Investors Inc., Mario Gabelli’s Rye-based money-management company, named Nicholas F. Galluccio to serve as president and chief executive of its Teton Advisors Inc. subsidiary, effective July 1.

Galluccio was formerly with Trust Co. of the West where he served as the group managing director and a portfolio manager for $4.5 billion in assets. He is also a former staff writer at Forbes magazine where he wrote a column on investment management.

Progenics Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Eastview said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that Dr. Alton B. Kremer, its senior vice president of clinical research, had resigned on May 20 to pursue other interests.
Kremer had joined the company in October 2004. Last year he was paid $380,000 in salary and a $245,000 bonus, among other compensation, according to Progenics’ proxy statement.