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Crane Aerospace & Electronics, a segment of Crane Co., announced the appointment of Todd Witchall as Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer of the Electronics Group of Crane Aerospace & Electronics. In this role, Witchall will report directly to Bob Tavares, President of Crane Electronics Group. Witchall will be responsible for Finance, Accounting

Finnair has appointed Allister Paterson Senior Vice President, Commercial Division and a member of the Finnair Executive Board as of January 7, 2013. Mika Perho, the current head of Finnair’s Commercial Division has announced he will leave the company at the end of December, 2012.

Boeing named Pratyush “Prat” Kumar as president of Boeing India, effective Dec. 14. He joins Boeing with significant business leadership experience and insight into the Indian market, having served in senior executive positions at GE Transportation since 2003. Kumar succeeds Dinesh Keskar, who earlier this year returned to Boeing Commercial Airplanes in a senior Sales

Southwest Airlines (LUV) said that Madeleine Johnson, the company’s Vice President and General Counsel, has announced her decision to retire, effective Feb. 1, 2013. Her successor will be Mark Shaw, currently Southwest’s Associate General Counsel of Corporate & Transactions.

Mitsubishi Aircraft Corporation released that current President Hideo Egawa will take up the positions of Chairman and Chief Executive Officer effective January 1, 2013. Teruaki Kawai (currently, Senior Executive Vice President) succeeds Mr. Egawa as new President and Chief Operating Officer. Mr. Kawai will assume the positions on the same date.

The board of Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) approved Joseph Weiss’, IAI president and CEO, proposal to appoint Colonel (Res.) Eli Alfassi as IAI’s Corporate VP for India Operations. India is a significant market for IAI’s divisions and groups, with a large spectrum of projects and advanced technologies. The challenge of an extensive and diverse range

Aircastle Limited released that Nigel Harwood joined the Company as Executive Vice President, Asia-Pacific. Mr. Harwood will be heading Aircastle’s new business efforts in the Asia-Pacific region and will be based in Singapore.

The RUAG Group has named Andreas Fitze as its new Group CIO and given him a seat on the expanded Executive Board. He holds a university degree in Electrical Engineering and an Executive MBA from the University of St. Gallen. He is currently Head of IT Governance, Strategy and Security at PostFinance, Bern.

Discovery Air announced the appointment of Jacob (Koby) Shavit as its President and Chief Executive Officer and the appointment of Brian Semkowski as a director and Chair of the Board. The appointments are effective December 13, 2012.

JetBlue Airways appointed James E. Leddy to the position of Senior Vice President Treasurer, effectively immediately. In this role, Mr. Leddy will be responsible for traditional treasury functions as well as risk, credit card services, commercial real estate and supply chain.