NEW JOBS

* Pacific Life Insurance Co. in Newport Beach, Calif., has hired Stephen Best, 27, as manager of financial institutions. Previously, he was national key accounts manager of the financial institutions division of SunAmerica Inc. in Los Angeles.

* Union Bank of California in Los Angeles has appointed Steven F. Schneider, 45, director of sales in the external markets department of its High Mark Funds. Most recently, he was national sales director for Sife Inc. in Walnut Creek, Calif.

* Valic, the investment adviser to 13 American General Series Portfolio Co. mutual funds in Houston, has appointed Cynthia A. Toles, 47, senior vice president, general counsel and secretary of American General Retirement Services. Formerly Valic’s senior associate general counsel and secretary, she replaces Bill Wilson, now vice president of government affairs.

* Webster Trust, a subsidiary of Webster Bank in Waterbury, Conn., has named Thomas N. Howe, 47, chief executive officer and executive vice president of trust and investment services for the bank. He had held a similar post for Citizens Financial Group in Providence, R.I.

* Wit Capital in New York has appointed Beth Polish, 37, director of corporate development, responsible for strategic and financial planning. She most recently was a managing director in the new media practice at KPMG Peat Marwick LLP in New York.

* Capital One Financial Corp. in Falls Church, Va., has named Dominic Allen, 47, director of international business development. He had been vice president of TransNational in Boston, where he managed the company’s French, German and British operations for seven years.

* Copper Mountain Trust Corp. in Portland, Ore., has appointed Lori Bowman, 43, trust officer on its private wealth management team. Most recently, she worked as both assistant trust officer and assistant to the Southern Oregon Trust and private client services area manager at Wells Fargo Bank in San Francisco.

* Fidelity Investments in Boston has promoted securities analyst Jonathan Zang, 31, to portfolio manager of the $355 million Select Utilities Growth Portfolio. He succeeds Nick Thakore, 30, who will continue to manage the Select Telecommunications Portfolio, the Advisor Utilities Growth Fund and the Utilities Fund.

* Guinness Flight Investment Management Ltd. in Pasadena, Calif., has hired Neil J. George Jr., 33, as senior vice president and international funds director. Previously, he was chief international economist at Mercantile Bank in St. Louis.

* KPMG Peat Marwick LLP in New York has hired Paul Huey-Burns, 41, as manager in the Washington regulatory practice of the financial services assurance division. Most recently, he was assistant director in the regulatory-consulting group of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

* O’Connor & Co. Securities in Newport Beach, Calif., has named Richard C. Oakley, 52, a former municipal finance manager, senior vice president. He previously served as public finance specialist for Sidler Co., an investment bank in Los Angeles.

* New York Life Benefit Services Inc. in Norwood, Mass., has appointed Stephen D. Howell, 34, sales director for its Atlanta office, responsible for marketing bundled defined contribution plans and defined benefit plans. He held the title of vice president-regional manager at Investco Retirement Plan Services in Denver.

* Old Guard Insurance Group Inc. in Lancaster, Pa., has appointed Henry J. Straub, 35, chief financial officer and treasurer. He succeeds Mark J. Keyser, 44, now a consultant. Mr. Straub had been controller.

* Parson Group LLC, an accountant and insurance broker in Chicago, has added Ella D. Strubel, 58, and Ruth Ann M. Gillis, 43, to its board of directors. Ms. Strubel recently retired from Leo Burnett Co. Inc. in Chicago, where she was executive vice president of corporate affairs. Ms. Gillis is vice president and treasurer of Unicom Corp. in Chicago and its subsidiary, ComEd.

In addition, Christopher R. Joseph, 32, was appointed chief

financial officer. He was a founder, senior vice president of operations and chief financial officer for Integration Alliance Corp. in Denver.

* PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP has appointed Danny Hollingshead, 50, office managing partner in Seattle. He was the Coopers & Lybrand managing partner there before the merger.

In addition, James Crump, 57, has been appointed the global leader for energy and mining worldwide and the office managing partner in Houston, the post he held for Price Waterhouse.

* TCF Financial Corp. in Minneapolis has appointed former chief financial officer Ronald Palmer, 45, president of Winthrop Resources, its subsidiary leasing company.

Replacing Mr. Palmer as chief financial officer is Neil W. Brown, 39, who comes from KPMG Peat Marwick LLP in New York, where he was an audit partner.

* Warburg Dillon Read LLC. in Stamford, Conn., has named Rachel Leheny, 35, senior biotechnology analyst, heading the biotechnology research group. She was formerly with Hambrecht & Quist in San Francisco, where she was senior biotechnology analyst.

* Bankers Trust Corp. in New York has named David C. Fisher, 52, controller and managing director. Most recently he was managing director and head of global operations in the Americas at Salomon Smith Barney in New York.

* BT Alex. Brown Inc. in New York has hired Paul H. Tice, 36, as principal in its global corporate bond research team, covering the energy and chemical sectors. He comes from Deutsche Bank Securities in New York, where he was a director in the global credit research department responsible for similar

sectors.

* Brandywine Realty Trust in Newtown Square, Pa., has promoted Barbara Yamarick, 46, to vice president of tenant services and property management. She had been director of tenant services and property management.

* Rushmore Financial Group Inc., a financial services holding company in Dallas, has appointed James A. Fehleison, 39, and Gayle C. Tinsley, 67, to its board of directors for one- and two-year terms, respectively. Mr. Fehleison is chief financial officer of First Southwest Holdings Inc. and First Southwest Co. in Dallas and Mr. Tinsley is a Dallas-based independent consultant specializing in start-up, expansion or restructuring phases of small businesses.

* Salomon Smith Barney in New York has promoted Phillip Benefield, 56, to director of its municipal high-net-worth program. He is replacing John Rice, now a managing director and manager of institutional sales. Mr. Benefield had been manager of the municipal bond desk’s high-net-worth program for Robinson Humphrey, a Salomon subsidiary in Atlanta.