NEW JOBS

Santander Investment Securities Inc. of Madrid has appointed Bruce D. Stanforth vice president focusing on Latin American corporate bond research. He will concentrate on the media, pay TV, telecom and banking sectors. He had been a Latin American senior corporate analyst and strategist with Americas Trust Bank in Miami.

Security Benefit Group of Cos. in Topeka, Kan., has elected Kris Robbins, 37, president. He will remain chief operating officer and keep responsibility for sales, marketing, product and market development, service, administration and information systems. He had been executive vice president.

Bennington Capital Management LP of Seattle has hired John Schmick as vice president of operations and compliance and chief compliance officer. He will be responsible as well for compliance for Accessor Funds. Mr. Schmick, 39, had been manager of compliance for the Frank Russell Group of Cos., where he spent 12 years.

John Hancock Funds of Boston has hired Laura Allen as a senior vice president and portfolio manager on its small-cap growth team under Bernice Behar, 37. Ms. Allen, 38, was most recently a vice president and associate partner with Boston-based Wellington Management Co.

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, has elected William Poole as president, replacing Thomas C. Melzer, 53, who resigned in January to take a job in the private sector. Mr. Poole, 60, was Herbert H. Goldberger professor of economics at Brown University in Providence, R.I., and a member of the Shadow Open Market Committee. He is also a member of the Academic Advisory Panels of the Federal Reserve banks of New York and Boston.

Campbell Group Inc., a Portland, Ore.-based timberland management and investment company, has appointed Gary L. Combs managing director for investor relations, a new position. Mr. Combs, 43, was previously a senior investment officer with the Oregon State Treasury.

SunAmerica Inc., a Los Angeles-based financial services company, has appointed David R. Bechtel, 30, vice president and treas
urer. He has also been elected a corporate officer. He replaces Scott H. Richland, 35, who was promoted to senior vice president in charge of annuity service operations and human resources. Mr. Bechtel earlier spent two years at New York-based Deutsche Morgan Grenfell Inc., most recently making proprietary arbitrage deals as vice president, special products.

Newport Pacific Management, a San Francisco investment management firm specializing in Asian equity markets, has appointed James Carlson, 50, as chief operating officer, a new position. He was controller and compliance officer of Spare, Kaplan, Bischel & Associates of San Francisco.

State Street Research and Management Co. of Boston has named Russell A. Labrasca Jr., 45, senior vice president and national sales manager for mutual funds. He replaces Greg McMahan, who left last month. Mr. Labrasca was most recently senior vice president and director of national sales and communications for Principal Financial Securities of Dallas.

Liberty Financial Cos. Inc. of Boston has named Thomas W. Butch senior vice president and managing director of marketing for Colonial Group Inc. Mr. Butch, 41, will continue to oversee the marketing efforts of Stein Roe & Farnham Inc. Both Colonial and Chicago-based Stein Roe are subsidiaries of Liberty Financial.

Board of Trade Clearing Corp. in Chicago has appointed Dennis Dutterer president and chief executive officer, a post he has held on an interim basis since John Hiatt, 49, resigned in January. Mr. Dutterer, 53, was executive vice president and general counsel, secretary and chief administrative officer.

Howe Barnes Investments Inc. of Chicago has appointed John A. Hawke, 53, president and chief operating officer. He has served as a senior vice president of Chicago-based Everen Securities Inc., managing the Milwaukee office from 1994 to 1996 and the main Chicago sales office since 1996.

Unionbancal Corp. of Los Angeles has promoted Helen L. Hitchcock, 51, to executive vice president at Union Bank of California and
president of its Private Bank, a San Francisco-based division. She had been a senior vice president overseeing trust activities in Washington state.

KeyCorp executive James A. Washam has been picked by the Treasury Department to head its 1998 Puget Sound/Washington State U.S. Savings Bonds Campaign. Mr. Washam, 51, is president of KeyBank National Association’s Seattle/ Bellevue District. National chairman of the campaign is Harry P. Kamen, 64, chairman and chief executive of Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. in New York.

CNA Surety Corp. of New York has elected Robert T. Van Gieson as a director and chairman of the board. He is president and chief executive of CNA Global Operations as well as a member of the board of First Insurance Co. of Hawaii, Associated Aviation Underwriters and the International Insurance Society. Mr. Van Gieson, 52, fills the vacancy created by the resignation of Peter E. Jokiel as a director. As chairman, he succeeds Adrian M. Tocklin, 46, who will retire as president of CNA Diversified Operations, but will remain a director of CNA Surety.

The company also has elected Philip H. Britt as a director of CNA Surety. Mr. Britt, 51, is senior vice president and head of the insurance industry division of First Chicago NBD. He succeeds John T. Knox Jr., who has resigned.