Gannett CFO Paul Saleh Resigns

(RTTNews) – Media holding company Gannett Co., the publisher of USA Today, said Monday that Chief Financial Officer Paul Saleh has resigned from the company, effective immediately. The company said Vice President and Treasurer Michael Hart will serve as interim principal financial officer while it searches for a permanent CFO.The McLean, Virginia-based publisher of 82 daily newspapers noted that Saleh leaves Gannett to accept a position with a Fortune 200 company.

“As a member of our senior management team, Paul played an important role in ensuring the Company’s financial strength and implementing our ongoing focus on asset optimization. We appreciate his contributions to Gannett, and we wish him well,” President and CEO Gracia Martore said in a statement.

Separately, information technology services provider Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC: News ) announced the appointment of Saleh as its vice president and CFO, effective May 23. Saleh succeeds Michael Mancuso, who announced his retirement in February 2012. Saleh will report to CSC President and CEO Mike Lawrie, and will be responsible for CSC’s global financial operations.

“Paul Saleh is exactly what we had in mind when we set out to find a new CFO. He has been a CFO for Fortune 500 companies during periods of transformation and brings exceptional experience in corporate controls and accounting discipline,” Lawrie stated.

Saleh, age 55, was most recently serving as Gannett’s senior vice president and CFO. He joined the company as CFO in November 2010 after serving as managing partner at Menza Partners LLC, which he founded. Prior to that, he served as CFO at Sprint Nextel Corp. (S) from 2005 to 2008.

Prior to the merger between Sprint and Nextel Communications, Inc., Saleh was executive vice president and CFO of Nextel from 2001 to 2005. Earlier to that, he was senior vice president and CFO of Walt Disney International where he held other senior financial positions since 1997.

Before joining Walt Disney, Saleh had a 12-year career at Honeywell, Inc. (HON) where he was vice president and treasurer from 1994 to 1997 and held other various leadership positions in finance, treasury, investor relations, strategic planning and operations.

Saleh said, “I am grateful for the opportunity to have worked with Gracia and a very talented leadership team on a plan to position Gannett for success in the digital age.”

GCI closed Friday’s regular trading session at $13.37, up $0.14 on a volume of 2.54 million shares, and CSC closed at $27.11, up $0.26 on a volume of 1.19 million shares.