Joe Abrams,
executive VP, Pearson Television International, London, named president.
Joe Lupariello,
VP, development and production, Leeza Gibbons Enterprises, Burbank, Calif., named president.
Steve Veisel,
manager, current programming, UPN, Los Angeles, named director, comedy development.
Jay Switzer,
VP, programming, CHUM Television, Toronto, Canada, named president of the company.
Appointments at Universal International Television, Universal City, Calif.:
Steven Jarmus,
VP and co-head, named co-president;
Philip Schuman,
executive VP, named co-president.
John Honeycutt,
VP, post production operations, Fox Cable Networks Group, Los Angeles, named senior VP, broadcast operations.
Andrew Hunter,
account director, MTV, New York, named VP, network development, MTV2.
Rick Alessandri,
GM, SportsTicker, Jersey City, N.J., named VP, assistant to the president, ESPN, New York.
Ian M. Parmiter,
VP, marketing, 7 UP Brands, Cadbury Schweppes, Dallas, joins Discovery Networks U.S., New York, as VP, advertising sales marketing and partnerships.
Sarah H. Beatty,
VP, trade marketing and global branding, MTV, New York, joins USA Network, New York, as senior VP, marketing.
Appointments at National Geographic Channel, Washington D.C.:
Deborah L. Acklin,
executive producer, WQED(TV) Pittsburgh, joins as senior news producer;
John S. Bowman,
director of post production, named executive producer, production;
Jason K. Eustace,
senior financial analyst, international division, named finance director;
Ben Kretchmar,
assistant chief engineer, WUSA(TV) Washington, joins as director of technical operations;
Amy Outman,
senior manager in programming and scheduling/ manager of program evaluation and scheduling, named director of scheduling and evaluation;
Margaila Kretchmar,
director of international network operations, Discovery Communications, Bethesda, Md., joins as VP, operations for the National Geographic Channel, Los Angeles.
