Concrete Pictures has named MICHELE TOTI LEACH as executive producer.

St. Jacques Marketing has appointed JENNIFER LOBIANCO as client services director. LoBianco is responsible for the management of client relationships. Most recently, she held the position of director of marketing at CheapTickets.com, part of Cendant.

The J. Brown Agency has named SUSAN ARDITI senior vice president, director of client development.Arditi will be responsible for helping guide creative and account groups to build client business. 

HOWARD KATZ, the former president of ABC Sports who has served as the chief operating officer of NFL Films for the past two years, has been named the NFL’s new senior vice president of media operations, a newly developed position. Katz will continue to be the chief operating officer of NFL Films. His added responsibilities will include oversight of the NFL’s playing schedule and managing the operations of NFL Network.

NEIL CHASE, who has been an editor in online journalism for a decade, will join NYTimes.com as deputy editor for news. Chase joins the company from MarketWatch.com in San Francisco where for the past five years he has led a team of roughly 50 journalists in nine bureaus covering business news.

JOAN RITTER has joined Slack Barshinger as vice president of direct and relationship marketing. Ritter returns to the agency world after two years as director of marketing and product development for DM2-DecisionMaker Media Management, a provider of business-to-business response lists and a subsidiary of Reed Business Information.

Boulanger & Associates has named MARK PEDRELLI as director of direct and Internet marketing. In this new position, Pedrelli will be responsible for implementing all integrated marketing programs for the agency’s clients.

The VIA Group has named KAREN WISNIEWSKI as an account supervisor and TRACI BERGAN as a media supervisor. Prior to joining VIA, Bergan was a multinational media planner for Universal McCann, McCann Worldgroup in San Francisco.

TAREK AYNTRAZI, Middle East chief executive of Starcom Group, is moving to a newly created role, effective April 1. Ayntrazi will be chief operating officer for Starcom Central Western and Eastern Europe, a region that includes France, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, Poland, Czech Republic, and Hungary. 

Gemstone Communications Inc. has added two new account executives to its advertising sales team. ANASTASIA (STACY) DELLAS and MARIUS ISIDORE will both focus their efforts on the senior and Jewish publication divisions, SPMG and J Media.