NEWARK, DE — The college financing company Sallie Mae has named Donna Vieira executive VP and chief marketing officer. Vieira (pictured) will oversee product development, sales, marketing, government relations and communications for Sallie Mae’s consumer businesses, including private student loans, retail banking, personal loans and credit cards. She brings experience from previous positions held at Dun & Bradstreet, Merrill Lynch and American Express.

IRVING, TX— Caris Life Sciences has hired Srikant (Sri) Ramaswami as its chief communications officer. Ramaswami joins Caris from rbb Communications where he was most recently executive VP for healthcare. He brings to Caris more than two decades of healthcare communications experience and has held roles at Merck, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson.

STAMFORD, CT — Bill Wohl has been appointed United Rentals’ head of brand & communications. Wohl will be responsible for brand execution, creative & design, messaging, content strategy, PR and social media. He most recently was the chief communications officer of Commvault, and previously served as Hewlett Packard’s CCO.

WASHINGTON — SoundExchange has named Helaine S. Klasky its chief communications officer. Klasky brings a balance of experience in both the public and private sectors. She was previously the chair of Burson-Marsteller’s US public affairs and crisis practice, the chief communications officer at GE Energy Management and the chief communications officer at Yale University. In government, Klasky has served as deputy assistant secretary for public affairs at the US treasury department and ran the state department’s office of media affairs.

VANCOUVER, BC — Kutcho Copper has named Michael Rapsch its VP of corporate communications.  Prior to joining Kutcho, Rapsch spent three years as VP, corporate communications at SilverCrest Metals. Earlier he spent four years at SilverCrest Mines, a past silver and gold producer with assets in Mexico which was acquired at the end of 2015.  

SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, CA — Merit Logistics has appointed Bob Shade its new VP of corporate communication. Shade joined Merit in 2015 as the director of marketing, in which he led the branding of the company just after its inception. In his new role, Shade will lead the company’s new client relations program.