Executives

At CBS, breaking up is hard to do. But not impossible. After two years of saying she would like to try something new, top CBS entertainment executive Nancy Tellem appears to be close to stepping down from her job running the CBS television network and TV production studio. CBS insiders confirmed that Tellem, president of CBS Network Television Entertainment Group, had been in talks with her boss, CBS Corp. Chief Executive Leslie Moonves, to assume a less hands-on role at the company.

CBS is losing its top bean counter. Fred Reynolds, the longtime chief financial officer of CBS Corp., is stepping down next month and retiring in August. He will be succeeded by Joe Ianniello, who has been deputy chief financial officer. Reynolds, 58, has been CBS Chief Executive Leslie Moonves' Wall Street wingman for nearly a decade. He almost left the company in 2005, but Moonves, who commands extreme loyalty from his underlings, lured him back.

Teen specialty retailer Pacific Sunwear of California Inc. named former Vans Inc. CEO Gary H. Schoenfeld to its chief executive post Wednesday. Schoenfeld succeeds Sally Frame Kasaks, who has served as CEO of the Anaheim retailer since 2006 and as board chairwoman since 2007. Pacific Sunwear said Kasaks wasn't pushed out from the top job and would remain a director. Schoenfeld, 46, will take over as chief executive June 29, the company said.

Former Countrywide Financial Corp. boss Angelo R. Mozilo, whose embrace of exotic loans helped fuel the mortgage boom and meltdown, will face Securities and Exchange Commission fraud charges unless his lawyers prevail in an eleventh-hour appeal, people familiar with the SEC's investigation said Wednesday. Mozilo is among several former executives of the Calabasas company whom the SEC staff wants to charge in a civil case, one of these people said.

A federal judge has postponed the criminal trial of Broadcom Corp. co-founder Henry T. Nicholas III until 2010, a delay the billionaire requested to help him prepare his defense against charges that he secretly manipulated stock options to reward employees. U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney scheduled Nicholas' trial for Feb. 9, 2010, in Santa Ana, according to a ruling made public this week.

Bank of America Corp. owes Kenneth D. Lewis, who is quitting as its chief executive at year's end, $68.8 million on his way out the door. Lewis accumulated that amount in his 40 years of work at Bank of America and predecessor companies. Topping the list of assets is a lump-sum pension benefit that was valued at $53.2 million in the bank's last public report on his holdings. That report, in a proxy filing this year, also said Lewis, 62, had $10.6 million in deferred compensation coming his way. And he will keep 305,000 shares of restricted stock that will vest over the next few years, which, at today's stock price of $16.34, is worth about $5 million.

Wall Street could learn a thing or two from 24-year-old video-store clerk Beatriz Corrales. "I love movies," she said from behind the counter at the Video Hut outlet in Hollywood's Franklin Village neighborhood. "If someone can't find a movie, I go and search the Internet for them. They could do it at home, but I'm happy to help." Surely that kind of going-the-extra-mile should merit some sort of bonus. Corrales laughed. "No bonus," she said.

Some Apple Inc. investors are advocating the unthinkable: Apple Inc. without Steve Jobs running it. The charismatic chief executive, they said, should take on a new role when he returns in a week or two from a six-month medical leave -- as an advisor, thus removing himself from the rigors of overseeing day-to-day operations. His impending return spurred fresh speculation about his health and the future of the Cupertino, Calif., computer, iPod and iPhone maker.

The head of the Washington State Investment Board is heading south to Sacramento to oversee investments at the nation's largest public pension fund, the California Public Employees' Retirement System. As chief investment officer, Joseph A. Dear, 57, faces the challenge of reversing steep losses inflicted by the financial downturn on the $178-billion fund, known as CalPERS.

Calabasas-based home builder Ryland Group Inc. said its chief executive would retire in May and be replaced by the company's current president. R. Chad Dreier, 61, has served as CEO for more than 15 years and will continue as chairman after he steps down May 29. President Larry Nicholson, 51, will take on the CEO title -- and all the problems of the most miserable housing market in decades.