Executives

Computer Sciences Corp., the fifth-largest U.S. provider of computer services, named Michael W. Laphen, 56, as chief executive. Laphen, who was chief operating officer, replaces Van B. Honeycutt, 62, who will remain chairman until his term expires July 30, El Segundo-based Computer Sciences said. Honeycutt had been CEO since 1995 and had worked to expand the company's clients beyond the U.S. government. The leadership change is part of a strategic plan that Laphen helped craft, a spokesman said.

Michael Kopper, a former Enron Corp. executive convicted of helping ex-Chief Financial Officer Andrew Fastow skim millions of dollars from the energy trader, was released Friday from federal custody after serving less than two-thirds of his sentence. Kopper, 43, was the first Enron executive to cut a deal, pleading guilty to two conspiracy counts and cooperating with prosecutors pursuing other company officials.

Longtime CBS television station executive Don Corsini has joined crosstown rival KTLA-TV Channel 5, becoming general manager and president of the Tribune-owned station. Corsini last summer decided to step down as general manager of CBS Corp.'s two Los Angeles stations -- KCBS-TV Channel 2 and KCAL-TV Channel 9 -- when his contract expired Wednesday.

Bank of America Corp. Chief Executive Ken Lewis is asking the company's board not to award bonuses to him or other top executives for 2008. Lewis confirmed the decision in an e-mail sent to top executives Tuesday, the Charlotte Observer reported. "This was a difficult decision because we have worked hard and made progress on many projects that will create value for our company in future years," Lewis said in the e-mail, citing acquisitions of Countrywide Financial and Merrill Lynch.

Brad Grey, whose purported demise at Paramount Pictures has been the subject of on-and-off speculation in Hollywood for at least two years, has signed on for five more years as chairman and chief executive of the Melrose Avenue studio. His boss at parent company Viacom Inc., Philippe Dauman, extended Grey's contract to early 2014, although it wasn't set to expire until March 2010.

An e-mail in which Broadcom Corp. co-founder Henry T. Nicholas III allegedly talks about a drug binge can be used as evidence during his criminal trial, a federal judge ruled. Lawyers for Nicholas, an Orange County and Silicon Valley billionaire, had argued that the 2002 message to his estranged wife was privileged because it was a personal communication. However, U.S. District Judge Cormac J.

"Justice? You get justice in the next world, in this world you have the law." That opening line of one of my favorite novels, William Gaddis' 1994 legal satire "A Frolic of His Own," comes back to me every time I hear someone call for packing the rich malefactors behind the great financial meltdown of 2008 off to jail. Having watched 40% of our 401(k)s go up in smoke and jobs vanish by the millions, it's natural to want to see the guilty subjected to divine justice.

A few years back, Carol Bartz said that the worst thing about her job running software maker Autodesk Inc. was "when people on the outside try to second-guess everything a CEO does." As the new chief executive of beleaguered Internet company Yahoo Inc., Bartz's patience with Monday-morning quarterbacking is likely to be tested.

Many years ago, a dear relative of mine had a medical condition that snowballed: It started as serious but not critical, yet with every visit to the doctor, the news got worse -- and got worse faster and faster. It's still too early to know if that's the pattern we're seeing with Apple Inc. and Steve Jobs, who announced Wednesday that he would take a six-month medical leave from his CEO post.

Steve Jobs' leadership of Apple Inc. has been the stuff of American business lore. Less heralded is the role that Tim Cook played in rescuing the company from near irrelevance. Through a series of roles, most recently chief operating officer, Cook fixed what ailed Apple in the mid-1990s: poor product quality, spotty availability and absurdly high prices. His reward: For the second time in five years, Jobs this week tapped Cook to run the company while the chief executive takes a medical leave.