First American Financial, a Santa Ana, Calif.-based provider of title insurance and real estate settlement services with $4 billion in 2009 revenue, named Max Valdes CFO. He succeeds Anthony "Buddy" Piszel, who exited the company in June when it spun off Corelogic. Valdes, 55, senior vice president of finance and chief accounting officer since 2006, joined the company in 1988 after working at Pricewaterhouse-Coopers. Separately, Mark Seaton, 33, was appointed senior vice president of finance.

Live Nation Entertainment, the $4.2 billion live entertainment and ticketing company, which merged with Ticketmaster in January, appointed Jan Berger as vice president of risk management. He succeeds Bill Taylor. Before joining Los Angeles-based Live Nation, Berger, 55, was treasurer and vice president at Smart & Final, a West Coast chain of warehouse stores. Prior to that, he served as treasurer of Autodesk and worked at Bechtel and Homestake Mining.

Verizon Communications, the New York City-based telecommunications company with $107 billion in 2009 revenue, named John Doherty head of investor relations. He replaces Ron Lataille, who was appointed senior vice president of finance, succeeding Bill Heitmann, who will retire at the end of the year. Doherty, 46, was most recently CFO and vice president for Verizon Services Operations. Lataille, 55, will head Verizon Investment Management, which runs about $55 billion in assets.