HERD

Does the word stampede come to mind? Two key executives involved in Govpx Inc. have fled recently. Govpx last week lost its senior vice president for sales, Aron Karp. Karp couldn't be reached at press time. Liberty Brokerage Inc. chief Tom Wendel also relinquished his post as a member of Govpx' board late last month. Govpx president Pete Carney says the vendor will go outside the company to hire a replacement for Karp. As a result of a recent "restructuring" that left Govpx chief marketer Alison Fredericks out of a job (IMD, Feb. 14), Karp's successor will have oversight of marketing as well as sales, Carney says.

Kenneth Ginsberg -- formerly a senior vice president of systems at Cantor Fitzgerald L.P. -- joined Manhattan-based Tradition Inc. in March as a senior vice president in charge of technology. Ginsberg declines to comment as to why he changed jobs. Sources at Cantor say Ginsberg's responsibilities will be divvied up by members of the systems department, headed by Marshall Caro.

Smith Barney Shearson Inc. has hired Estelle Catalano as a communications analyst in its market data group. She will be responsible for the coordination of Shearson's non- Triarch 2000 market data services at its new trading facility at 390 Greenwich St. Catalano comes to Shearson from Yamaichi International (America) Inc.

Linda Costa has been hired by Shark Information Systems Corp. as director of product management. She is leaving Telekurs (North America) Inc. where she worked as a product manager with responsibility for options data. Sources say that no replacement has yet been named. Prior to Telekurs, Costa worked at Reuters.

The recently formed Reuters Analytics Inc. wants to hire a few good data professionals. The fixed-income analytics vendor seeks, for its Stamford, Conn., office, project leaders with at least three years under their belts, fixed- income data analysts with solid oral skills and a project coordinator with five years experience and a knowledge of C programming on a Vax, along with -- preferably -- QA experience. The new branch of Reuters was formed to acquire Capital Markets Decisions. While it is "not an operating company in the strictest sense," according to a Reuters spokesperson, Reuters Analytics has a president, Hubert Holmes, who retains his title at Reuters proper -- international marketing manager for fixed-income. "CMD still exists within Reuters Analytics.... Is its name used in an operating sense? I think less and less," says the spokesperson.

Meanwhile, as part of an effort to develop trainer activities for its LAN-based data distribution products, Reuters is also looking for a sales and product trainer, a senior training specialist and an IMS technical trainer. Also, Reuters is recruiting programmer analysts.

ILX Systems Inc. held an open house on March 29, looking for programmers, entry level technical support and quality assurance professionals.

S&P Ratings Group has appointed Diane Vazza to the newly created post director of fixed-income research. Under the position, she will control the development of a new yield spread analysis system dubbed Bondcomp; she will also head the firm's investment-grade and speculative-grade debt research department. Before this promotion, Vazza headed S&P's high-yield research department. Previously, Vazza served as corporate vice president at Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc.