Dow Chemical of Midland, Mich., has appointed William Weideman CFO and executive vice president. He succeeds Geoffrey Merszei, who was promoted to president of Dow Europe, Middle East and Africa in November. Weideman, 55, has served as interim CFO of $44.8 billion Dow since November and has been the company;s controller since 2006. In his 30 years with Dow, he has also served as group vice president for its basic chemicals and plastics business and finance vice president for chemicals and intermediates.

General Dynamics, the $31.9 billion defense contractor, has appointed Jason Aiken controller and vice president. He succeeds John Schwartz, the controller since 1998, who is retiring. Aiken, 37, has served as General Dynamic's staff vice president of accounting since 2006 and earlier was director of consolidation accounting. Before joining the Falls Church, Va.-based company in 2002, Aiken was an audit manager at Arthur Andersen, where he worked for a number of defense contractors, including General Dynamics.

Hartford Financial Services Group, the $24.7 billion insurance and investments company, hired Christopher Swift as CFO and executive vice president. He succeeds Lizabeth Zlatkus, who has been named chief risk officer of the company. Swift, 49, most recently was CFO and vice chairman of American Life Insurance Co., a unit of AIG. Earlier, he served as CFO of AIG's life insurance and retirement services units. Before joining AIG in 2003, Swift headed the global insurance industry practice at KPMG.