Central Garden has new CFO

The Central Garden & Pet Company has announced the appointment of Lori Varlas as senior vice president, chief financial officer and secretary. Ms Varlas will report to William E. Brown, Central’s chairman and chief executive officer, and will be based at the company's headquarters in Walnut Creek, California. She succeeds Stuart Booth, who will continue in an advisory role with the company.Lori Varlas brings over 26 years of extensive finance and operational experience to the job. She joins Central Garden from Sun Microsystems, where she served for four years and was most recently vice president of finance-enterprise resources. Before joining Sun, Varlas was vice president of finance at Peoplesoft and held a variety of senior finance positions over a seven-year period.