DuPont, the $31 billion chemical company, announced that Nicholas Fanandakis will become CFO and senior vice president on Nov. 1. He will succeed Jeffrey Keefer, who has been named to lead Wilmington, Del.-based DuPont's performance coatings business. Fanandakis, 53, has worked for DuPont for 30 years. Since 2008, he has been group vice president of the applied biosciences unit. Earlier, Fanandakis served as general manager of DuPont Chemical Solutions Enterprise and as vice president of planning.

Xcel Energy, an $11.2 billion utility holding company, named David Sparby CFO and vice president. He replaces Benjamin Fowke III, who was promoted to president and chief operating officer of Minneapolis-based Xcel. Sparby, 55, mostly recently was president and CEO of an Xcel subsidiary, Northern States Power Co. of Minnesota. Since joining Northern States in 1982, he has also served as vice president of regulatory affairs, general manager of regulatory services and managing director of corporate rates.

GameStop, a Grapevine, Texas, retailer of video games and entertainment software with $8.8 billion in revenue, hired Catherine Smith as CFO and executive vice president. She succeeds David Carlson, who is retiring in March 2010. Smith, 46, most recently spent three years as CFO and executive vice president of Centex, a Dallas-based home builder. She has also served as CFO at Kennametal, at Bell Helicopter, a division of Textron, and for the intelligence and information systems business of Raytheon.