Michael Gordon has been appointed corporate controller of Pacer International, a $2 billion freight transportation company. Marc Jensen, his predecessor, is leaving the company at the end of March because the position is moving from Pacer's Concord, Calif., headquarters to Dublin, Ohio. Gordon, 43, was a financial consultant at Resources Global Professionals from 2007 until December 2009, and Pacer was one of his clients. Earlier, he was financial controller for North and South America for DHL Exel Supply Chain and was a senior manager at Ernst & Young.

FirstEnergy Corp., a $13.6 billion energy company, named James Garanich vice president of tax. He succeeds Gene Sitarz, who retired in November. Garanich is joining Akron, Ohio-based FirstEnergy from Ernst & Young, where he was a tax partner. He joined a predecessor firm, Arthur Young, in 1984.

Theresa Messina has been hired as chief accounting officer of Webster Financial, the holding company for Webster Bank of Waterbury, Conn., which has $17.8 billion in assets. Messina, 48, had worked at Fannie Mae since 2006 directing operations related to more than 18 million single-family mortgages. Earlier, she was an audit partner at Ernst & Young from 2000 to 2006 and senior vice president for operations at Fidelity Management Trust from 1995 to 1998.