Denver – Frits van Paasschen is resigning as president and chief executive of Coors Brewing Co. to take the chief executive role at Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc., the third-largest U.S. hotel company. Starwood runs the Sheraton and St. Regis chains.
Molson Coors chief executive Leo Kiely will lead the brewer’s U.S. division on an interim basis until a successor to van Paasschen is named, the Denver-based company said in a statement Friday.
Van Paasschen joined Coors from Nike Inc. in March 2005 after Adolph Coors Co. and Molson Inc. combined to create one of the world’s largest brewing companies. He has more than 20 years of experience in business.
Peter H. Coors, Coors Brewing executive chairman, will work with Kiely on a daily basis to oversee the operation, the e-mail said.
Additional business news briefs:
DENVER
Qwest lets CEO’s family use jet
Qwest amended the employment contract of new chief executive Ed Mueller to allow his wife and youngest daughter to use the company’s corporate jet without him present, according to a regulatory filing Friday.
The change will accommodate Mueller’s daughter’s commute from California, where she is finishing her senior year in high school, to Mueller’s new home in the Denver area. Mueller is expected to close on the Denver home in October.
DENVER
Frontier settles with FAA on penalty
Frontier Airlines reached a $25,000 settlement with the Federal Aviation Administration after the FAA proposed a civil penalty for an airplane maintenance incident in 2005 at LaGuardia Airport in New York, when the inner cylinder of the plane’s nose landing gear was damaged.
The FAA, in a request for a hearing last year, said the maintenance was performed by JetBlue for Frontier and the proper methods for jacking the nose landing gear were not used.
SEATTLE
Microsoft offers easier Vista system
Microsoft Corp. has submitted a test version of its Windows Vista operating system with features that make it easier to use non-Microsoft programs to search PC hard drives, according to a report issued by the Justice Department on Friday.
The report, a regular update on Microsoft’s compliance with a 2002 antitrust settlement, said the Redmond, Wash.-based company was on schedule in other areas, including the massive task of rewriting documentation it provides to licensees of its technology.
NEW YORK
iTunes, NBC pricing dispute escalates
Apple Inc. escalated a dispute with NBC Universal over the pricing of television shows by announcing Friday it would not sell any of NBC’s programs for this fall season on iTunes.
Earlier, NBC had told Apple that it would no longer allow its programs to be sold via iTunes at the end of the year. NBC Universal-controlled television programming accounts for an estimated 40 percent of the video downloads on iTunes.
