ACUITY BRANDS Inc. (Atlanta) - Robert F. McCullough was named a director of this maker of lighting fixtures, increasing board membership to nine. Mr. McCullough, 60 years old, is chief financial officer and a board member of Amvescap PLC, a London investment-management firm. - FIRST ALBANY Corp. (Albany, N.Y.) - Theodore J. Gillman will be chief executive, a new position, at the First Albany Asset Management unit of the investment-banking company. Hugh Johnson, 61, the unit's chairman, had been handling the unit's executive duties. Mr. Gillman was head of Private Client Group of Lazard Asset Management LLC, a subsidiary of Lazard Freres & Co. At First Albany, the 39-year-old also will serve as a member of the operating committee. - GENERAL ELECTRIC Co. (Fairfield, Conn.) - This company's GE Nuclear Energy Inc. unit, part of energy-systems subsidiary GE Power Systems, appointed Andrew White as president. Mr. White, 48, had been general manager, installation and field services, for GE energy services. He succeeds Mark Savoff, 47, who has left the company. GE Nuclear Energy provides products and services for owners of boiling-water reactor nuclear-power plants. - GOODRICH PETROLEUM Corp. (Houston) - The oil-and-gas exploration company named D. Hughes Watler Jr. chief financial officer and senior vice president. Mr. Watler, 54, most recently was chief financial officer of Xpronet, a private international oil-and-gas exploration company. Mr. Watler succeeds Roland L. Frautschi, 44, who resigned as finance chief in May. - INTERNATIONAL PAPER Co. (Stamford, Conn.) - Chris Liddell becomes senior vice president and chief financial officer of this forest-products company. Mr. Liddell, 44, had been the company's vice president, finance. He succeeds John Faraci, 53, who was named International Paper's president. - LEVEL 3 COMMUNICATIONS Inc. (Broomfield, Colo.) - This international communications and information-services company said Sunit S. Patel, 41, is expected to succeed Sureel Choksi as finance chief following its annual stockholder meeting in May. Mr. Patel has been chief financial officer of Looking Glass Networks Inc., an Oak Brook, Ill., provider of fiber-optic networks in major metropolitan areas. He also was a Looking Glass co-founder. Mr. Choksi, 30, who also is group vice president, will be chairman of a service-strategies group to develop products and services, the company said. - LUCENT TECHNOLOGIES (Murray Hill, N.J.) - Mark G. Gibbens becomes treasurer and vice president at this telecommunications-equipment maker. The 35-year-old succeeds Martina Hund-Mejean, 42, who left the company in December for Tyco International Ltd. Mr. Gibbens was assistant treasurer. Separately, John Meyer, 46, will be president of business unit Lucent Worldwide Services, effective April 1. His previous position was president of information-technology-management services for Electronic Data Systems. He succeeds John Heindel, who resigned yesterday. - POLYMER GROUP Inc. (North Charleston, S.C.) - James L. Schaeffer is to be CEO of this global producer of nonwoven materials. He succeeds Jerry Zucker, 53, who resigned as CEO, president and chairman last week. Mr. Zucker left to focus on InterTech Group Inc., his closely held company, a PGI spokesman said. He will continue to work with the company as an adviser to the board. Mr. Schaeffer, 52, has served with PGI for 18 years and most recently was president, nonwovens division, and executive vice president. - RETEK Inc. (Minneapolis) - Marty Leestma is to be president, chief executive and a director. Mr. Leestma, 44, was a global industry managing partner for Accenture. He succeeds Steve Ladwig, 45, who has resigned. Retek provides retail-industry software. - SHIRE PHARMACEUTICALS GROUP (Basingstoke, England) - The international drug company named Matthew Emmens CEO and appointed him to its board. Mr. Emmens, 51, succeeds Rolf Stahel, 58, who stepped down as CEO and departs as a director tomorrow. Mr. Emmens comes from Merck KGaA's global prescription-pharmaceuticals division, Darmstadt, Germany, where he was president. - VISTEON Corp. (Dearborn, Mich.) - Marla Gottschalk, 42, will be the 10th director of this supplier of automotive technology. Ms. Gottschalk is senior vice president of financial planning and investor relations for packaged-foods company Kraft Foods Inc., Northfield, Ill. - WORLD WRESTLING ENTERTAINMENT Inc. (Stamford, Conn.) - The wrestling-entertainment concern appointed Philip Livingston to be chief financial officer and to its board. The 46-year-old assumes the finance-chief responsibilities from Frank Serpe, 58, chief accounting officer and senior vice president of finance. Mr. Serpe has been acting finance chief since Augie Liguori left the position in October. Mr. Livingston had been CEO and president of Financial Executives International, an executive-membership organization. - YAHOO Inc. (Sunnyvale, Calif.) - Robert Kotick joins the board at the provider of online products and business services. The 40-year-old Mr. Kotick is a director, chairman and CEO for videogame company Activision Inc., Santa Monica, Calif., and a director for Internet-technology supplier Macromedia Inc., San Francisco. Yahoo also announced the resignation of director Michael Moritz. Board membership stands at nine.