Central Garden & Pet names new CFO

Central Garden & Pet has appointed Lori Varlas as its new senior VP and chief financial officer and secretary, effective Dec. 1. She succeeds Stuart Booth who will continue in an advisory role with the company.

Varlas joins Central from Sun Microsystems, where she served for four years and most recently was VP finance-enterprise resources. Prior to joining Sun, Varlas was VP finance at PeopleSoft and held a variety of senior finance positions over a seven-year period. Varlas also held senior finance positions at Chiron Corp. and Specialty Foods. She began her career at Price Waterhouse, where she worked for seven years.

Based in Walnut Creek, Calif., Central Garden & Pet is a supplier of lawn, garden and pet products under a variety of brands, including Pennington, Kaytee, Amdro, Sevin, Ironite, Norcal and New England Pottery.