Education

Software leader resigns over school credentials

Veritas Software Corp. Thursday said that Kenneth Lonchar resigned as executive vice president and chief financial officer after the company learned he had “misstated” his educational credentials.

Veritas, a maker of storage-management software, said it recently uncovered that Lonchar had incorrectly claimed to have received an MBA from Stanford University.

“While Ken’s misstatement about his academic credentials is unfortunate, it has no bearing on the accuracy of our financial results or the quality of our financial procedures and controls,” Gary Bloom, chairman, president and chief executive, said.

Lonchar didn’t have any comment other than to say he believed his resignation was in the best interests of the company.

Auto Industry

GM to change production at plant in Kansas City

General Motors Corp. will build the next-generation Chevrolet Malibu at its Fairfax plant in Kansas City, Kan., the company said Wednesday.

GM is moving production of the Pontiac Grand Prix from Fairfax to Canada after this model year and then investing $500 million in Fairfax to prepare for the Malibu.

Sharon Baldwin, a spokeswoman for the Fairfax plant, said Fairfax would be producing just the Malibu. The production of the Grand Prix sedan is scheduled to be completed in February, she said.

General Motors then will close the Fairfax plant for several months for extensive retooling, she said. Baldwin said workers would begin returning to the plant in June, and full production could begin by late summer.

Internal Revenue Service

Federal rules changed for retirement plans

New rules issued by the government Thursday would enable some people to ease the sting of an unexpected drop in the value of their retirement plans.

The Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service rules permit people to switch the amount of payments they get from their retirement plans based on their value from year to year, without penalty. In other words, distributions could be reduced to protect a depleted plan and raised in better years.

Previous rules required that pension or individual retirement account payments be based on the plan’s value at the time they started receiving payments. The rules apply to people who want to avoid a 10 percent tax for early withdrawals those before age 59 1/2 by accepting a series of equal payments over their lifetimes.