Houston-based Waste Management named David P. Steiner to succeed A. Maurice Myers as chief executive officer. Mr. Myers will remain as chairman until November, when he will retire. Upon Mr. Myers’ retirement, board Director John Pope, a former president and chief operating officer of UAL Corp.’s United Airlines, will become the company’s nonexecutive chairman.
The company also named Lawrence O’Donnell III as president and chief operating officer. Previously, O’Donnell was executive vice president, operations support, and the chief administrative officer. Robert G. Simpson, formerly senior vice president and chief accounting officer, replaced Mr. Steiner as finance chief.
Mr. Myers was responsible for stabilizing Waste Management’s business after a 1998 accounting scandal rocked the company and foreshadowed similar scandals at Enron, WorldCom, and other companies. The 1998 scandal resulted in Waste Management declaring a $1.2 billion charge against earnings, removal of the company’s top executives, a Securities and Exchange Commission review, and dozens of shareholder lawsuits.

Houston-based Reliant Resources announced late Monday that federal prosecutors in San Francisco have informed the company that its trading unit subsidiary — Reliant Energy Services — and four former and current employees are targets of an impending grand jury indictment stemming allegations that Reliant Energy Services engaged in price manipulation on two days in June 2000 by curtailing power plant generation in California. In January 2003, Reliant Resources reached a settlement with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission regarding the same matter that is the subject of the expected indictment in which Reliant Resources agreed to pay $13.8 million without admitting or denying that the actions in question affected electricity prices in any market or violated any law or regulation.