DOW JONES NEWSWIRES Paychex Inc. (PAYX) said Martin Mucci, an executive at the payroll-processing company, was named president and chief executive officer, becoming the third person to fill those roles in the company's nearly 40-year history. Mucci joined Paychex in 2002 as senior vice president of operations following a 20-year career in the telecommunications industry. In that role, he was responsible for all operations and customer service for the company's 536,000 payroll and human-resource services clients, as well as the company's product-management and information-technology functions. He is also a member of Cbeyond Inc.'s (CBEY) board. Mucci assumes his new role at Paychex immediately. Mucci succeeds Jonathan J. Judge, who left the company in July to pursue other interests. Judge was hired in October 2004, succeeding Chairman and founder B. Thomas Golisano in the CEO role. Paychex said Mucci was part of a three-member interim executive team appointed to lead the company, with oversight from Golisano and the board, during the search for a new CEO. Golisano remains Paychex's chairman. The news comes days after Paychex reported its fiscal first-quarter profit climbed 6.7% on higher revenue as the company saw client retention improve. But it warned new-client additions would continue to be difficult. As such, Paychex said it was implementing changes to its sales process that should enable it to improve sales productivity in the near future. -By John Kell, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2480; john.kell@dowjones.com
