National Instruments introduced Newton de Faria, Jr., as the company's new District Sales Manager for the Western New England area. Newton received his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin in 1998 and a Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering (emphasis on automation and control) from The University of Brasilia, Brazil, in 1990. Newton is a specialist in data acquisition, test and measurement, and industrial automation, applied to a broad band of vertical markets. VPIsystems, the developer of technical knowledge management systems for next generation products and networks, announced that it has appointed Paul Commons as Chief Financial Officer. Commons comes to VPI with 20 years of experience in venture-funded start-ups and turn-around companies, and spent the last nine years in the telecommunications industry.