Bass, Berry & Sims PLC has elected Todd Rolapp as its new managing partner, effective January 1, 2013. Rolapp will succeed Keith Simmons, who announced late last year that he would relinquish his position as managing partner after 17 years of service.

Rolapp, 45, currently serves as the chair of the Corporate and Securities Practice and heads the firm’s Executive Compensation Group.

“I am honored to have been selected to serve my partners in this capacity, and I am grateful to Keith for providing me with such an extraordinary head start,” Rolapp says.

“Under Keith’s leadership, we have successfully and strategically enhanced our position as one of the Southeast’s leading full-service firms with nationally recognized practices in a variety of areas including healthcare, real estate capital markets, securities litigation, compliance and government investigations and corporate monitoring and regulatory audits,” Rolapp adds.

Baker Donelson attorney transfers to Nashville

Scott D. Smith has relocated from the Washington, D.C., office of Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, PC, to the firm’s Nashville office.

Smith is a member of its tax department and has more than 20 years of federal, state and local tax experience. He has represented clients with respect to corporate income tax, sales and use tax and other state tax controversies and transactions in Tennessee, District of Columbia, Ohio, California, Colorado, Kentucky, Maine and Montana, and several other states.

He is a BNA Tax Management State Tax Advisory Board member, a member of the Unclaimed Property Professionals Organization, the American, Tennessee, District of Columbia and Ohio Bar Associations, and a frequent speaker on tax issues, including presentations before Georgetown University, New York University, SEATA, ABA Tax Section and the Council on State Taxation. Smith has authored more than 30 articles that have appeared in various national tax publications.

York named chair of VUMC Biochemistry

John York, Ph.D., investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and the Cancer Biology Professor of Pharmacology and Biochemistry at Duke University Medical Center, has been named the new chair of the Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Department of Biochemistry.

York will join Vanderbilt this summer as the Natalie Overall Warren Professor of Biochemistry.

He succeeds F. Peter (Fred) Guengerich, Ph.D., the Harry Pearson Broquist Professor of Biochemistry, who has served as the department’s interim chair since July 2010. Guengerich assumed this role when longtime chair Michael Waterman, Ph.D., stepped down after serving as the department’s chair for 18 years.

DVL promotes Fulton, Meyer to vice president

DVL Public Relations & Advertising recently announced the promotions of Brian Fulton and Jill Meyer.

Brian Fulton has been promoted from account supervisor to vice president. He provides clients more than 15 years of strategic counseling, communications and marketing expertise. At DVL, Fulton works on key accounts in health care, economic development, governmental affairs and various other industries. He has been with the agency since 2009.

Jill Meyer has been promoted from account supervisor to vice president. She has been with DVL since 2004 and has more than 20 years of experience in government, corporate, and non-profit public relations. At DVL, Meyer works on key accounts in the health care and food and beverage industries.

Also:

Robinette Gaston has been promoted from interactive project manager to interactive project director for website strategy, production and management. She joined DVL in 2006, and works with clients in various industries.

Kristin Hampel has been promoted from assistant account executive to account executive. At DVL, she is a member of several account teams, ranging from retail, food and beverage and utilities. She joined DVL in 2009.

Jasmine Wiley has been promoted from account service associate to assistant account executive. She has been with the agency since 2011 and is responsible for developing media relations strategies for various clients.

Thomas Nelson promotes new fiction publisher

Daisy Hutton has been named fiction publisher for Thomas Nelson, Inc., the world’s largest Christian publisher.

Hutton will transition into the role beginning May 1, replacing Allen Arnold, who launched the fiction division for Thomas Nelson eight years ago.

Hutton has been with Thomas Nelson since 2008, and during that time helped Heaven is for Real to the No. 1 spot on the New York Times Best Sellers list. It has since been translated into 35 languages.

Hutton also has worked at Harvard Business Press, The Perseus Books Group and for New York literary agent Georges Borchardt.

Department of Health taps Neubert, Daniel

Eugene H. Neubert has been appointed deputy commissioner for operations for the Tennessee Department of Health. He has previously served as assistant commissioner for the department’s Bureau of Administrative Services, and had been acting deputy commissioner since January 2011.

Also, Dean Daniel has been appointed the new assistant commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Health’s Administrative Services Division.

Neubert first came to the Department of Health from the Department of Commerce and Insurance in 2007, where he served as assistant commissioner for administration, fiscal officer, budget director and staff auditor. Neubert has worked in various capacities within Tennessee state government for more than 13 years.

Dean has been the public health administrator for the Bureau of Health Services Administration for the department of health for the past six years.

Langlois promoted by United Way of Nashville

Nicole M. Langlois has been named associate director, campaign growth & analytics for United Way of Metropolitan Nashville.

In this new role, Langlois will manage a large portfolio of campaigns and engagement as well as engage campaign analytics to assess opportunities for new and improved strategies. She is also responsible for researching potential increases from donors and company funding from grants and foundations.

Langlois has been with United Way her entire professional career, joining the organization in 2001 in Cleveland, Ohio.

Through the years, Langlois has held a variety of positions of increasing responsibility including managing special projects and account management. In 2010, she joined United Way of Metropolitan Nashville to tackle critical new areas of personal and professional growth.

Richards & Richards hires sales coordinator

Richards & Richards Office Records Management, Inc., has hired Jaclyn Bollinger as the company’s sales coordinator.

A Chicago native, Bollinger graduated from Olivet Nazarene University in 2009. She received a Bachelor of Science degree in housing and environmental science and minored in communication studies.

Before working with Richards & Richards, Bollinger worked as the image desk coordinator for Home Expo Design Center, and most recently worked as the sales and office manager at More Space Place of Nashville.

Chassaignac becomes shareholder at Zehnder

Henry Chassaignac, creative director for Zehnder Communications and head of the company’s Nashville location in Cummins Station, has become a shareholder in the multistate advertising and public relations firm.

Chassaignac worked as the associate creative director and senior copywriter for Zehnder from 1999 to 2005 before moving to Nashville and founding his own agency, BumperCar Advertising and Design. In 2010, he rejoined Zehnder as creative director and established the Nashville office. Zehnder’s local clients include US Radiosurgery and Southern Land Co. Zehnder has offices in three locations, New Orleans, Baton Rouge, La., and Nashville.

Easter Seals hires marketing director

Easter Seals Tennessee has hired Harrison H. Perry III as director of development and marketing. In this capacity, Perry will direct the day-to-day operations of fund raising, value-creation and sharing, information flow, and relationship-building with the ever-growing Easter Seals Tennessee client, donor, business-to-business, and media base.

Perry is a 1984 graduate of Middle Tennessee State University where he earned a Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing and a Minor in Music Performance. He began his business career with Cain-Sloan Department Stores in Nashville and from there became a buyer for Dillard Department Stores followed by general manager positions with other national retailers including Bachrach in Lexington, KY, and Brooks Brothers in Atlanta, GA.

In 1997, Perry join the membership department at Atlanta’s High Museum of Art and subsequently became a director of development and marketing for the Southeastern Flower Show and The Atlanta Opera.

Stephens’ introduces managing director

Jonathan Ruykhaver, CFA, has joined Stephens Inc. as a managing director to introduce a well-established Infrastructure Software industry research practice at Stephens.

Based out of Stephens’ Nashville office, Mr. Ruykhaver will employ a research strategy based on in-depth fundamental analysis including ongoing customer, reseller and industry checks designed to focus on company specific issues and opportunities as well as analyze revenue, market and competitive trends.

Ruykhaver most recently was a managing director in equity research at Morgan Keegan in Nashville, where he served as the senior analyst covering infrastructure software, with a particular focus on information security. Previously, he was a managing director of equity research at ThinkEquity LLC in San Francisco, where he worked in the same sector.

Stephens Inc. is a full service investment banking firm headquartered in Little Rock, Ark.