SALT LAKE CITY, April 1 (UPI) -- The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced several leadership changes Saturday in Utah, including naming Gary E. Stevenson presiding bishop.
Stevenson, 56, succeeds Bishop H. David Burton, the church said in a release on its Web site. Stevenson co-founded Icon Health & Fitness, Inc. where he served as president and chief operating officer until 2008.
The Mormon leaders also said during the church's 182nd annual General Conference in Salt Lake City that Richard J. Maynes was named to the presidency of the Seventy, succeeding Steven E. Snow.
Maynes, 61, has held a number of leadership positions in the church and also previously owned and was chief executive officer of a company specializing in factory automation.
Joining the church's First Quorum of the Seventy is Larry Echo Hawk, 63, who is assistant U.S. Interior secretary for Indian affairs in the Obama administration, and also is a former Brigham Young University law professor and Idaho attorney general.
Also joining the First Quorum of the Seventy are Robert C. Gay, 60, of Palm Beach, Fla., who is a former Harvard economics instructor; and Scott D. Whiting, 50, of Kailua, Hawaii, a lawyer who has worked in agricultural management and real estate development, as well as serving on a number of non-profit boards.
Gerald Causse and Dean M. Davies join Stevenson as first and second counselor, respectively, to Stevenson.
Linda K. Burton was named general president of the church's Relief Society, with Carole M. Stephens and Linda S. Reeves as her counselors.
