Benette Zivley abruptly resigned as commissioner of the Texas State Securities Board Tuesday and has been replaced, for now, by Carla James, the agency's deputy commissioner. Zivley has been in the job for less than a year; he was promoted in mid-February and had been with the board for 12 years before that.

Tom Mason, a former general manager at the Lower Colorado River Authority, joined Graves, Dougherty, Hearon & Moody, an Austin law firm. He'll start his new gig right after Thanksgiving.

Gov. Rick Perry appointed Alex Meade III of Mission and Walker Moody of Houston to the oversight committee at the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas. Meade is CEO of the Mission Economic Development Corp. Moody is a partner at Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. and COO of TPH Asset Management.

Deaths: Mary Hardesty, former press secretary and speech writer for Gov. Mark White. She was 80.