DryShips Names New CFO ... Finally

ATHENS (TheStreet) -- DryShips'(DRYS) boss George Economou finally hired a finance chief.

The dry-bulk shipping concern (and, increasingly, offshore oil explorer) had been operating without a separate CFO since the last one quit, in May 2007, after just five months on the job.

Economou, who seems to prefer a streamlined C-suite, has been pinch-hitting for the last two and a half years, in addition to his posts as chairman and chief executive.

Indeed, the company has long been criticized for the paternalism of the MIT-trained Economou, who has a history of treating DryShips as if he still owned it outright.

As the aptly titled shipping trade publication Tradewinds once explained: "DryShips has been notoriously light on employees, contracting with Economou's private companies for most of its functions."

The new CFO, DryShips announced Friday, is Ziad Nakhleh, a 37-year-old who previously served in the same role at Aegean Marine Petroleum Network(ANWl), a company that operates ships that re-fuel bigger ships, from 2005 until September 2008, when he left to pursue the obligatory "other interests."