Donald J Carty, who became Dell Inc's chief financial officer less than 18 months ago when the computer maker's accounting was under scrutiny, is stepping down and will be replaced by a longtime General Electric Co executive. Brian T Gladden, chief executive of SABIC Innovative Plastics, formerly called GE Plastics, will join Dell on Tuesday and succeed Carty as CFO on June 13. The transition has come at a critical juncture for Dell. Company officials believe they have accounting issues under control, but Dell still trails Hewlett-Packard Co in worldwide shipments of personal computers and is cutting jobs and spending to meet financial targets. Dell is expanding beyond phone and Internet sales to sell machines through retailers, and it is expanding its reach in emerging markets such as India and China to recapture the robust growth rates of its earlier years. Gladden, 43, said he was "excited to be joining Dell at a time of transformation." He held a series of financi...