Dave Kloeppel will leave Gaylord Entertainment and its successor, Ryman Hospitality, anything but empty-handed when he puts in his last day a month from now. Among other things, the 42-year-old leader of Gaylord's hotel operations group will get a severance payment of almost $4 million and will see $2.1 million worth of restricted stock units vest immediately. On top of that, another 81,000 options will vest and Kloeppel will receive another 36,500 restricted stock units by early 2015 if Gaylord's hotels hit performance targets under the management of Marriott International. Check out the full separation agreement here.

A day after signing his exit papers last week, Kloeppel started cashing in his Gaylord chips: On Wednesday and Thursday, he sold almost $1.8 million worth of his Gaylord shares. He still owns another $2.7 million worth.

Three executives at iPayment, the transaction processor that last year moved its headquarters to New York from Nashville, are out of a job as a result of alleged and still-unspecified ethical issues. COO Robert Torino, a senior exec since 2001, was fired last Thursday along with technology VP John Hong. Controller Bronson Quon resigned a day later and has agreed to cooperate with an investigation that also has pulled in former marketing exec Nasir Shakouri.

Milt Capps updates us on the status of Tom Stephenson, the former CEO of software developer Healthcare Management Systems. Some six months after leaving his HMS post, Stephenson has landed in the No. 2 role at David Condra's Dalcon Communication Systems.

Cardiovascular Care Group is saying goodbye to the CEO of its Louisiana Heart Hospital, which it acquired from MedCath last year. Charles Nasem is leaving for Oklahoma and his job will be filled by Steve Blades, "an icon in cardiovascular medicine" (pictured) who has been the company's senior vice president of physician services since its launch.

"Our plan is to build delivery systems throughout the country that integrate care across the full continuum of services from prevention to acute care, from surgery to rehabilitation and from diagnosis through disease management," said Harry R. Jacobson, MD, Chairman of the CCG Board. "Steve Blades has been the moving force behind our development of an exceptional network of physicians along the Northshore and throughout southwestern Mississippi."