I must say, it’s rare that a news item actually surprises me. But this one did.

Don Carty, a former PlaneBusiness Ron Allen Airline (Mis) Management Award winner, was named CFO of Dell (DELL:Nasdaq) late Tuesday. (I take it I don’t have to remind any of you of the circumstances under which Mr. Carty departed American Airlines.)

Hmmmm.

While Carty has been on the board at Dell for 14 years, I do find it a bit odd that he stepped into the position — as the company faces two SEC investigations that cover periods of time when Carty was the audit-committee chairman for Dell.

Or, as the MarketWatch article we linked noted,

” We are not sure if Carty is the best choice as he has been a Dell board member since 1992 and was the audit committee chairman who oversaw financial activities that are now in question by the SEC,” wrote Shaw Wu, analyst at American Technology Research, which has a neutral rating on Dell shares.”

Guess Don got tired of waiting for that call about that airline CEO position.