Digitext, a Thousand Oaks maker of computer...

Digitext, a Thousand Oaks maker of computer keyboard systems for people who take shorthand, named as its chairman LeRoy M. Lefkowitz, an independent management consultant. The firm also gave its president, Lawrence West Melquiond, the additional post of chief executive.

Lefkowitz, 44, and Melquiond, 43, succeed Jack R. Hubbs, 48, the president and chief operating officer of Charles P. Young Co., a New York printer of financial documents. Hubbs will remain on Digitext’s board.

The company also announced it has increased its board to nine members with the appointment of Lloyd H. Saunders III. Saunders, 32, is a vice president of corporate finance for Whale Securities, the New York-based brokerage firm that underwrote Digitext’s initial public stock offering in February.

Lefkowitz, former president of Empire Systems, a wholesale office supplies distributor in Los Angeles, became a Digitext director in October, 1984. He now heads a management consulting firm, Yorel Management and Consulting, based in San Diego. Melquiond joined Digitext in October, 1984, as national sales manager and was named president a year later.

Digitext, which employs 26, was founded in 1983. The company claims its main product, the shorthand keyboard system, allows users to enter 300 words per minute into microcomputers.

Digitext lost $959,000, or 25 cents a share, on revenue of $84,000, in its fourth quarter ended March 31. During the same quarter a year ago, it lost $277,000, or 12 cents a share, on revenue of $18,000.

For the fiscal year, Digitext lost $2.6 million, or $1.05 a share, on revenue of $362,000. The previous year the loss was $1.3 million, or 52 cents a share, on revenue of $105,000.

The company attributed the losses to research and development costs.