Irvine Woman to Head World Trade Center Assn.

An Irvine trade consultant has been named president and executive director of the World Trade Center Assn. of Orange County, one of the county’s largest trade organizations.

Marilyn E. Loewy, president of ForTrade International, will assume her new job April 1. She succeeds Susan T. Lentz, who resigned in January to accept a position as executive director of the World Trade Center in Phoenix.

Loewy, 54, a nationally recognized trade expert, is a former industry adviser to President Reagan’s Export Council Subcommittee on Export Administration. She served on the panel from 1982 to 1989, a period during which U.S. trade policy with the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe underwent sweeping change.

The subcommittee was instrumental in encouraging the U.S. Commerce Department to automate the export licensing process, Loewy said.

The local trade group has more than 1,000 members.

Loewy plans to leave ForTrade at the end of this month, and is negotiating with her partner, Kathleen Miltimore, on selling her 50% interest in the business.

Before forming ForTrade, Loewy worked for McDonnell Douglas Corp.’s Information Systems Group in Newport Beach as worldwide director of international contracts and export compliance.

Loewy was a director of the trade association from 1985 to 1988. She chairs its International Business Symposium, which introduces companies to import-export opportunities.