Merchant Group Picks Manager

Elizabeth Winfree, a staff consultant with the Orange County office of the Merchants and Manufacturers Assn., has been chosen for the office’s top administrative post. She will succeed Lawrence P. Ball as manager, effective Nov. 3.

Ball, who has served as the association’s manager since 1984, is resigning to assume labor and employee relations duties with the Orange County Rapid Transit Authority.

Winfree came to the association in June, 1986, to provide guidance in the area of human resources for the group’s 920 members in Orange County.

To fill the post vacated by Winfree, the association has transferred Pat Bolton from its Los Angeles headquarters. Bolton is a human resources specialist who has previously worked as director of personnel services for Shiley Inc. in Irvine and as chief of employee services for Rockwell International in Anaheim.