Diery 74th in Pay Poll

Ian Diery left Apple Computer and joined AST Research Inc. in Irvine last year, but the pay he received from his former employer ranked 74th in a list of the top 150 salaries and compensation packages in the computer industry published recently by the trade publication Computer Reseller News.

Diery, who was paid $790,636 in 1995 by Apple, left the company as part of a management shakeout in April 1995, and was named chief executive at AST last November. Diery is being paid $700,000 this year by AST.

Other local executives who appear on the list include Safi U. Qureshey, who ranks 101st, with a 1995 salary of $656,172. Gene Lu, chief executive of Irvine computer maker Advanced Logic Research, was 149th with a salary of $444,479.

The magazine also published lists of market leaders in various categories. Toshiba, based in Irvine, dominated the notebook computer industry with 1995 sales of $3.7 billion, $1 billion more than No. 2. AST was not among the top 10 in desktop computer sales, but placed eighth in notebook sales at $571 million.

Western Digital in Irvine was the fourth-largest maker of computer disk drives with 1995 sales of $2.4 billion.

Greg Miller covers high technology for The Times. He can be reached at (714) 966-7830 and at greg.miller@latimes.com