Charles A. Laverty Elected to Board of Pinnacle Micro

Charles A. Laverty has been elected to the board of directors of Pinnacle Micro Inc., an Irvine recordable CD technology and optical storage systems company. He is chairman and chief executive of Urohealth Systems Inc. in Newport Beach. Laverty succeeds John P. Haynie, president and chief executive of Newport Digital, who did not seek reelection.

* Joe Engler has been named public relations director for the Rankin Group Ltd., an Orange advertising, marketing and public relations agency. He was previously sales manager for Schaffner EMC, a manufacturer of automatic test equipment, and before that, sales and marketing manager of Kikusui International.

* Mason A. Yamashiro has been appointed executive vice president and chief of marketing for the Furst Group Inc., a Mission Viejo provider of business telephone services. Yamashiro, who joined the company in 1994, was previously vice president of specialized markets.