Schraith’s New Post? Executive at Compaq

James T. Schraith, who resigned earlier this month as chief executive of the Cerplex Group in Tustin, has been named senior vice president and general manager of Compaq Computer Corp.’s North American operations.

When he left Cerplex, Schraith would say only that he had accepted an executive position with a large high-tech company outside California. Some speculated that he was joining Compaq, but the Houston-based computer giant didn’t make an announcement until Thursday. Schraith will oversee sales, distribution, advertising, promotion, service and support for Compaq products marketed in the United States and Canada, said Eckhard Pfeiffer, chief executive of Compaq.

Schraith, 39, spent about a year at Cerplex, a company that provides technical support and repair services to computer manufacturers, after he was ousted as president of AST Research Inc. in 1995. He had worked at Irvine-based AST for nine years, rising through the ranks as the computer maker grew into a $2.5-billion-a-year company. But when AST began to lose market share and money, Schraith was forced out in the first of a series of executive departures.

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