Samuels Is Named to Newly Created Position at Quiksilver

* Martin J. Samuels has been appointed to the newly created position of executive vice president of sales and marketing at Quiksilver Inc. He will officially join Quiksilver on Dec. 30. He most recently served as executive vice president of No Fear, based in Carlsbad. Samuels has also been vice president/general manger at Miller’s Outpost in Ontario and held various business management positions at Mervyn’s in Hayward. Quiksilver, based in Costa Mesa, designs, arranges for the manufacture of and distributes casual sportswear, snowboardwear and swimwear.

* J. Pamela Dawson has been named president of ASB Financial Services in Irvine, American Savings Bank’s broker/dealer subsidiary. She succeeds Randy Cicatti, who left the company in October to pursue other interests. Dawson joins the company from Wells Fargo Securities Inc. in Houston, where she was senior vice president and regional manager. In this position, she managed the retail and private client services investment sales programs in the Texas and Southwest regions.

* Harri J. Keto has been named partner in the Irvine office of Berger, Kahn, Shafton, Moss, Figler, Simon & Gladstone. Keto was previously a sole practitioner Orange County and before that was with the law firm of Freideman & Menke.

* Bob Gilbert has been named vice president of sales and travel operations for the Disneyland Resort in California. He will assume his duties Jan. 2. Gilbert was formerly vice president of travel industry marketing for Choice Hotels International. His new responsibilities include overseeing the sales and travel industry marketing initiatives of Disneyland Park and the Disneyland Resort’s two hotels. Gilbert will also manage the Walt Disney Travel Co.’s West Coast operation and be responsible for the Disneyland Resort’s meetings, conventions and incentive sales programs.

* Vicki L. Searcy has been appointed principal in BDO Seidman LLP’s Southern California Healthcare Advisory Services practice in Costa Mesa. Searcy was formerly principal and vice president of Qual Ed Inc. in Santa Ana, a consulting practice.

* Paul Knopick has opened E & E Communications, a public and media relations firm in Laguna Hills. He was previously director, public affairs for City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte; director of public relations for FHP International Corp. in Fountain Valley; and director of media relations for ICN Pharmaceuticals in Costa Mesa.

* Jay Lambke has been named to the newly created position of director, government integrator sales for Ingram Micro Inc., a Santa Ana wholesale distributor of technology products and services. He is responsible for managing all sales functions related to Ingram Micro’s government business, which focuses on systems integrators. Lambke will be based in Washington. He joined the company from Symmetrical Technologies in Herndon, Va.

* Paula M. Wiley has been named to the new position of vice president of sales and marketing for Nuntius Systems Inc., an Irvine company specializing in offshore software development. Previously, Wiley held positions with software developers Locus Computing Corp. in Los Angeles and Wonderware Corp. in Irvine.

* John C. O’Brien and Mark A. Thomas have joined Catellus Residential Group in Irvine as project managers. O’Brien will work in the Urban Housing division and Thomas, the land acquisition team in the Merchant Housing division. O’Brien was formerly an infrastructure planning consultant and project manager for the city of Calabasas. Thomas was previously a vice president with Union Bank of California.

* Reza Daftari has joined Simple Technology Inc. as director of engineering for the memory, portable storage and PC Card communication products. Daftari has more than 13 years of computer industry experience, including engineering positions with Advanced Micro Devices, AST Research and Computer Automation.

* Jeffrey Berkus has been named vice president of BBG Architects and Planners in Irvine. He has headed his own firm, Jeffrey Berkus Architects Inc. in Austin, Texas, since 1991.