Woman Promoted to Chief of Western Digital Division

Western Digital Corp. said Tuesday that it promoted Kathryn A. Braun to president and chief operating officer of its personal storage division.

Braun, 46, will continue to report to Chuck Haggerty, Western Digital’s chairman, president and chief executive. She also continues to oversee research, development and manufacturing of storage products, mainly disk drives for personal computers.

One of the county’s highest-paid female executives, Braun joined Western Digital in 1978 as a technical support staff member. At the time, the company was emerging from a Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

As the Irvine firm expanded into the data storage market, Braun took on management positions. In 1982, she became the head of the company’s storage products unit. At the time, the unit’s annual earnings were $15 million.

Under her leadership as executive vice president and general manager, the department grew enormously, ringing up sales last year of $14 billion and accounting for nearly 90% of the high-technology firm’s revenues. The division has about 9,500 employees. (P.J. Huffstutter)