New Senior Vice President Named by Centris Group

* Charles M. Caporale has been named senior vice president, chief financial officer and treasurer of Centris Group Inc., a Costa Mesa provider of medical coverage and property/casualty reinsurance. He succeeds Mark Burke, who resigned to pursue other interests and will remain a consultant to the company. Caporale had been executive vice president and chief financial officer of Minet Inc., which was recently purchased by AON Inc.

* Robert W. Thagard has been named leasing director for Irvine Office Co., a division of the Irvine Co. He was previously first vice president of the office properties group at CB Commercial’s Newport Beach office.

* Terrance M. Brennan has been appointed president and chief executive of Gradient Technology Group in Irvine. He succeeds outgoing president Jack Patterson. He had been chief financial officer. Before that, Brennan was chief financial officer of Leighton and Associates Inc., one of the company’s five subsidiaries.

* William F. Gearhart has been appointed to the newly created position of vice president of sales and marketing for Micro Therapeutics Inc., a San Clemente manufacturer of medical devices for the diagnosis and treatment of vascular disease. He joined the company from Interventional Technologies in San Diego, where he was vice president of sales and marketing. Before that, Gearhart was vice president of sales and marketing for the Schneider USA division of Pfizer Inc.

* Michelle Budzinski has been named manager of ultrasound marketing, radiology and Ob/Gyn for Toshiba America Medical Systems Inc. in Tustin. Budzinski joined the company in 1990, as a clinical marketing specialist for ultrasound. Most recently, she was manager of product/business development.

* Mike Kilroy has joined Hilary Kaye Associates, a Newport Beach public relations, advertising and marketing firm, as account executive. He was formerly public relations manager for Team MacPherson, a retail auto group.

* Harold S. Schultz has been elected president of the California Society of Certified Public Accountants. He is managing partner of Coopers and Lybrand’s Newport Beach office.

* George Joseph has been named vice president of operations at American Ingredients Inc., an Anaheim company that sells and markets nutritional ingredients. Joseph was formerly director of purchasing for D&F; Industries.

* Amaya Genaro has been named vice president at Merit Property Management Inc. in Mission Viejo. Genaro, who has been with the company since 1988, had been an assistant vice president, responsible for training and overseeing regional managers. In addition, Valerie Strauch has been appointed regional manager. She was previously district manager.

* Robert Lewis has joined Pacific Development Group II as an associate partner. He will be involved in the acquisition of land for new shopping center development projects. Lewis was formerly a vice president with CB Commercial Real Estate Group’s retail division in Laguna Hills.

* Steven M. Yasbek, chief information officer at Pacific Scientific Co., will assume the additional position of corporate controller. Yasbek joined the company in March. Before that, he was with Symbol Technologies Inc., and held various financial roles at TRW Inc.’s Electronic Components Group, including group controller.

* Gene Huapaya has been appointed president of Queen International Foods, a subsidiary of Irvine-based CRT Corp. He joined the company in 1995 as vice president and general manager. CRT Corp. has holdings in the plastics, telecommunications and food industries.

* William J. Ruehle has joined Broadcom Corp., an Irvine data communications company, as vice president and chief financial officer. He is the former executive vice president and chief financial officer of Bay Networks.

* Ronald M. Harrison has been appointed national accounts manager for Master Financial Inc., an Orange financial services company. Harrison has spent the last seven years as vice president of First Collateral Services.

* Dale Rincon has been named executive vice president and director of operations for Stewart Title of California Inc. in Irvine, a subsidiary of Stewart Title Insurance based in Houston. Rincon is a 20-year veteran of the title insurance industry.

* John D. DiFrenna has joined Admor Memory Corp. in Irvine as senior vice president of business development. He was co-founder, president and chief executive of Allied Micro Corp., which Admor acquired on July 3.

* Martin D. Walker will join the board of directors of the new Rockwell Automotive company, expected to be spun off from Seal Beach-based Rockwell International Corp. by the end of September. Walker had been chairman and chief executive officer of M.A. Hanna since 1986 before retiring as chief executive last December and chairman last month. He was president of Rockwell’s Automotive business from 1978 to 1982 and corporate executive vice president of Rockwell from 1982 to 1986.

* Michelle S. Glasky has been named vice president of scientific affairs for NeoTherapeutics Inc., an Irvine drug development company. She has previously held positions at the USC School of Medicine, Cancer Therapeutics Inc., Univax Biologics and Newport Pharmaceuticals. In addition, Ernie Pfadenhauer was appointed director of chemistry research. His experience includes project scientist at Baxter Healthcare Corp. and senior research scientist at Newport Pharmaceuticals.

* Kevin McDonnell has been named chief financial officer and executive vice president of Rockford Industries Inc., a specialty finance company. He succeeds Larry Davis, who will remain with the company on a consulting basis through Sept. 30. McDonnell had been chief financial officer with Printrak International.