Jerry Ketcham has been promoted to vice...

Jerry Ketcham has been promoted to vice president of the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group in Burbank, the entertainment company said.

Among the current film projects that he is responsible for are “Mr. Magoo” and “My Favorite Martian.”

Ketcham will be responsible for overseeing all production aspects for Disney movies and will report directly to Bruce Hendricks, executive vice president of motion picture production at Disney.

Ketcham was hired as a production executive at the company in 1994. Previously, he was an assistant director with the Directors Guild of America for 10 years.

He received a bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism from the University of Florida and began his career in the entertainment industry as a production assistant in 1977.

* Deborah J. McGraw of Oak View has joined ITS Technical Services in Ventura as a technical placement specialist. McGraw has a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Cal State Long Beach and 10 years’ experience in technical sales and recruiting in the Los Angeles area.

ITS Technical Services supplies temporary information-technology personnel to supplement a company’s work force.

* Jennifer Knudson has been promoted to president of Stanley & Co., a Ventura marketing and advertising firm. Knudson, who has been with the agency for three years, oversees client relations and project development.

Stanley & Co. specializes in the high-tech, manufacturing, medical and hospitality industries.

* Ryan Mathison has joined IPC Systems Engineering in Ventura as a senior designer. He has worked as a project engineer, designer and drafter for several companies in Wisconsin since 1989.

Mathison has designed various pieces of equipment for the paper industry, including converting and packaging machines.

* Douglas W. Messner, branch manager for Paine Webber in Ventura, has been named to the Branch Managers Directors Council. The council is made up of the firm’s 50 best-performing managers and branches.

In 1996, with 22 investment executives and a support staff of 16, the Ventura office managed $693 million in client assets.

* Solomon Aflalo of Westlake Village was Farmers Insurance Group’s No. 1 life insurance sales leader in the nation for 1996. Aflalo has been a Farmers Insurance agent for six years and is a member of the Million Dollar Round Table, made up of the insurance industry’s top life insurance agents.

Aflalo was honored at a luncheon in Thousand Oaks.

* Taitron Components Inc. has appointed three regional executives to manage the Santa Clarita company’s key accounts in the Northwest, North Central and Southwest regions of the country.

Bill Mikelonis, formerly a product marketing manager for Atmel Corp., will head up the Northwest region from Taitron’s San Jose office.

Leona Smith, formerly a sales representative for Urban Associates, an electronic sales firm, will oversee the North Central region from Grand Rapids, Mich.

Bob Keltz, formerly a Taitron regional sales manager, will cover the Southwest account base out of Phoenix.

Taitron distributes transistors, semiconductors and other electrical devices.