St. John Knits Appoints Bruce Fetter New COO
Bruce Fetter has been appointed chief operating officer of St. John Knits Inc., an Irvine designer, manufacturer and marketer of women’s clothing and accessories. Fetter joined St. John in January, after 2 1/2 years at Bob’s Stores, a division of Melville, and 17 1/2 years in the Dayton Hudson organization. In addition, the company said that Diane Griffiths, assistant designer to Marie Gray, resigned to spend more time at home with her family. She was with the company for 25 years. No replacement will be named, the company said.
* Douglas Mazza has been appointed senior vice president and chief operating officer of Bristol Retail Solutions Inc., a Newport Beach provider of retail automation products and services. Mazza was formerly executive vice president and chief operating officer of Hyundai Motor America. Before that, he was vice president and general manager of American Suzuki Motor Corp. and national distribution manager for Mitsubishi Motor Sales of America.
* Mark D. Peterson has joined Meade Instruments Corp., an Irvine manufacturer of telescopes, as vice president and general consul. He will oversee the company’s legal department and manage its international operations. Peterson was previously with the Newport Beach law firm of O’Melveny & Myers for six years, specializing in corporate and securities law.
* David H. Blake has joined the board of directors of Procom Technology Inc. He succeeds Sam Inman, chief executive of Centura Software Corp., who resigned from the board citing scheduling conflicts with his company. Blake is dean of the Graduate School of Management at UC Irvine.
* Michael P. Childers has joined Edison Mission Energy in Irvine, an Edison International company, as a corporate vice president and regional vice president of development for the Americas region. Childers most recently served as a director of Enron Capital and Trade Resources. He has also held management positions in business development with Diamond Energy and Texaco Cogeneration and Power.
* Michael J. Rockenbach has been appointed vice president and chief financial officer of Emulex Corp. in Costa Mesa, a manufacturer of network access and fiber channel products. Rockenbach joined the company in 1991 and has served as vice president, finance and acting chief financial officer since late 1996.
* Michael K. Krouse has been named president of the Southern California chapter of the Hospitality Sales & Marketing Assn. International. Krouse is the director of sales and marketing for the Doubletree Hotel Anaheim/Orange County.
* Mike Adams has joined Specialized Direct Response, an Irvine distributor of direct mail, as executive vice president of sales. He was formerly a vice president at Select Office Solutions in Irwindale.
* Tim Thompson has been appointed product marketing manager for Vertex Networks Inc., an Irvine developer and marketer of LAN switch products. He had been a product marketing manager at Applied Micro Circuits Corp.
* Timothy Carl Aires has formed law offices in Newport Beach. He was previously with the firm of Bruck & Perry.
* Michelle Trauger has been named communications manager for the California Avocado Commission in Santa Ana. She was formerly with Pepsi-Cola Bottling Group and Landry & Associates.
* Ernest J. Abeytia has been appointed chief operating officer of Novalog Inc., a subsidiary of Irvine Sensors Corp. in Costa Mesa. Abeytia has held management positions at Intel Corp., Kierulff Electronics, Monolithic Memories and International CMOS Technology.
* Pat Neal has been elected the 1998 chair of the Business Issues committee of the National Assn. of Realtors. She is president of Pat Neal & Associates in Huntington Beach.
* George Poston has been appointed executive chef of Maggiano’s Little Italy, a new restaurant at South Coast Plaza. He was previously executive chef at Maggiano’s location in Oakbrook, a suburb of Chicago.
