Mary Patterson has been named vice president...

Mary Patterson has been named vice president and manager of escrow operations for American Title Co. in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. Previously an escrow officer for the company, Patterson has been active in the escrow field in Ventura County since 1975.

She works in the American Title Co. office in Westlake Village.

* John E. Stephan of Simi Valley has joined East West Bank in San Marino as executive vice president. He will be responsible for managing the retail branch network, retail bank marketing, retail operations and residential lending.

Before joining East West Bank, Stephan was senior vice president, area manager and retail planning manager for Great Western Bank.

* Walt Disney Co. has named Scott Schiller as vice president of advertising and sponsorship sales for its Disney Online venture.

Schiller had been working for rival Sony Online Ventures; before that he’d been a vice president of advertising sales at Prodigy.

Disney Online began in 1995 and offers a family Web site and a children’s online service.

* Encino-based Pinkerton’s Inc. promoted Laura J. Cerar to president of U.S. Security Services and Larry G. Jorgenson to vice president and senior managing director of its Southern California Investigations offices.

Cerar, 35, has worked in the security industry for more than 14 years and joined Pinkerton in 1986. She graduated from Pennsylvania State University with a bachelor’s degree in administration of justice and will be the highest-ranking female executive at Pinkerton, the company said.

Jorgenson, 56, will head the company’s Los Angeles and Orange County investigations offices. Before joining Pinkerton in 1985, Jorgenson worked for Northrop Corp. and served in the U.S. Army.

Pinkerton, founded in 1850, is one of the world’s largest suppliers of contract security and investigation services, with 225 offices and 47,000 employees in North and South America, Europe and Asia.