Avco Insurance Services Gets a New President
Neal R. Aton has been named president of Avco Insurance Services, the insurance subsidiary of Avco Financial Services Inc. in Costa Mesa. He joined the company in 1988 as vice president of marketing. Aton assumed responsibility for AFS’ U.S. insurance programs operation in 1990 and in 1994 added responsibility for its international insurance programs. He was appointed senior vice president of AFS Programs in 1995. Before joining Avco, Aton worked at E.F. Hutton & Co. and Hutton Life Insurance Co.
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Gary A. Green has been named senior vice president of Eldorado Bank in Tustin. He will supervise commercial lending for much of Orange County and the Inland/Desert offices of the bank. He has been with Eldorado since 1989.
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Michael S. Shimada has been appointed vice president and chief financial officer of Bristol Retail Solutions Inc. in Newport Beach. He had been chief financial officer of Spectrum Laboratories Inc. in Laguna Hills for the past year. Before that, Shimada was chief financial officer of Elexsys International Inc. in San Jose. Shimada succeeds Roger Monaco, who resigned for personal reasons.
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Howard G. Bubb has been elected to the board of directors of PairGain Technologies Inc. in Tustin. He is president and chief executive of Dialogic Corp.
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Lawrence F. Brose has been appointed senior vice president of the Asia division of Koll Real Estate Group in Newport Beach. He will manage the company’s real estate projects in Malaysia. Brose was previously vice president of Koll.
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Rick Rogers has been named assistant controller of MGE UPS Systems, a Costa Mesa manufacturer of power supplies. He had been accounting operations manager at the company.
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Michael J. McCarty and Gary A. Clough have been appointed regional directors of operations for Diedrich Coffee Inc. in Irvine. McCarty will serve as regional director of operations for Southern Orange County, San Diego and the company’s new cart operation. He was previously senior project manager of operation services for Taco Bell Corp. Clough is regional director of operations for Northern Orange County, Los Angeles County and Houston. He formerly served as regional director of operations for Boston Market for Georgia and South Carolina.
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Edward R. Milstein has been named president of Verio Southern California, a newly formed, Irvine-based regional operating unit of Verio Inc., an Internet provider. Milstein is also president and chief executive of Network Intensive, a Verio affiliate he founded in 1991.
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Lynette Morris has been named executive vice president of Specialized Direct Response in Irvine. She joined the company in 1996. Morris’s responsibilities include overseeing the day to day company operations, supervising department managers and company finances, analyzing financial statements, expenses and payroll and staff development and management.
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Bruce Corey has joined Moss Micro LLC, an Irvine provider of sales and marketing information systems, as vice president of worldwide sales. He has held executive positions at Oracle Corp., Network Imaging Systems Corp. and Applix Inc.
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Steven O. Spelman has been named chief financial officer of Capital Pacific Holdings Inc., a Newport Beach home builder. He had been vice president of finance. In addition, Chairman Hadi Makarechian will resume his previous position as chief executive. Dale Dowers will remain president and will resume the position of chief operating officer.
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J. David Tholen has joined Hycor Biomedical Inc. in Irvine as executive vice president with primary responsibility for the company’s sales and marketing programs. Tholen had been president of International Murex Technologies Corp. He also spent 20 years at Abbott Diagnostics.
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Jennifer Barone has joined TH&M; Advertising in Irvine as an account coordinator. She previously held a similar position with Haynes Group Advertising in Newport Beach.
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John Groom is the new president of American Custom Components Inc. in Santa Ana. Founder Tony Walk will retain the position of chief executive. Groom was formerly senior director of engineering at Seagate Technologies. He had been serving as a global strategy consultant to American.
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Jennifer Love has joined HomeBase Inc. as public relations specialist in the Irvine corporate office. She was previously a campaign associate at Orange County’s United Way in Irvine. HomeBase operates 83 home improvement warehouses in 10 Western states.
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Diane J. Carpenter has been named marketing director for Langdon Wilson Architecture in Newport Beach. Before joining the firm, she was director of development for the Orange County chapter of the March of Dimes and marketing coordinator for PCL Construction Services in Irvine.
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David Placek has been appointed vice president of Psomas and Associates. He leads the land development services team at the Costa Mesa office. Before joining the firm in 1997, Placek managed development activities for Disney Development Co., the Santa Margarita Co. and the Mission Viejo Co.
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Victoria Blamer has been named vice president of design for Del Webb Corp. in Santa Ana. Blamer, who has been with the company nine years, was most recently director of marketing for conventional building operations in Nevada and Southern California.
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Norman Williams has been named vice president of sales and marketing for CMS Peripherals Inc., a supplier of computer storage products. Williams had been with Conner Peripherals, which he joined in 1986. Curt Brown was appointed vice president of new product development. Brown was previously chief technology officer at Conner Peripherals’ tape products group, where he also served as vice president of engineering of the company’s tape drive division and digital audio tape products division.
