VENTURA COUNTY PEOPLE

* PacifiCare Health Systems Inc. in Santa Ana has named Dr. Michael Kaufman as its chief medical officer. Kaufman was previously senior vice president and chief medical officer of WellPoint Health Networks Inc. in Thousand Oaks.

He will be responsible for managing the company’s health plans, which operate in eight Western states and Guam.

* Richard B. Gold has been appointed to the board of directors for California Amplifier Inc. in Camarillo. Gold is president and chief executive of GenOA Corp., a privately held optical communications semiconductor company.

With this appointment, the number of directors on California Amplifier’s board expands to six.

* Kevin W. Sharer, president and chief executive of Amgen Inc. in Thousand Oaks, will assume the added responsibility of chairman of the board at the beginning of next year. The move will complete a transition that started last year at Amgen, the nation’s largest biotechnology company.

Sharer will become the third board chairman in the company’s 20-year history and will also retain his CEO and president titles.

Amgen also has named J. Paul Reason to its board of directors, effective Jan. 1. Reason is president and chief operating officer of Metro Machine Corp., a privately held ship repair company.

Reason is joining the board upon the retirement of Gordon Binder. Amgen’s board will remain at 11 members.

* Timothy McCallion, president of the Pacific region for Verizon in Thousand Oaks, is one of 12 new members elected to the board of directors for the California Chamber of Commerce. During his 20-year career with Verizon (formerly GTE), McCallion has held a variety of regulatory and government affairs positions.

The chamber works to protect business rights and interests and to foster a strong economic climate in the state and nation.