ORANGE COUNTY NEWSMAKERS

* Jack Pouchet is the new marketing director of Racal Instruments in Irvine. He was previously director of sales and marketing at Switching Systems International, and spent 13 years with Lambda Electronics.

* Diana Johnson has been appointed vice president of the Huntington Beach office of Eldorado Bank. He had been assistant vice president/retail manager.

* Joseph B. Valencia has joined HNTB Corp. in Irvine as director of rail engineering services. He previously managed transit system projects nationwide. In addition, Jose Gilberto Castillo Jr. was named civil engineer in the Transportation Services department and Michelle Boehm joined the West Division Marketing Group as marketing coordinator.

* Mitchell Witten has been named vice president of product planning and design for Sonance in San Clemente. He was formerly vice president of business development for Pioneer Electronics in Long Beach. Maryanne Palermo was appointed quality systems manager. She had been a quality manager at Ushio America Inc. in Irvine.

* Brent R. Harris has been named co-head of Pimco Global Advisors, the global division of Newport Beach-based Pacific Investment Management Co. He is managing director of Pimco and funds chairman. In addition, Sudesh Mariappa was appointed to the newly created position of executive vice president and head of portfolio management-Asia for Pimco. Before joining the company, Mariappa was a managing director for Merrill Lynch in Tokyo.

* Lori Krans has been appointed director of marketing for plans and proposals at Sextant In-Flight Systems in Irvine. She was formerly senior marketing manager at Sony Trans Com Inc.