Triconex Corp

Charles W. McBrayer has joined the board of directors of Efinity Inc. in Aliso Viejo. He is the former executive vice president and chief financial officer of PairGain Technologies Inc. and former senior vice president, chief financial officer and director for Triconex Corp. * Fred Robertson has joined the board of directors of Masimo Corp. in Irvine. Most recently, Robertson was chief clinical officer of GE Medical Systems.

Peter B. Pitsker has become the first executive to officially retire from 7-year-old Wonderware Corp., an Irvine-based maker of software that gives factory workers greater control over machinery. A start-up in 1987, Wonderware had $21 million in sales last year. The company went public last July, raising $32 million for a corporate expansion. A second offering raised about $2.5 million last month.

WonderWare Software Development Corp. has set itself some lofty goals. The question is whether the young Irvine firm can fulfill its ambitions. The 18-month-old technology company hopes to corner a segment of the software market that involves designing personal computer software programs for use in factory automation applications. Company officials say the market for such software, about $200 million a year, is projected to grow 35% to 50% annually.

Satellite Technology Management Inc., a company that uses satellite transmission links to create corporate communications networks, raised $15 million Wednesday in its initial public offering. STM issued 1.6 million shares at $10 per share in its first day of trading. With resales, the volume reached 1.8 million shares, ranking it as the seventh-most-active stock Wednesday in over-the-counter trading. The stock closed at $10.125 a share. "It's very exciting," said Stephen A.

* James P. O'Shaughnessy has been elected a corporate officer of Costa Mesa-based Rockwell International Corp. He is vice president and chief intellectual property counsel. Before joining Rockwell in 1996, O'Shaughnessy was a partner with the law firm of Foley & Lardner, based in Milwaukee. * Robert L. McSparran has been appointed manager of real estate for HomeBase Inc., an Irvine chain of home improvement warehouses.

Not all computer companies are suffering these days. Rose Hwang and her husband, Mitchell Phan, who own Alpha Systems Lab Inc. in Irvine, have seen their small company's sales triple in the past year and are pursuing their biggest contract to date--a deal valued at more than $20 million. Four years ago, Phan was a design engineer at Triconex Corp., an Irvine manufacturer of computerized control systems. Tired of working for someone else, he decided to start his own business.

When Day Runner Inc. started selling its stock to the public this year, it had every reason to feel confident. Its profit history was sound--four consecutive years of earnings gains. And it dominated the market for its product: paper-based personal organizers. On March 11, the Fullerton-based company offered its stock at $15 a share, a price above the company's original expectations yet not prohibitively high for small investors.

Western Digital Chairman Roger W. Johnson doesn't have much sympathy for those who would argue that American business is fighting a losing battle with foreign competition. And at a time when many American industries are calling on Congress to pass trade legislation to help protect them from overseas competitors, Johnson views such measures as counterproductive. American companies, Johnson bluntly states, "should go out and compete and stop crying."

The question from the audience would make many chief executives cringe. "Are you the right man to be leading this company in the 1990s?" a Western Digital investor asked at a crowded annual shareholder's meeting in December. But Roger W. Johnson, chairman of Orange County's biggest computer products company, did not blink. Dressed in his customary dark suit, he stood prepared at the lectern.