BUSINESS NOTES

KAUFMAN MEEKS ANNOUNCES HIRES, PROMOTION

Kaufman Meeks & Partners, a firm that has designed more than 300,000

single-home units worldwide, recently promoted and hired several workers

at the Newport Beach office.

Charles Addington was named senior designer for the housing-design

business. He joins the company after 14 years in the design field,

focusing on designing single-family homes. He will continue to work in

that area. He received a bachelor’s degree in architecture from Cal State

San Luis Obispo in 1985.

Mitchell Lucero joins Kaufman Meeks to oversee graphic presentations,

including exterior color and materials for its projects. Lucero has

worked as a free-lance architectural illustrator for 12 years and as an

adjunct teacher of art at Cal State Fullerton. He received his bachelor’s

degree from the same school.

Don Ruthroff has been promoted to director of single-family

production. He will oversee all single-family home projects. Ruthroff has

been a project architect with the company since 1997. He received his

bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Cal State San Louis Obispo.

Kaufman Meeks has been in business for nearly 25 years and is valued

at more than $20 billion.

CERADYNE ANNOUNCES HIRING FOR CERAMIC ARMOR SYSTEMS

Ceradyne Inc. announced Monday it had hired David Puckett to lead its

lightweight ceramic armor systems division. Puckett will be in charge of

the manufacturing of military ground-based vehicles and attack

helicopters and will be working out of the company’s Costa Mesa-based

plant.

Before coming to Ceradyne, Puckett worked for General Dynamics Land

System on the Abrams battle tank. He also worked at the Ballistics

Research Laboratory, Aberdeen Proving Ground. Puckett received a

bachelor’s degree in physics from James Madison University.

CENTRIS GROUP ADDS TO MARKETING TEAM

The Centris Group this month appointed Stephen Calhoun assistant vice

president of marketing for the Southeast Region. Calhoun will be based

out of the company’s Atlanta office.

“Stephen Calhoun is a veteran of 12 years with our company,” said Mark

Carney, president of Centris’ USBenefits subsidiary. “Steve’s experience

with our underwriting operations and his contacts with our producer

network will bring an added dimension of strength and depth to our

national marketing team.”

Centris also appointed Richard D. Witzlsteiner as assistant vice

president of marketing in their Chicago office.