Orange County

Newport Corp., the Fountain Valley maker of laser research equipment, announced Tuesday the appointments of Kumar N. Patel and Vincent N. Marafino as directors of the company, and the election of Dean T. Hodges as the company’s vice president. All are new positions. Patel is executive director of research at AT&T; Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, N.J., and Marafino is executive vice president of Lockheed Corp. in Burbank. Hodges, who joined Newport Corp.’s executive staff in 1984, was previously a manager at Spectra Physics Corp.