Three executive team members of the Meritage Restaurant, the French and Italian eatery scheduled to open today at Restaurant Row, have been announced:

• WILLIAM CHENG, previously of San Francisco Marriott Hotel and Royal Hawaiian Hotel, has been named president and partner.

• LAURENT CHOUARI will act as general managing partner, responsible for daily operations, financial management, marketing and public relations, personnel, service and food quality control. His past experience includes work at Acqua Restaurant, Nick's Fishmarket and California Pizza Kitchen.

• MARIANO LALICA was named executive chef and partner of the restaurant. Lalica, who has captured top awards at Taste of Honolulu for three consecutive years, was most recently executive chef at Don Ho's Island Grill and has worked at Acqua Restaurant, Nick's Fishmarket, and several San Francisco Bay Area restaurants.

• EMI ESPINDA, former director of sales at Ko'olau Golf Club on O'ahu, has been named golf sales manager for the Waikoloa Beach Resort and its two Big Island championship golf courses. Based both in Waikoloa Land Co. offices in Honolulu and the Big Island resort, Espinda will be responsible for marketing to resident golfers statewide, with an emphasis on serving kama'aina additionally in a "concierge-type" capacity. She is a 20-year veteran of the hospitality and customer service industry, and is former owner of a full-service travel agency.

• Atlantis Adventures' TODD WILLIAMS will move, after four years in the company's accounting department, to its marketing department as new reservations supervisor.

• ERIC MASUTOMI, recent director of planning for Outrigger Properties, will continue to oversee planning and development of the division's $300 million Waikiki Beach Walk project with his recent promotion to vice president of planning for Outrigger Enterprises Inc. In the new position, he will oversee planning and development of the Outrigger group of companies' real estate assets and hotels and the planned transformation of 11 hotels and 3,100 rooms in the Lewers-Kalia area into an integrated hotel/retail/entertainment complex. Masutomi is a 20-year land use planning and development veteran, including 10 years as senior planner with the state Department of Planning and Economic Development.

• St. Francis School has named new members to its board of directors: DR. LISA M. VALDERUEDA, a dentist with practice in Waipahu and Honolulu; MICHAEL D. CHONG, president and chief executive officer of Adjusting Services of Hawai'i Inc. and Trans Pacific Risk Services, based in Los Angeles, and LORENE JERVIK, a certified public account and vice president of Sporty's Inc., who, with husband Jeff, opened Papa John's Pizza Hawai'i.