1. Healthcare

When Donald Met
Steve; Whitaker Gets
Off to Strong Start
FEBRUARY 2, 2015
A big chunk of the Irvine Company’s operations outside of OC got a lengthy
overview in a recent issue of the Silicon Valley Business Journal, which put some meat
on the bones of a 25-year process that has
seen Donald Bren amass 7,000 apartment
units and 4 million square feet of office space
in the region. The piece included an “apocryphal” tale of Steve Jobs personally asking
Bren to sell him the Hamptons, an apartment
complex next-door to Apple Inc.’s headquarters in Cupertino.
Local “lore”
holds that Bren
declined Jobs’
offer to pay any
price. An insider
assures the Insider the story is true—even if it has become
the stuff of legend … New OC Republican
Party Chair Fred Whitaker arrived in the job
with a reputation as a low-profile grinder
compared with his charismatic predecessor,
Scott Baugh. Take Whitaker’s profile up a
notch after he showed a deft touch at last
week’s joint meeting of the New Majority,
Lincoln Club and Hispanic 100 at the Fairmont Hotel. He displayed polish during the
invocation, deploying a vocabulary that
brought religion into the room but avoided
the sort of clumsy language that can cast an
exclusionary pall over such proceedings.
“Please pray in your faith while I pray in
mine,” Whitaker asked the crowd, according
to one member who was impressed enough to
pass along an account … The same source
and others said Florida Sen. Marco Rubio—
who’s hasn’t ruled out a presidential bid—
also impressed at the Fairmont, one of several
OC stops … No shortage of politicians at the
Hotel Irvine, which hosted back-to-back visits by former President Bill Clinton and current Vice President Joe Biden for the Jan.
23-24 Patient Safety Movement summit
sponsored by Irvine-based device maker
Masimo Inc. … Show me a prouder papa
than lawyer Mark Robinson of Robinson
Calcagnie Robinson Shapiro Davis. His son
Dan made the L.A. Daily Journal’s recent
Top 20 Under 40 … Or a prouder grandpa
than Steve Churm, who added that title
about a week ago. Churm’s other titles include vice president slots at both the OC
Register and its parent, Freedom Communications … Churm updated his status from the
podium during the Paul Merage School of
Business Outlook 2015, which also happened at the Hotel Irvine and was sponsored
by the Irvine Chamber and Wells Fargo.
The outlook took a broad view—expect moderate growth in the U.S. this year, and keep
an eye out for trouble overseas … Emcee
Churm got the proceedings started with some
plain talk about the Register. “It’s stressed,
it’s troubled, it’s wandering, it’s trying to find
its way,” he said. He brought it around to a
more hopeful view, talking up the Register’s
110th anniversary, which will be marked in
August. He also got in an understated sales
pitch, telling the crowd that the OC market is
likely better off with a strong daily … Show
me a better idea than this from 100-year-old
Laguna Woods resident and Dartmouth grad
Edward Gerson, who handles updates for
his alma mater’s Class of 1935: He wants the
New Hampshire school to host a constitutional convention with no politicians allowed.
Gerson has room to work opinions into his
updates since the ‘35ers are down to three living members, according to the Wall Street
Journal, which profiled the retired “button
manufacturer and plastics innovator” in its
Jan. 27 issue.
Mitsubishi Calls Play for Super Bowl in Spanish
Local breaking news: www.ocbj.com
ADVERTISING: Gets in game
with spots on NBC Universo
By MEDIHA DIMARTINO
Mitsubishi Motors North America Inc.
highlighted its increasing focus on the
Latino-American market with Super Bowl
ads slotted for the Spanish-language telecast
of the game on NBC Universo.
“This is a great opportunity for Mitsubishi Motors to speak directly to a consumer base that is important to the brand,”
said Mitsubishi Director of Marketing
Francine Harsini.
The Cypress-based automaker purchased
three 30-second game-time slots at approximately $40,000 each, according to sources,
ORANGE COUNTY BUSINESS JOURNAL 3
with another that will
run if the game goes
into overtime. It also
bought spots on the
pregame
and
postgame shows.
Mitsubishi’s media
budget for the game
is a bargain considering Irvine-based Kia
Motors
America
Harsini: spots target
Inc. paid nearly $9 “consumer base that
million for a one- is important to the
minute ad during the brand”
English-language
broadcast on NBC, and Tustin-based Mophie
Inc. is in for at least $4.5 million and 30 seconds.
The price of the ads reflect the size of the
audiences—the Spanish-language telecast of
last year’s big game drew 561,000 viewers on
Fox Deportes, compared with 111.5 million
for the English-language version on Fox.
Mitsubishi will not have ads on the Englishlanguage telecast this year.
Its Spanish-language ads were created by
Huntington Beach-based agency Grupo Gallegos. Founder and Chief Executive John
Gallegos said the automaker’s efforts demonstrate its “commitment to the Hispanic market
in a big way.”
The campaign, which kicked off in October,
was built on the insight that Latino-Americans grow up in a large network of friends and
family who want to help with every decision,
according to Grupo.
The ad encourages Latino consumers to
Mitsubishi 10
some expanded responsibilities, according to UC Irvine.
“At a lot of academic medical centers, including the
other UC medical centers, the vice chancellor for health affairs is
[over] the entire medical enterprise, and Gillman: new vice
for health
also serves as the chancellor
affairs will weigh in
dean [of the medical on search for chief
school],” said UC executive of medical
Irvine
Health center
spokesperson John
Murray. “The CEO [of the medical center]
reports to him—we are moving towards
that.”
UCI defines the “medical enterprise” as
all of its clinical and academic programs, including nursing and pharmacology schools,
as well as the hospital and the School of
Medicine. A shift of nursing and pharmacology programs to the portfolio of the vice
chancellor would be new for UCI.
The immediate duties of the person selected as vice chancellor and dean will
likely include the search for a successor to
Terry Belmont, current chief executive of
the medical center who recently announced
plans to retire on June 30.
“Our new vice chancellor for health affairs and dean of the School of Medicine, as
that person is identified, will consult with
Belmont 9
UCI Could Reconfigure Duties for Medical Post
HEALTHCARE: Likely to
oversee all of ‘medical enterprise’
By VITA REED
The search for a new chief executive for
UC Irvine Medical Center will likely take
awhile as another key job gets reconfigured.
The University of California-Irvine is
also looking for someone to fill the dual
roles of vice chancellor for health affairs
and dean of the School of Medicine.
The person in that position would ultimately oversee the medical center and its
411-bed hospital in Orange.
Whoever lands those duties will have
Franchiser Waives
$75,000 Fee for Vets
RETAIL: Focus on military
members active in past 2 years
By MEDIHA DIMARTINO
Orange-based franchiser Budget Blinds
Inc. said it will waive a $75,000 franchise
fee for qualified recent military veterans
interested in starting their own window
covering business.
The company launched the Troops in
Transition program
“as a way to further
support our country’s
heroes in achieving
the American dream
of independent business ownership,” said
Budget Blinds’ Chief
Executive Chad Hallock. “Post-9/11 veterans
have
the
CEO Hallock: program “removes a (fi- highest unemploynancial) barrier that ment rate among all
is very difficult for
veterans, and this
these veterans to
program is our way
overcome”
of giving a little
something back to them, as they’ve selflessly given so much to us.”
Troops in Transition is geared toward
veterans who have left active duty within
the past two years. Participants will go
through a six-month trial period and be required to meet financial milestones before
becoming full-fledged Budget Blinds franchise owners under a 10-year agreement.
Veterans 9
How To Reach Us Belmont
FEBRUARY 2, 2015
佡 from page 3
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Orange County Business Journal, 18500 Von
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Local breaking news: www.ocbj.com
me and the committee on the search” for the
medical center’s next chief executive, UCI
Chancellor Howard Gillman said in an email.
Gillman became UCI’s chancellor in late
2014. He succeeded Michael Drake, who is
now president of Ohio State University.
Gillman’s office has a Web page that invites “applications and nominations” for the
vice chancellor position.
“The university seeks a visionary leader
with skills to manage and guide a complex/multi-constituent organization, who is
decisive while fair, and focused on clinical
and research excellence,” the page said.
The page mentions that whoever gets the
job must join “the clinical and academic enterprise in a unifying goal: to make fundamental advances that will lead to new
treatments for disease, to teach the next
generation of globally
preeminent
physicians and scientists
and to offer worldclass health care to
the region and the nation.”
It is signed by Ilene
Nagel, leader of the Belmont: announced
higher
education plans to step down
from top job at UCI
practice at New York- Medical Center in
based
executive June
search firm Russell
Reynolds Associates. Nagel is serving as a
consultant to the search committee for the
vice chancellor for health affairs position.
UCI has been looking for an associate
vice chancellor for nearly a year—a period
that has included the transition of leadership
from Drake to Gillman.
Dr. Ralph Clayman stepped down from
ORANGE COUNTY BUSINESS JOURNAL 9
the medical school dean’s post seven
months ago. Clayman, who had served for
five years in that job, returned to the faculty
and his clinical practice, the school said.
UCI picked Dr. Roger Steinert to serve
as interim dean. Steinert is an eye surgeon,
current chair of the ophthalmology department at UCI, and chief of ophthalmology at
UC Irvine Medical Center.
Belmont served in the top spot at the 411bed academic medical center for six years.
He was appointed interim chief executive
and then elevated to the permanent position
in 2009 to succeed Maureen Zehntner,
who retired.
Zehntner became the hospital’s leader at a
time it was dealing with the aftermath of
several scandals, including allegations of
mismanagement of its liver transplant program, a problem with its willed body program involving the sale of cadavers, and the
discovery that a professor misspent money
on software rather than cancer research. ■