“To be honest, we didn’t quite know where OC was,” McGregor told a crowd of more than 100 businesspeople and high school students at the nonprofit Orange County Forum a few weeks ago. “I came to Orange County with my wife a little less than five years ago and we sort of thought it was LA. But we’ve found that it’s definitely not LA.”

The soft-spoken executive gave a talk that addressed different perceptions of OC, including a big one that’s sometimes overlooked—that the county’s a great place to do business.

“OC has had a tradition and a history of really providing a great environment for business—strong education and the entrepreneurial character of all the people in the area,” he said. “We have a culture of creativity and innovation, everything from chip design, finance, car design and fashion.”

Before becoming Broadcom’s chief executive, McGregor ran the chip arm of Royal Philips Electronics NV in the Netherlands.

Living in Europe “was a very interesting experience as an American,” he said. “To be the alien in a different culture where you don’t speak the language and where you are the outsider is an interesting experience that many Americans don’t get to have.”

McGregor talked up Broadcom’s practice of hiring engineers and workers with higher degrees as one way to “keep that entrepreneurial spirit going” at the maturing company, which makes chips that go into networking gear, cell phones, set-top boxes and consumer electronics.

“It’s against this backdrop that Broadcom has grown from a very small startup to a leadership position in a number of markets today,” he said.

Ingram Deal

Santa Ana’s Ingram Micro Inc., the largest distributor of computers, software and consumer electronics, inked a deal that’s set to help its resellers push networking gear made by Cisco Systems Inc.

Ingram signed a contract with Cisco that “standardizes terms and conditions across all regions,” Ingram said.

Ingram Micro, which has yearly sales of about $30 billion, is the biggest distributor of Cisco products. The company provides Cisco networking products to technology consultants that install and service them.

The “new global contract with Cisco allows our resale partners to take full advantage of business opportunities on a worldwide scale,” said Ken Bast, vice president of vendor management. “Now, our customers will be able to expand into new markets, as well as support their existing global clients with quicker product availability, which will ultimately shorten their sell cycle and positively impact their balance sheets.”