Bob Olson isn’t running for office in his hometown of Newport Beach, but good luck finding someone more popular in the city these days. Lido House hotel is the area’s new hot spot, a month after opening. Cinco de Mayo weekend, the hotel’s restaurant and ground-floor bar area—the Mayor’s Table—packed, a few weeks before the city’s first rooftop bar opens. This week’s Commercial Real Estate special report (p. 23) looks at all that development going up around Lido House …
Women of the Year features start p. 1 … AutoGravity CTO Sheng Wang, OC Community Foundation CEO Shelley Hoss, Second Harvest CEO Nicole Suydam, New American Funding co-founder Patty Arvielo and SeneGence Int’l founder Joni-Rogers Kante … diverse careers, but all at one point or many “said yes at the door,” like event keynoter Julie Hill. Founder of Costain Homes was being courted by blue-blood investor Lord Abbett & Co., when Hill “said yes” to future board fellows asking if she played golf. She hadn’t. At the annual company outing at Augusta National, she beat two in her foursome …
Tuesday morning, 920 of us treated to Toastmaster General Magic Johnson at 15th Women’s Philanthropy Fund breakfast. Friend John Christenson, Cornerstone Comm.’s co-founder, tipped me off. “Never saw Magic like that before?” he said. “In for a treat.” I had to park in Trabuco Hills and hike back to Hotel Irvine. Turns out a room full of execs is also Magic’s court… great energy, no notes, seamless transitions from seriousness of homelessness to silliness of owning an esports franchise. “These guys get paid millions now,” the co-owner sighed. Someone took a loud phone call during Johnson’s tour-de-force, and on cue, “Magic here. Let me talk to him …”
WPF co-founder Sue Parks told me Magic “was magnanimous in every way.” I’m thinking sweet discount on advertised speaking fee of $75K+. At retail, part-time Monarch Beach resident was a good investment, helping raise a record $620,000 for WPF’s targeted initiatives, like Paul Revere Elementary in Anaheim, where third-graders now read at a 4.5 level and leave school, Chrome in hand …
CalAmped … another beat Q1 by Irvine telematics co. whose turnaround last 10 years coincided with Michael Burdiek’s arrival in 2006—Burdiek became CEO in 2011 as CAMP was amping from 50 cents per share March 2009 to $21 last Friday—42-bagger. 5G will be a new charge to CalAmp’s business …
Inspiration Point … Chapman El Presidente Daniele Struppa awarded Ellis Island Medal of Honor last weekend, one of our nation’s most prestigious, honoring patriotism and accomplishment. Struppa joins OCers, Paul Musco, Emile Haddad, George Argyros and Charlie Zhang, who was among Struppa’s nominators.
