Every year in January, the Orange County Business Journal honors about four to six OC executives or entrepreneurs with a Businessperson of the Year recognition. This year, we picked eight who each had a stellar year, as well as Gavin Herbert, who we are honoring with a lifetime achievement recognition.
Many of Orange County Business Journal’s recipients in the past decade have continued their successful ways while a few have had notable setbacks:
• Bob Olson was honored in 2018 for being California’s dominant hotel developer, including Newport Beach’s Lido House and the Marriott Irvine Spectrum. His company is taking part in the estimated $330 million renovation of Dana Point Harbor. Last year, they began construction on an industrial building on Maui instead of a hotel.
• Russ Bendel also was recognized in 2018 for taking The Habit Restaurants from 25 restaurants to 250. In 2020, he orchestrated a $375 million sale to Yum Brands in 2020. He has since retired.
• Tom Corbett ran a one-man shop in 1977 when he started at Alliant Insurance Services’ Newport Beach office. By the time we recognized him in 2018, he had built the company to more than $1 billion in sales. He retired as CEO last January as the company has become one of the world’s 10 biggest insurance brokers, with annual sales now approaching $5 billion.
• Within two years of Brian Niccol becoming Chipotle CEO, the company’s market cap rose threefold to $24 billion when we honored him in 2019. The stock continued soaring, eventually becoming the most valuable publicly traded company with headquarters in Orange County, with a market cap above $80 billion. Last year, when Starbucks surprisingly named him as its new CEO, the Seattle-based company’s market cap jumped $21 billion in one day.
• Charles Dunlop was honored in 2017 for selling his company Ambry Genetics for $1 billion to Konica Minolta. Last year, he gave the commencement address at UC Irvine and donated $50 million to the school of biological sciences, which is now named in his honor. Also last year, Konica sold Ambry for $600 million to Tempus AI, a fast-growing firm using artificial intelligence for precision medicine.
• When Steve Jones was recognized in 2019, it was because he built Allied Universal from $12 million in annual sales to an annual run rate of $8.4 billion. Since then, he engineered the purchase of a major British security firm and the company now posts annual sales above $20 billion, and with more than 800,000 employees, it is the U.S. third largest private employer.
• Annette Walker garnered the award in 2019 because of her plan for a $1 billion investment to expand City of Hope in Orange County. Since then, the investment has grown to $1.5 billion, and she’s completed building a clinic and is scheduled to open a brand new hospital by the end of this year. In December, she arranged to buy 52 acres of land in the Great Park for $88.5 million for plans yet to be determined.
• Augie Nieto was honored in 2019 for returning as a board member to the company he founded in the 1970s, Life Fitness, which does about $1 billion in annual sales, and for his nonprofit, Augie’s Quest to Cure ALS. He died from the disease in 2023.
• Lynsi Snyder was honored in 2019 for successfully taking over her family’s company, In-N-Out Burger, when she was only 27 years old.
In a remarkable memoir that was excerpted for a Leader Board last year, she wrote, “My father’s death when I was 17 rocked me to my core. It felt like my best friend, protector and defender was gone. I met a pastor and his wife who helped me realize I would soon follow in my father’s footsteps and meet an early death if I didn’t get right with God. I let go of the weed and alcohol but letting go of the guy was more difficult. I was so afraid to be alone … After my third failed marriage, I finally knew I needed to take some time and be alone.”
• Joe Kiani was honored in 2020 for starting Masimo in his home and building it to a market cap topping $14 billion. However, in 2022 he bought an audio equipment company for $1 billion, a move that caused the company’s market cap to fall $5.2 billion in one day. Worse, it led to a bitter proxy battle that ended last September with shareholders ousting Kiani as chairman and his subsequent resignation as CEO.
• Anthony Hsieh was recognized in 2020 for successfully building his third mortgage company, loanDepot, to more than $4 billion in annual sales. In 2021, he took the company public where the market cap topped $4 billion. However, the Federal Reserve sudden increase in benchmark rates caused the mortgage industry to enter an “ice age,” Hsieh said. Sales plummeted to $1 billion annually and he relinquished the CEO role.
• William Wang claimed the recognition in 2021 after building Vizio into the nation’s second largest seller of televisions, emphasizing “the future of the smart TV industry.”
Last November, he completed the sale of Vizio to Walmart for $2.3 billion; he plans to remain at Vizio, which is now a subsidiary of Walmart.
• RJ Scaringe in 2021 became the new wonderkid of Wall Street when Rivian soared to a market cap topping $100 billion after its IPO. Since then, the shares have slumped to a $15 billion market cap. Last year, Rivian announced a $5 billion joint venture with the world’s second largest car maker, Volkswagen.
• When Xponential founder Anthony Geisler was honored in 2021, he had built his fitness chain to 1,900 studios. He left the company in May under investor concerns about the company’s model. A month later, Mark King, who was our winner in 2023 for leading Taco Bell, became Xponential’s CEO, causing the shares to rise 34% on the day the announcement was made.
• John Kao in 2013 began Alignment Healthcare and by 2021 when he was recognized, sales exceeded $1 billion. Analysts are estimating sales will be $3.5 billion this year.
• Marc Bell was honored in 2022 for Terran Orbital’s small satellites; however, in the past year, the company fell on hard times and it was acquired by Lockheed Martin, its largest customer and shareholder. Bell was “separated” from the company, AviationWeek reported.
• On the day the Business Journal named Raymond Cohen as 2023 Executive of the Year for Axonics, the company announced its sale for $3.7 billion to Boston Scientific.
• Bill Shopoff was recognized in 2023 by completing his company’s most profitable year ever with a series of notable deals. Last year, his company won Huntington Beach approval for a 29-acre master plan for a $500 million project that will include a hotel, retail and residences on prime property next to the beach.