Other news items of interest from the Orange County Business Journal
Quiksilver surf team manager Chad Wells left the company following comments on his personal Facebook page defending an ad by sister label Roxy. The controversial ad, which shows a scantily clad female surfer in various scenes, has drawn numerous complaints.
Vanguard University in Costa Mesa named Michael Beals its new president. He most recently served as dean of spiritual formation at the university, which was founded on Christian beliefs. He replaces Carol Taylor, who has taken the post of president of Evangel University in Springfield, Mo.
The chief operating officer of Santa Ana-based SchoolsFirst Federal Credit Union was named chief executive of Patelco Credit Union in Pleasanton. Erin Mendez will take the new position in coming weeks. SchoolsFirst is the largest credit union based in Orange County, with $9.7 billion in assets.
Irvine-based Opus Bank restructured its banking divisions, creating a commercial bank and a retail bank under the Opus umbrella and appointing presidents to head the units.
Point Center Financial Inc. founder Dan Harkey lost control of the Dana Point company when U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Theodor Albert ordered a trustee to assume control of it. The decision closely followed an Orange County’s Superior Court jury’s award of $10 million in damages to about 80 Point Center investors. Creditors had accused Harkey of trying to take the company’s assets and possibly also theirs. They said they were owed millions of dollars.
Small companies next year will be able to offer employees a menu of health insurance plans in a program intended to help them compete with large employers for good workers, according to Covered California, a state insurance exchange. Companies with fewer than 50 employees can offer four different insurance plans sold under Covered California. The exchange said plan premiums will be comparable or less expensive than those small businesses now pay.
Boxing promoter Roy Englebrecht said he intends to run for an open seat on the Newport Beach City Council next year. The longtime Newport Beach resident serves on the city’s Parks, Beaches and Recreation Commission and owns Fountain Valley-based Roy Englebrecht Promotions, which runs the Fight Club OC shows. Englebrecht said frustration over the way the council handled the issue of beach fire rings led him to enter the race.
Santa Ana-based Ansafone Contact Centers LLC announced plans to open an administrative center in Ocala, Fla., where it established a call center last year. The company said it plans to keep operations in Orange County, although it’s still unclear whether its headquarters will remain here. It provides telephone customer service for other companies and has 450 employees overall, with about a third in Ocala.
Irvine-based Advantage Sales & Marketing LLC said it acquired Program Sales Inc., a food brokerage company that concentrates in meat, seafood, deli and bakery clients. Terms of the transaction weren’t disclosed.
The Una Mas beer made by Left Coast Brewing Co. in San Clemente won Best of Show at the California State Fair, beating out almost 700 other contenders. The company said the amber beer is sold across Southern California and in other states.
Rioters and police clashed in Huntington Beach after the U.S. Open of Surfing competition, leading to seven arrests. Street signs, storefronts and vehicles were damaged during the incident. Some residents called on competition organizers to scale back the annual event and requested more police protection during its run on the beachfront.
ECONOMIC INDICATOR
UP: Sales for all four Orange County-based auto brands based in July, when Irvine-based Mazda North American Operations led the way with a 29.4% increase to 24,977 vehicles. Costa Mesa-based Hyundai Motor America Inc. and Kia Motors America Inc. in Irvine, the largest OC-based brands, continued their general trend of sales gains. Mitsubishi Motors North America Inc. in Cypress rounded out the gains by breaking a recent sales slump with a 24.7% increase in July, to 5,230 vehicles.
