Pimco has taken knocks from various quarters in recent weeks, with minds large and small grabbing the rare opportunity to pile on with public criticism of Bill Gross, who ended 2013 with his Total Return fund down 1.9% amid record gains for equities. Then came the surprise resignation of Co-Chief Investment Officer Mohamed El-Erian to start this year. All of that has been enough to embolden the peanut gallery, which includes the likes of some guy named Don Dion, who posted a piece titled “Should Bill Gross Leave Allianz’s Pimco and Practice Yoga?” on Seeking Alpha. Leave it to Gross to cut through such clutter, which he did when Pimco took out a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal last week featuring him and the team of six deputy CIOs—most of them 40-somethings—assembled in the wake of El-Erian’s departure. It had the feel of Babe Ruth introducing Murderer’s Row—and it looks to the Insider as though the Bond King is making like the Sultan of Swat when it comes to his critics …
Our Mark Mueller puts Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Taylor Morrison as the odds-on favorite to get the 195.5-acre Marblehead parcel along PCH. Look for a sale by Lehman Brothers Holdings to close next month …
Word on the street has Ray Jacobi—who oversaw the shutdown of the Ritz in Newport Center last week—joining the executive team at Quiksilver Hotel & Resorts. …
Mindy Stearns rented Disney’s Grand Californian ballroom on Feb. 9 for a surprise 50th “diamond-and-denim-rhinestone” birthday party for hubby Glenn, who spent most of the evening in prison garb and confined to a mock on-stage lockup while guests took their best verbal shots at him. Hundreds donned Western garb, and Mindy headlined with a sendup of Madeline Kahn’s sendup of Marlene Dietrich as a saloon chanteuse singing “I’m Tired.” Couples in the crowd included: the Martins, the Dotis, the Argyroses, Dodges and Tuckers. Baseball HOFer Dave Winfield was there in person. Richard Branson, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mitt Romney and Rick Perry sent video tributes …
Forgive George W. Bush if he gets the feeling he’s back in a GOP primary when he comes to the Pacific Club for a Feb. 27 fundraiser for his presidential library. That’s the same night Pete Wilson will host the Forum for Corporate Directors’19th Annual Director of the Year Awards at the Ritz-Carlton …
Great organizations think alike: What else to say about the FCD’s plans to honor Ingram Micro boss Alain Monie? That’s the same guy we pegged as OCBJ’s Business Person of the Year for 2013. Other FCD honorees: Park Kennedy of First American Financial, Robert Eckert of Mattel, Barbara Lubash of Versant Ventures, and Ronald Merriman of KPMG …
Segerstrom Center President Terrence Dwyer oversees various halls and theaters for live performances—but he sees the digital world as “the new frontier for the creative act.” That brain tickler came in front of an overflow crowd of more than 400 at the Segerstrom’s Samueli Theater during Zocalo Public Square’s first OC event, a discussion that had Dwyer, Getty Trust CEO James Cuno, New Yorker staff writer Susan Orlean, and New York Times contributor Jori Finkel wondering whether the arts make us better people.
