Private equity firm Riordan, Lewis & Haden will deploy name partner Pat Haden a little differently now that he’s assuming the full-time (and daunting) job of athletic director at NCAA probationer USC. Murray Rudin, an RLH partner and anchor of its Irvine office, says Haden will remain an investor, a director at one of the firm’s portfolio companies and an informal adviser: “We’ll still be able to call him up or e-mail him.” In fact, Rudin says, Haden’s main effort in recent years has been branding the firm, “keeping the name in the public eye, and his new job is an even better venue for doing that.” RLH manages $400 million and focuses on midsize companies. The other name partners are cofounder Richard Riordan, the former L.A. mayor who has emeritus status, and managing director Chris Lewis, who like ex-quarterback Haden is a former USC sports star (Lewis was an NCAA tennis champ.) Rudin says the principals had to keep mum about Haden’s blockbuster hiring for two days before USC announced it: “We couldn’t even tell our wives” …
More trial lawyers: Joe Dunn’s new law practice, with offices in Newport Center and L.A., is called The Senators Firm, reflecting that he and cofounder Martha Escutia are former state senators. Class action defense litigators Thomas Moore and Ronald Labriola, both formerly with Drinker Biddle & Reath in L.A., also are aboard …
“Retired” Tom Rogers and EE RR spent a week with two lovely ladies touring the Basque country, same time as Pamplona’s running of the bulls, Spain’s drive to the World Cup title and news that a Vanity Fair poll named the Frank Gehry-designed Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, as the greatest contemporary building. (The Basque economy appeared even slower than ours. A guide sarcastically referred to the stilled commercial port at St. Sebastian, Spain, as “the museum.”) In addition to Huntington Beach-based Quiksilver’s ubiquitous presence, another OC connection was discovered at Zoko Moro restaurant in St. Jean de Luz, France: “Ah, Newport Beach,” said waiter Michael Coutant. “I’ve surfed the Wedge!” …
Masimo Corp. CEO Joe Kiani has joined Chapman U’s board of trustees …
CEO Maria Chavez Wilcox calls the response to OC United Way’s 2009-10 campaign “awe-inspiring”—in trying times, $25 million raised, an unprecedented increase of $7.5 million, or 43%, from the prior year. One-time endowments helped; an undisclosed real estate developer donated $2 million.
