There’s a change at the top at Deloitte & Touche’s Costa Mesa office, as reported on this page by OCBJ’s Jessica Lee. She also hears another surprising change is in the works at another Big Four firm …
In one of his last moves as Assembly speaker, Fabian N & #250; & #324;ez named Manatt & Phelps lawyer and former Assemblyman Tom Umberg to the California High-Speed Rail Authority. Along with Gov. Arnold appointee Curt Pringle, that gives OC two of the nine reps on the bullet-train planning body …
Western Digital founder Al Phillips (see ReaderLetters page 59) no longer owns stock in the Lake Forest disk drive maker. But Phillips, now retired in Newport Coast, still has an original stock certificate from Western Digital’s 1972 public offering framed on his home office wall. The company raised $4 million, which was “a lot of money back then,” he says. Western Digital’s now worth about $6 billion …
Tim Mead, communications VP for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, started as an intern in 1980 and has served under three owners. His take: Gene Autry ran the team with a family feel and a narrow focus on baseball. “There wasn’t even a marketing department then,” Mead says. Then came Disney, which brought a business focus, though sometimes the team got lost in the Mouse’s entertainment empire. As for Arte Moreno, he mixes Autry’s love of baseball with Disney’s business savvy: “He’s a self-made billionaire who wants to win,” Mead says …
Tiger Woods was on hand at Yard House in Fashion Island to watch game one of the NBA Finals …
Cal State Fullerton leads the nation in the number of bachelor’s degrees awarded to Hispanics (1,504 in 2007), according to Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education. Hispanics are 28% of Cal State Fullerton’s 36,000 students …
Versatile Jimmy Hopper is making a career out of bouncing between here and Vegas. The spiked, white-haired entertainer begins another run this week at the Island Hotel (Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays) …
Hot concept: Veggie Grill, which uses tempeh “in drag” to mimic meat and potatoes, has quickly become a fixture at University Center by UCI and at Plaza El Segundo. A third restaurant is set to open in October at Irvine Spectrum. Veggie Grill’s backers are L.A.-based T.K. Pillian and Kevin Boylan and Laguna Beach restaurateur Ray White, cofounder of Native Foods …
Saddleback Women’s Hospital has a new display featuring the Army uniform, Red Cross cape and other mementos of the late Margaret Ackerman, who chased Pancho Villa with Gen. John Pershing and served at the front during World War I. The items were donated by her daughter Jane McCarthy of Laguna Woods and her granddaughter, local PR pro Meg Waters.
