UCI’s Deep Bench; Evan in Snyc?; Ask Ellermeyer

The search is on for a new executive vice chancellor and provost at UCI—a job that’s about on par with a COO’s post in the business world, while the chancellor of the school functions more like a CEO. No worry if it takes awhile to find a new No. 2, because UCI now has a deep bench. Howard Gillman rose to the chancellor’s job last month after a little more than a year as provost. And Mike Gottfredson—who preceded Gillman as provost before taking the president’s post at the University of Oregon—is due back at UCI in January. Gottfredson’s tenure at Oregon ended abruptly earlier this year—apparently a casualty of scratchy relations with the faculty and its new union. He left UCI with a three-year leave of absence in hand, though, and is due back to teach criminology at the School of Social Ecology in January … The search committee is made up of 21 members, with 20 of them tied to UCI in positions ranging from an undergrad student to deans and vice chancellors. The lone representative of the larger community is FivePoint Communities CEO Emile Haddad, who also has campus ties as chair of the UCI Foundation … Some folks wonder if voters in Irvine are ready for a third way. That’s the hope of Evan Chemers, the only candidate for a seat in City Hall who is clearly unaligned with either of the well-funded slates— Choi-Lalloway-Schott and Agran-Gaido-Fox—that are keeping mailboxes throughout the city full as they bash away at one another. Chemers is steering away from attack ads, instead banking on yard signs with different slogans, including one—Sync All Traffic Lights— that might give him a chance if enough folks look around while they wait at red lights on their way home at rush hour … What do Dakota Dehn, Susan Kamotho, Aileen Lee, Alena Rose, Erica Tinsley, Jessica Wong and Edith Young have in common? They all won scholarships at Advancing Women in Technology’s 13th annual Wine Tasting Fundraiser, which drew an impressive turnout from OC, LA and SD to the Turnip Rose in Costa Mesa this month … This column comes to you via Istanbul, by the way—and you thought Orange County was in a unique spot, situated between Los Angeles and San Diego. How about a market with one foot in Europe and the other in Asia? A look at the Bosphorus Strait as it cuts through Istanbul—the seat of four empires over two millennia—offers a reminder of how valuable a spot in the middle of a marketplace can be … The Insider is due back to OC this week, but anyone who wants more on Istanbul can check in anytime with OC marketing vet Bill Ellermeyer, a self-made expert on Turkish culture and business.