Members of the Orange County business community celebrated five winners of the Business Journal’s 13th Annual Excellence in Entrepreneurship Awards last week.
Keynote speaker Ryan Steelberg, chief executive and cofounder of Irvine-based Brand Affinity Technologies Inc., shared three key points of strategy for success with the crowd of more than 500 that gathered at a luncheon at the Hotel Irvine: You’ve got to know who is in your “fox hole;” have a “psychotic passion” for your business; and “go to the data to evaluate where you are” at any given time, Steelberg said.
The five honorees were selected from a pool of 158 nominees.
They were:
• Stephen Gordon, chief executive of Irvine-based Opus Bank, the largest bank based in Orange County, with about $3.7 billion in assets.
• Sunny Tolani, founder and chief executive of Fullerton-based Prince Organization, which owns and operates a portfolio of hotels.
• Phillip Chang, founder and chairman of Yogurtland Franchising Inc. in Irvine, who built the company into a chain with more than 200 restaurants before recently stepping down from his role as a chief executive to focus on Christian mission work abroad.
• Patrick O’Neill, chief executive and founder of Huntington Beach-based Olloclip, a phone camera lens manufacturer whose products are sold at Apple stores.
• Andy Fathollahi, chief executive and founder of Incipio Technologies Inc. in Irvine, which makes cases and related accessories for iPhones, iPads and other mobile devices.
Profiles of the winners will appear in the March 31 edition of the Business Journal.
