Chapman U is seeking a new dean for the Argyros biz school. The national search is being chaired by law dean Tom Campbell, who is well-versed in the area—he used to be biz dean at Berkeley’s Haas School. Art Kraft, dean since 2006, will remain on the faculty as the George and Barbara Bush chair in international business, endowed by (who else?) George and Julia Argyros and family …
Campbell, along with state lawmakers Jose Solorio and Mimi Walters, Fullerton Councilmember Sharon Quirk and Wahoo’s Fish Taco’s Wing Lam, discuss what’s wrong with California this week on “Inside OC” …
OCer Tom Umberg concedes that California’s big-ticket bullet train project, which he has chaired since June, isn’t wildly popular. But despite growing uncertainty over financing for the SoCal-to-Bay Area line, he puts the train’s chances of happening at 60-40, and 80-20 if ground is broken in the Central Valley by next year …
Hoag Hospital CEO Richard Afable is one of Modern Healthcare magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare, the only OCer to make the list …
Harald Herrmann, CEO of Irvine-based Yard House Restaurants, is new board chairman of the California Restaurant Association …
Tabu Grill’s Nancy Wilhelm has another winner—Starfish, in Laguna Beach across PCH from the Montage …
Happy 50th to St. Michael’s Abbey of Silverado Canyon …
David Pyott has been widely lauded for his performance as CEO of Irvine-based pharmaceutical company Allergan, but winning over company founder Gavin Herbert was not easy. Pyott, who embarked on a restructuring after becoming Allergan’s first imported CEO in 1997, told a recent OC Biz Council gathering that there was some friction, especially over his 2001 decision to “get rid of” the optical products business, Herbert’s “foundation stone.” But, “that was what I knew I had to do.” (Jim Mazzo took over the spinoff and continues to run it from Santa Ana, now as Abbott Medical Optics, a division of Chicago area-based Abbott Laboratories.) Herbert came around, eventually toasting the transaction at his La Casa Pacifica estate in San Clemente. And, said Pyott, “He’s become one of my closest friends.” It doesn’t hurt that they share roots—Pyott is from Glasgow, Scotland, Herbert’s family hails from nearby Paisley …
Allergan’s revenue has grown at an 18% annual rate under Pyott (and Botox), and the market cap has soared from $2 billion to more than $24 billion. Pyott said additional regulatory approvals—seven from the FDA last year alone, many others globally—“translates into high growth” for another three to five years. He sounds less optimistic about the economy as a whole: Frequent uncertainty over extending the R&D tax credit has a “corrosive” effect on investment, California risks job losses from “fairly low-value regulations” and healthcare reform is looking bad for everyone—doctors, patients, manufacturers, insurers and employers.
