Chuck Martin doesn’t wear his academic achievements on his sleeve—so here’s one he can hang around his neck: the UCI Medal. The investor is a longtime champion of UCI, where he serves as a foundation trustee and chairman emeritus of the Dean’s Advisory Board at the Merage School of Business. He also took the lead on creating the Chancellor’s Advisory Board and established the Polaris Investment Competition, through which he has provided 100 scholarships to MBA students in its 10 years. Little wonder Martin is due to get the school’s highest honor later this year. Other honorees for 2013: Distinguished Professor Ngugi Wa Thiong’o, a Kenyan exile and author who was widely reported to be a near-miss finalist for the Nobel Prize a few years back; and Cheryll and Richard Ruszat, who own four Montessori schools, including the one on UCI’s campus, and have served in various volunteer posts over three decades …
Martin recently became a novelist himself, writing Provocateur—a thriller that makes it clear the author has enjoyed many of the finer things around the world. The UCI Medal traces back to humble beginnings for Martin, who was the first in his family to go to college, and worked his way through Ohio State, putting in 40-50 hours a week on minimum-wage jobs while earning a BS degree with five majors—mathematics, physics, chemistry, electrical engineering and business. “For $72 a term, I could take all the courses I wanted…and I did,” he says …
UC has raised tuition well beyond $72, of course, but check out how many students in financial need get scholarships. More than half throughout the entire 10-campus system get enough in grants and scholarships to cover their whole tuition, says Martin, who has spent more than 10 years on the Board of Regents’ investment advisory committee. “Many economically disadvantaged young people share my passage in life,” he says. “It is great that we offer affordable education to them. It is a great benefit to our society. That’s why I give back so much to the UC System” …
A couple of other schools will be making noise at the Orange Catholic Foundation’s annual Conference on Business & Ethics this week at the Irvine Marriott. USC Athletic Director Pat Haden and former L.A. mayor and private-equity investor Dick Riordan—who sponsors scholarships at UCLA’s Anderson School—are lined up as keynoters. Word has it the two will count on the schools’ bands to play their proxies in the Trojan-Bruin rivalry. Rumblings also indicate that word of a sizeable gift to the foundation might also be heard … Tally another one for UCLA and the Anderson School, which has lined up Peter Bren, brother of Donald and chairman of KBS Realty Advisors in Newport Beach, for the commencement address to this year’s executive MBA graduates …
Last week we reported OC’s latest tie to the Kentucky Derby, with Yorba Linda entrepreneur David Kenney holding a 20% stake in Goldencents, which is slated for next month’s Run for the Roses. That made two—J.Paul Reddam of CashCall Inc. won with I’ll Have Another last year. Now comes three: Gary Jabara’s Mobilitie LLC has added Churchill Downs, home of horse racing’s biggest event, to the list of sports venues now equipped with its antennae systems for Wi-Fi networks.
