Don’t expect outgoing Ingram Micro Chief Executive Gregory Spierkel to jump back into the executive suite anytime soon. Spierkel, who led the county’s largest revenue maker for nearly six years, plans to take a year off to spend more time with his elderly parents in his native Quebec. Don’t expect companies to stop trying, though. “I’ve already been offered CEO positions,” Spierkel told the OCBJ’s Chris Casacchia before a recent talk hosted by Chapman University’s George L. Argyros School of Business and Economics at Il Forniao. More on Spierkel and his successor, Alain Monie, next week in our special issue on OC-based public companies …
Pundits say the fate of President Obama’s healthcare plan is in the hands of the Supreme Court. Not quite, according to John Heydt, president and CEO of University Physicians and Surgeons and Senior Associate Dean of Clinical Affairs at UCI School of Medicine. The healthcare industry has already reacted to the law in ways that are unlikely to be reversed, says Heydt, who points to a local example in Minnetonka, Minn.-based UnitedHealth Group Inc.’s recent acquisition of Monarch HealthCare, a 2,300-member doctors group in Irvine. Similar recent deals here indicate that “Orange County is way ahead of the curve” on a consolidation trend spurred by the healthcare law, Heydt says …
Mitt Romney, who joins his fellow contenders for the Republican presidential nomination in rooting against the healthcare law, got a lot of ink and a jump start to his air of inevitability during a visit to OC last week, when he stopped by Shady Canyon for a fundraiser that counted Donald Bren and Argyros among A-listers who signed on to the host committee. Fading GOP challenger Rick Santorum didn’t get as much attention when he swung through a few days later, but he did score an A-list audience at the offices of lawyer and hotel developer Tim Busch …
The buzz about San Diego developer Doug Manchester buying the Register has intensified at his recently acquired UT-San Diego, formerly known as the Union-Tribune. A newsroom wag down south says talk around the water cooler there has a deal for the Register all but done …
Manchester shouldn’t expect much help for his newspaper endeavors from Costa Mesa-based retail developer Shaheen Sadeghi, who recently told a crowd that his Lab Holdings gets more promotional bang from donating $10,000 worth of college scholarships than when he used to pay as much for ads in daily papers. Wing Lam maintained the laid-back vibe of his Wahoo’s chain when he told the same crowd that he does his fundraising for charitable causes while snowboarding or golfing. Sadeghi and Lam joined Susan Samueli for a panel discussion on philanthropy hosted by the Coastline Community College Foundation (see related story, page 1) …
Villa del Lago Update: A source close to the deal says that OneWest Bank, which reportedly holds a $21.6 million loan on the Newport Coast property, plans to set a $17-million floor with a credit bid in an April 26 auction for the unfinished 12.5-acre project, which once carried a hyped-up price tag of $57 million.
