UCI and its B-school is abuzz over last week’s $30 million naming pledge from Hot Pockets creator Paul Merage (see page 12). The deal was sealed by the rapport between Merage and new biz dean Andrew Policano, the Wisconsin wiz who already has lived up to his fund-raising rep. (Merage helped recruit Policano to UCI last year.) Policano now is well on his way toward his $100 million fund-raising goal. An-other hero was Chancellor/Professor Ralph Cicerone. He got the ball rolling two years ago and continued to work on the deal (and other UCI business, including his earth sciences research with students) even while assuming his new duties as president of the National Academy of Sciences and preparing for a July move to Washington, D.C. Cicerone admittedly was tired when he showed up at his recent “Inside OC” taping. He promised to take a couple of days of rest from his non-stop schedule …
Giving big assists in the Merage effort: Vice Chancellor Tom Mitchell and biz school prof Jone Pearce and Chuck Martin …
Cicerone said he’s passing on a chance to move into the penthouse of the famed Watergate Hotel: “They (the National Academy) have offered it to us but Carol and I have decided not to live there. Our dog doesn’t like it” …
First Lady Carol Cicerone, herself an accomplished UCI prof (cognitive sciences), will be taking some time off. “I think she wants to become the writer of the great American novel,” Ralph said, “and I think she can do it” …
Leno and Letterman, move over: Speaking of “Inside OC,” it now replays at 11:30 p.m. every Wednesday on KOCE …
OCTA is loading up on consultants in its push to renew Measure M. Sacramento-based David Townsend and Smith, Watts & Co., and OC’s Gary Hunt and Mike Stockstill, have been retained for an expected November 2006 ballot measure. The half-cent sales tax for local transportation projects expires in 2011; it got 54% of the vote in 1990 but needs two-thirds next time …
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Separated at birth: County D.A. Tony Rackauckas, Michigan State “Final Four” basketball coach Tom Izzo |
Larry Zucker, whose Irvine-based The Gavel Group does charity auctions, has raised the bidding for the OC Forum’s John Campbell clock to $350: “We want to help in any way we can.” He topped a $300 bid from Clausen Miller lawyer Keith Butler. “Being fairly new to this great state, I wanted to do my part in bringing us a little closer to shrinking that multi-billion dollar budget gap,” said Butler, a Chicago transplant. For more info or to place a bid e-mail reiff@ocbj.com.
