Cheryl Bartholomy, development director of UC Irvine’s cancer programs, came to the OCBJ Family Owned Business luncheon, sat down at table 9, started schmoozing,then realized she was supposed to be at table 9 next door, where Childrens Hospital chief Kim Cripe was speaking to the OC Forum. The simultaneous events at the Hyatt Regency Irvine (475 for the OCBJ, 150 for the forum) caused plenty of confusion. Even Cripe’s introducer, Lennar’s Emile Haddad, wandered into an OCBJ reception,he thought he was in the right place because he recognized so many of the people …
Many good moments at the OCBJ luncheon. Keynoter Tony Moiso recounted how he became the O’Neill-Moiso clan’s top exec in 1967, the very afternoon Donald Bren left as president of their homebuilding ve-nture, Mission Viejo Co. “He had the biggest office. I went down the hall and got my stuff and put it in there and no one ever asked me to leave.” Philip Morris bought MVC in 1972 and Moiso revived the family’s development activities under Rancho Mission Viejo. Bren, of course, went on to The Irvine Company. Plumbing and hardware distributor Ken Rohl leveraged his winner’s time at the podium: He presented his business card to Moiso, who has another 14,000 homes in the works, all in need of faucets. More event coverage starting on page 1 …
Safi Qureshey’s startup Quartics, flagged here on Oct. 16, just got a glowing writeup in Fortune. David Kirkpatrick says the company “could remake how we use video on the Web,and speed the reinvention of the media industry” …
Coming in early 2007: Kimera, an Italian-Japanese fusion restaurant and lounge at Jamboree and Fairchild in Irvine. Proprietor Marc Ghoukassian says it will have a more casual atmosphere than his family’s hit restaurants Bistango and Bayside …
OC’s delegation voted 4-2 in favor of the failed bid to pass the Bush-backed Vietnam trade bill. For the trade deal: Calvert, Campbell, Miller, Royce. Against it: Rohrabacher, Sanchez …
It adds up to $1 million: The Mind Institute’s dinner at the Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach raised $450,000. More than 350 real estate pros turned amateur athletes for Buchanan Street Partners’ Challenge for Children at Newport Dunes, raising $379,000. The Angels Baseball golf tourney at Los Coyotes raised $201,000 for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation …
Dennis Midden and his BrewBakers micro-brewery of Huntington Beach won two silvers and a bronze at the L.A. County Fair …
New OCBJ arrival: Meissa Andrea Erazo, to Adrienne and Marcelo Erazo …
Huntington Beach-based KOCE keeps moving up the list of most-watched PBS stations,from 17th place in 1999 to 11th in 2004 to seventh in the latest count. KOCE now is viewed for at least 15 minutes per week by an average of 1 million households, according to Nielsen. L.A.-based KCET ranks second nationally, with 2 million households.
