Change is the one constant at The Irvine Company. In the past 50 years, the company has transformed the appearance and economy of Orange County, while undergoing its own periodic transformations in ownership, management and/or organizational structure.
In recent months, there has been another leadership shift. To get an idea of how much the company has been reshaped, compare the organizational chart of The Irvine Company today with the one from November 1996; back then, Donald Bren recently had overseen a series of management changes and had just assumed 100% ownership.
Some points worth noting:
+++The new Irvine Company is more vertically organized. Bren now oversees the company through two committees and Michael McKee, instead of through the six units that reported to him in 1996. Where six executives (other than company directors) had formal reporting lines to Bren in 1996, that number has been reduced to two,CFO McKee and Investment Properties chairman Richard Sim. (Others still report to Bren through the new committees.) And that number could drop to one if Sim retires later this year, as has been rumored.
+++The new org chart gives greater status to entitlement and design, functions seen as key to the build-out of the Irvine Ranch.
+++All steady sources of revenue,apartments as well as commercial, industrial and retail,are now consolidated under a single person, Clarence Barker.
+++Perhaps most dramatically, the new chart shows the rise of former legal counsel McKee. With Bren, he has a hand in overseeing all facets of the company. His control of administrative functions has been broadened to include not only finance and legal but planning, marketing and corporate affairs. And for the first time he is directly involved in operations.
