OC 50 Sees New Faces, Exits

Some big changes played out in this year’s OC 50, the Business Journal’s annual listing of the most influential executives and others here.

The section, which starts on page 21, saw shifts throughout, from Technology to Government & Institutions. Even Real Estate,usually the most static OC 50 group,has new faces.

Behind much of the change this year: retirements and rising stars.

A handful of executives stepped back in the past year, making way for handpicked successors or up-and-comers.

That was the case at Orange County’s largest company by sales, Santa Ana-based Ingram Micro Inc. Chief Executive Kent Foster, an OC 50 fixture for the past few years, said in April he plans to retire as of June 1. In his place is Gregory Spierkel, an Ingram Micro co-president who takes over as chief executive next month.

The change ended a succession drama that played out at Ingram in the past year. In 2003, Foster shared his OC 50 spot with former Ingram chief operating officer Michael Grainger, who many saw as the company’s heir apparent.

Foster had Ingram’s OC 50 spot to himself last year after Grainger abruptly left in early 2004, just as Spierkel was named co-president, along with Kevin Murai.

With Spierkel’s ascension, Murai is set to become president and chief operating officer.

Similar, though less dramatic, shifts played out across the OC 50.

Henry Samueli has a new face beside him in Broadcom Corp.’s entry: Scott Mc-Gregor. The former head of the chip arm of Europe’s Royal Philips Electronics NV started Jan. 1 as Broadcom’s chief executive.

In the past, Samueli, the chipmaker’s cofounder and research chief, has shared the spot with cofounder and former chief executive Henry “Nick” Nicholas. Last year, chip veteran Alan “Lanny” Ross appeared beside Samueli.

Ross joined as interim chief in 2003 after Nicholas left amid family issues and changes at Broadcom, OC’s most valuable company on Wall Street.

(Nicholas, who still owns about a third of Broadcom’s voting shares and is worth an estimated $2 billion, has been an honorable mention since his exit.)

According to Samueli, McGregor has qualities of both the hard-charging Nicholas and the polished Ross.

One of the first requirements for McGregor was “that I got along with him,” said Samueli, who owns a hair more of Broadcom’s voting stock than Nicholas.

St. John Knits International Inc., the upscale women’s clothier in Irvine, is undergoing a makeover reflected in the OC 50’s Apparel section.

Gone is the joint entry of Kelly Gray, daughter of the company’s founders, and Bruce Fetter, the operations whiz who left earlier this year.

In their place is Richard Cohen, a fashion industry veteran recruited last year to run the company. Cohen has brought several changes, including putting in place a team of recruited lieutenants.

Another notable shift took place at Ford Motor Co.’s Premier Automotive Group in the Industry & Services section. Victor Doolan, an auto veteran who headed up Volvo, Premier’s largest unit, retired earlier this year. In his place is Anne B & #233;lec, who’s considered a rising star in a male-dominated industry.

B & #233;lec joins Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez and newcomer Rosemary Turner of United Parcel Service Inc. among the women on this year’s OC 50.

Some orderly change played out at a handful of companies.

Greg Weaver, who’s turned Anaheim-based Pacific Sunwear of California Inc. into a retail powerhouse, now shares his spot with Seth Johnson.

Weaver brought on Johnson, a former Abercrombie & Fitch Co. executive, last year and yielded PacSun’s top spot to him earlier this year. Weaver now is executive chairman, working on a planned third chain of stores for the company.

Healthcare

The Healthcare section also saw a couple of ascendancies. Scott Garrett, who shared Beckman Coulter Inc.’s entry a year ago, now has it to himself after becoming chief executive earlier this year. Jack Wareham, Beckman’s longtime chief, retired.

Garrett, who ran a healthcare investment firm earlier in his career, made his first acquisition as Beckman’s chief last week, detailing plans to buy biotechnology company Agencourt Bioscience Corp. of Beverly, Mass., for $140 million.

And, as expected, Tim Tyson now has the makeover of Costa Mesa-based Valeant Pharmaceuticals International firmly in his hands.

Last year, Tyson shared Valeant’s spot with Robert O’Leary, who came to power in 2002 after dissident shareholders ousted Milan Panic, founder of the company formerly known as ICN Pharmaceuticals.

O’Leary’s charge was to provide stability during the transition away from Panic, who cast a long shadow over the company.

Tyson, who hails from GlaxoSmithKline PLC, is seeking to turn Valeant into a mainstream drug maker focused on research and big markets.

Real Estate

Some newcomers helped shake up this year’s Real Estate section. With a handful of dominant players (think Donald Bren, George Argyros and William Lyon), Real Estate often is the most consistent group of the OC 50. So any change is notable. But this year’s group includes four new faces.

The most notable: a triple entry for J.F. Shea Co.

The family owned real estate company based just over the county line in Walnut was represented last year as an honorable mention. It was elevated to the main OC 50 group this year with the appointment of Peter Shea as chief executive.

Shea, who lives in Newport Beach, is the family member most closely associated with OC.

But that just clinched things for J.F. Shea. The entry also includes Bert Selva, who heads Shea’s home building arm, and William Gaboury, head of J.F. Shea’s office, apartment and land arm. Both have major operations in the county.

Jonathan Jaffe of Lennar Corp.’s foothold got stronger in the past year as he was made chief operating officer,No. 2,at the Miami-based company. And, oh yeah, he led Lennar’s buy of El Toro (not to mention Newhall Land and Farming Co. in Los Angeles County). He’s also been buying land around Angel Stadium of Anaheim with plans for high-rise condominiums.

With all that going on, we decided to add Emile Haddad, president of California for Lennar, to the company’s entry. Haddad heads 22 homebuilding and land divisions with more than 50,000 lots to build on. He also handles acquisitions with Jaffe.

Departures

Along with retirements, there were other exits from this year’s OC 50. In Real Estate, Donald Koll went from the main group last year to honorable mention.

To be sure, Koll still is influential here with a big portfolio of industrial buildings. Plus, he’s known here for his past work building glistening office towers. His shift shows how tough it is to make the main group and how prominent our honorable mentions are.

Same goes for Lee Roberts, chief executive of Costa Mesa software maker FileNet Corp. He’s now part of a trio of software executives in the Technology honorable mentions. Roberts’ move made way for Victor Tsao, who founded and runs Cisco Systems Inc.’s Linksys unit in Irvine.

For the first time in years, the University of California, Irvine, isn’t represented in our main group. For the past few years, Chancellor Ralph Cicerone has been a fixture in Government & Institutions. He recently showed his influence by helping to land UC Irvine’s biggest donation yet, $30 million for the business school from Hot Pockets creator Paul Merage.

But Cicerone is readying to move to Washington, D.C., in July to head up the National Academy of Sciences. Look for his pending replacement to appear on next year’s OC 50.

About the OC 50

The OC 50 is our admittedly subjective roll call of the key movers and shakers in OC. In fact, there actually are 61 members including entries with two or even three people. There are another 50 or so honorable mentions.

The business, government and educational leaders are selected and screened in a variety of ways: company size, community involvement and by what we dub the phone test,is a call from the person likely to go straight through?

While the final cut is less than scientific, this year’s OC 50 includes all the names you’d expect, and then some. We look forward to hearing feedback on our selections, omissions and candidates for next year.

A note on the writing: the OC 50 uses what’s called telegraph style, which Forbes uses for its annual Forbes 400. The sentences are choppy and truncated, with most articles and some verbs dropped. With 50-plus entries, the goal is to provide readers with quick yet detailed looks at the most influential people here.