OCBJ SPECIAL REPORTS
OC Community Colleges See 21% Enrollment Dip
Most Districts Commit To An Online Year of Learning
Student enrollment is down nationally nearly 2% for associate, undergraduate and graduate programs across the country because of the pandemic, according to a recent report from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.
Winning Execs Don’t Rest on Their Laurels
$1B Cancer Center Underway; Military Wins; Spanish Drug Investment
Orange County’s business community last year celebrated the Business Journal’s 25th annual Women in Business Awards luncheon at the Hotel Irvine, where Aston Martin Americas President Laura Schwab delivered the keynote address. The winners, selected from 200 nominees, have not been resting on their laurels, even in the era of the coronavirus. Here are updates on what the five winners have been doing.
PE-Backed BioDot Finds Calling in Eventful 2020
DIAGNOSTICS: Irvine dispensing manufacturer plots growth
Ready to grow
Digital Health’s Time to Dominate
INNOVATION: UCI sees future in medical devices
UCI Health, Orange County’s only academic health system, continues to invest in what it believes to be the future of healthcare: digital tools and medical devices.
Device Makers Grow 5%, Generate 1,000 Local Jobs
INNOVATION: Edwards continues expansion plans
OC’s top medical device makers continue to power a growing workforce in Orange County.
Allergan’s Local Base Continues to Shrink
DRUGMAKERS: Urovant sees largest job boost
2020 has been a year of realignment and redirection for a number of Orange County’s largest drugmakers.
Mercury Finds Unofficial Home in Brea
Insurance Giant Employs 1,600 in Orange County
Mercury General Corp. (NYSE: MCY) is an insurance holding company headquartered in Los Angeles where about 100 work at its 41,000-square-foot facility.
Gallagher Grows OC Sales 60% to $55.5M
OC Exec Bialik Cites M&A, Sales Hires
The Irvine office of Gallagher was the fastest grower on the Business Journal’s annual list of insurance brokers in this week’s issue (see list, page 25).
Orange County Insurance Brokers Report 10% Sales Growth
Revenue Increases; 2.8% Local Support Staff Dip
Orange County’s largest insurance brokers as a group saw their revenue grow 10% in 2019, up from 12% in 2018.
New American Funding Catches Mortgage Wave
FINANCE: Arvielos see more growth on horizon
$824M; 2nd-fastest grower
Advantage Rides SPAC To Public Markets
MARKETING: $3.8B in sales for 2019
Advantage Solutions Inc. is moving closer to its long-awaited plans to go public, with last week’s announcement of a reverse merger deal with a blank-check firm that gives the Irvine sales and marketing firm an equity value of $3.3 billion.
Americor Aims To Double Workforce
FINANCE: Sees more Americans falling into debt
Benny Ganatra is watching closely how the pandemic-fueled recession is affecting the ability of Americans to pay their credit card debt.
Smiles for Planet DDS Despite Industry Lockdown
HEALTHCARE: Pays $30M for dental imaging firm
Planet DDS, a software maker for the corporate dentistry sector, already billed its Denticon platform as the first and largest cloud-based dental practice management software in the U.S. with some 600 clients.
Orange County’s Fastest Growers: $31.5B in Sales
Report 36% Boost From 2018 Levels
Orange County’s fastest-growing private companies defied the onset of the recession to post another strong year of expansion, albeit not as fast as a year ago.