San Francisco 49ers great Steve Young is trying to score deals in Orange County. The Hall of Fame quarterback is a founding partner of Sorenson Capital, a private equity firm based in Salt Lake City, where Young grew up and starred at the university named after his ancestor Brigham Young. Young, who works out of the firm’s Palo Alto office near his home, has been visiting OC lawyer George Wall (Rutan & Tucker) who arranged a Center Club lunch for Young and fellow ex-QB/investor Pat Haden of Riordan Lewis & Haden. It wasn’t all business,Haden brought along his son’s Steve Young jersey for “No. 8” to autograph …
The OC Register is cornering the local TV news market. The Reg already sponsors the nightly “Real Orange” on OC’s public TV station KOCE. Now the Insider hears it plans to partner with Anaheim commercial station KDOC on a morning show and other projects …
Matt Massengill has elaborated on why two years ago, riding high at the tender age of 44, he retired as Western Digital CEO. For one, he says he wanted more time with his wife and two kids: “I hadn’t seen my family for 20 years.” He also worried that staying at Western Digital would limit opportunities: “I would be cast forever as a disk drive CEO.” And if he didn’t make way for longtime colleagues Arif Shakeel and John Coyne, they might move on and he’d have to spend several years grooming other successors. Massengill didn’t address why Shakeel stepped aside after only one year as CEO. Coyne now is in charge. Massengill recently relinquished the WD chairmanship but remains a director …
Massengill says it’s getting harder for tech companies to attract foreign talent. Not only are Chinese and Indian engineers in demand at home, foreign professionals are finding the U.S. inhospitable to enter: “People with Ph.D.s are being detained at airports and being treated like they have a bomb strapped to their chest …
We’ve got to figure this out” …
Massengill made his remarks at a Center Club breakfast moderated by OC Biz Council director Tom Phelps, “the Oprah Winfrey of the OC,” according to Lucy Dunn …
The Celebration of Children event at the Irvine Marriott raised $800,000 for the Court Appointed Special Advocates, known as CASA …
Actor, former senator and dark-horse presidential aspirant Fred Thompson headlines the Lincoln Club’s annual dinner May 4 at the Balboa Bay Club …
UCI Engineering Dean Nick Alexopoulos was elected to the prestigious National Academy of Engineering …
Leave it to a PR/marketing specialist to arrange a merger where no name change is required: Rebecca Hall of Idea Hall in Costa Mesa is engaged to Randy Hall, VP of commercial real estate lending for Washington Mutual in Irvine …
And another PR-RE romance: Jessica Spaulding of Amies Communications and Terry Thompson of WCB Properties will wed this Saturday.
