Gloria Zigner moved to Newport Beach in 1969 to open one of the county’s first woman-owned public relations firm. She landed a big-name client right off the bat.
Pilar Wayne, the wife of John Wayne, needed help putting on a fund-raising luncheon.
That opened the door for Zigner, who went on to get work from The Irvine Company, the Orange County Register and the Anaheim Convention Center.
She “gained a reputation for creativity and integrity,” said Judy Rosener, professor emeritus at the University of California, Irvine’s Paul Merage Graduate School of Business.
Zigner was one of five women honored at the Business Journal’s 12th annual Women in Business awards luncheon at the Hyatt Regency Irvine on May 25.
1980s Peak
At Zigner’s height in the 1980s, she employed some 15 people and opened a San Francisco office.
She’s a “connector” who’s worked hard to “help women and men gain visibility and improve their organizations,” Rosener said.
Then in 1992 came a defining moment for Zigner.
She called her best friend and financial chief at home to see how she was feeling after going home sick the day before.
The woman dropped a bomb on Zigner: She confessed to stealing money from her.
“There were clues, but I didn’t see them,” Zigner told the Orange County Register last year.
The woman guarded the books and didn’t take any vacations, Zigner said.
The controller, who was sentenced to two years in jail, took about $1 million from Zigner.
There’s never a good time for embezzlement. But it happened to Zigner during the early 1990s recession. Clients were slashing budgets. Near bankruptcy, Zigner closed the firm and laid off her workers.
But she wasn’t “broken,” said Tina Borgatta, executive editor of Orange Coast Magazine in Newport Beach, where Zigner now writes a society column.
“She pulled herself up by her bootstraps and hit the circuit again,” Borgatta said.
Zigner became executive director of the charitable foundation for Children’s Hospital of Orange County and hit her stride again.
She started the CHOC Follies, an annual fund-raising musical first held at Chapman University. It’s a professionally directed show featuring socialites, politicians, former performers and prominent businesspeople.
Past casts have included Supervisor Tom Wilson, former state Sen. Marian Bergeson and Julia Argyros, wife of businessman and former U.S. Ambassador to Spain George Argyros.
Zigner said she started the Follies as a way to get Julia Argyros to give to the foundation,by giving her the lead role in the musical.
Having Argyros on board attracted the attention of other arts patrons. George Argyros said he would contribute if Zigner got a big sponsor first.
So she hooked Mercedes dealer House of Imports in Buena Park. Her pitch: The North County dealership could use the exposure as rival Fletcher Jones Motor Cars was building its palatial showroom in Newport Beach.
Zigner said she went in and asked for $150,000, a number she settled on after the dealership’s marketing folks told her $200,000 was out of the question. She walked away with $100,000.
In the past 10 years, Zigner has raised more than $2.5 million through the Follies for Children’s Hospital and CHOC at Mission.
This year’s show in May was at the Orange County Performing Arts Center before some 6,000 people. It grossed more than $800,000.
Zigner still runs the show but no longer is employed by the CHOC Foundation.
These days, she’s known as “the social society queen” with “her name residing on practically everyone’s Rolodex,” said Martha Daniel, president of Costa Mesa-based Information Management Resources Inc.
“She empowers, encourages, solicits and unifies our community,” Daniel said of Zigner. “Gloria has contributed significantly to the economic growth and social welfare of our community through networking and connecting of people.”
Job Offer
Since 1992, Zigner has been society editor of Orange Coast Magazine. Publisher Ruth Ko called Zigner after hearing about the embezzlement and offered her the job.
Zigner now calls the dark episode a blessing in disguise.
“If I hadn’t been embezzled, Ko never would have called,” she said.
Each month, Zigner attends dozens of events, many of them charity bashes, so she can give exposure to attendees and beneficiaries in her column, which is dubbed “Zignatures.”
“Gloria never seems to sleep, attending almost every function of significance so she can keep track of who’s who and where they are spending their time during the month,” said Nella Webster O’Grady, regional vice president of First American Trust, part of Santa Ana-based First American Corp. “It’s one of the first things I turn to when opening the magazine.”
Zigner also runs a one-woman public relations firm, Gloria Zigner and Co., and a fund-raising consultancy. Clients include New Century Financial Corp. and the Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel.
