Education
Santa Ana College’s International Business Program received the Responding to Globalization award on Nov. 17 at the Orange County Business Council’s sixth annual Turning Red Tape Into Red Carpet Awards. The award honors economic development strategies and programs that make an effort to enable communities, businesses, and economic development organizations to better engage the global economy or to more resiliently respond to the challenges brought by globalization. Santa Ana College’s business program also received a Certificate of Special Recognition from U.S. Representative Mimi Walters. It first established its certificate and associate degree programs in international business in 1996.
Elizabeth Loftus, distinguished professor of social ecology in the department of psychology and social behavior at the University of California-Irvine, was awarded the international John Maddox Prize for Standing up for Science in London. The honor is awarded for courage in promoting science and evidence on a matter of public interest, despite difficulty and hostility encountered in the process. It comes with an award of about $2,500. Loftus is known for her ground-breaking work on the “misinformation effect,” in which memories of eyewitnesses are altered by exposure to incorrect information about events. She also was honored for her pioneering research on the creation and nature of false memories.
Law
Stuart Kane LLP Partner Javier Gutierrez was awarded one of Urban Land magazine’s “40 Under 40” honors. The annual award is given to 40 of the world’s “best and brightest real estate professionals” according to the Washington, D.C.-based Urban Land Institute. Its members considered more than 400 finalists nominated from around the world. Gutierrez, 35, works on transactional real estate law at the Newport Beach-based firm. He also heads Midway City-based American Family Housing’s real estate committee, which led to the development of the eco-friendly Potters Lane housing project, also in Midway City, to provide permanent homes for chronically homeless military veterans.
Attorney Dean Zipser will receive the Franklin G. West Award from the Orange County Bar Association at its annual meeting on Jan. 26. He’s co-founding partner of Irvine-based commercial litigation firm Umberg Zipser LLP and is the 46th recipient of the award, which was established in 1971 in honor of the late Judge Franklin G. West to recognize a lifetime of work for law and justice. The association said it’s the highest honor it confers. Zipser has been practicing law for more than 36 years and continues to serve the Orange County bench, bar and greater legal community through his work, mentoring, and community service.
Real Estate
Irvine-based Snyder Langston named Gary Campanaro chief financial officer. He succeeds Paul Peiffer, who retires after 19 years with the commercial construction company. Campanaro has 30 years of experience in accounting, finance, and real estate, most of that time as CFO for privately and publicly owned firms. He’d most recently been a consultant and, prior to that, a CFO at restaurant chains Johnny Rockets in Lake Forest, El Pollo Loco in Costa Mesa, and Claim Jumper Restaurants in Los Alamitos. Snyder Langston is one of the largest builders in Southern California. Its OC office had an estimated $452 million in contracts last year and employs 131.
