EDUCATION
Michael Drake, former chancellor of the University of California-Irvine, and his wife, Brenda, will receive the UCI Medal at the Lauds & Laurels celebration on March 30. It’s the school’s oldest awards ceremony and recognizes people for contributions to the university, the community or their professions; the UCI Medal is its most prestigious award. Michael Drake was UCI chancellor from 2005 to 2014, leaving to take the presidency of The Ohio State University (see related OC Insider item, page 3).
FINANCE
San Juan Capistrano-based Capital Bank promoted Danna Murphy to chief operating officer, a new position, in addition to her role as chief financial officer.
Irvine-based Banc of California plans to reallocate $3.5 million in sponsorships to partially offset costs of naming rights to the new $350 million stadium of the Los Angeles Football Club. It’s spending about $100 million over 15 years for the rights, according to a Bloomberg News report in September.
HOSPITALITY
Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa in Anaheim is being renovated, including changes to guest rooms, the lobby, swimming pool and other areas in “the most extensive refurbishment since” the 948-room property opened in 2001. Grand Californian has been an AAA “four diamond” location each year since it opened and is one of three hotels at Disneyland Resort.
MEDIA
Former Freedom Communications Inc. partner and president Eric Spitz retained attorney Daniel J. Callahan to resolve a pension dispute with the bankruptcy creditors of the company that previously owned the Orange County Register. A court-sanctioned committee of unsecured creditors of Freedom in January filed a lawsuit against Spitz and former Chief Executive Aaron Kushner, charging the pair with “wasting millions of dollars” of Freedom’s pension plan assets on life insurance investments. Callahan, a partner in Callahan & Blaine in Santa Ana, said the allegations are contrived and that the suit is an effort to hold Spitz personally liable for the retirement fund (see related OC Insider item, page 3).
PBS SoCal Chief Executive Andrew Russell is a new trustee of America’s Public Television Stations, a national nonprofit trade group in Arlington, Va. APTS provides “strategic planning, research, communications, advocacy and other activities” to support public television, and an affiliate, APTS Action Inc., advocates for noncommercial TV stations nationally, the group’s website said.
RESTAURANTS
El Pollo Loco Holdings Inc. President and Chief Executive Steve Sather plans to retire by year-end, the Costa Mesa-based company said. Sather has led El Pollo Loco for 11 years, during which he took it in 2014 from a private equity-backed company to a publicly traded one.
SERVICES
An audit of some services provided by an outside operator at Dana Point Harbor couldn’t validate the firm’s reported gross receipts at the facility and said its “rent payments are not calculated or reported in accordance with lease agreements” the operator has with Orange County, which owns the harbor, the county auditor said in a report. OC Auditor-Controller Eric Woolery’s office audited the deal between Vintage Marina Partners LP and the county. Vintage Marina signed a 20-year agreement in 2001 to run some of the services at the harbor.
TRANSPORTATION
Signature Flight Services Corp. filed a complaint with the Federal Aviation Administration in response to the Orange County Board of Supervisors’ recent contract award to a competitor for operation of one of two fixed-based operations at John Wayne Airport. Fixed-base operators manage facilities for charter carriers and small-aircraft owners. The two at JWA are run by Atlantic Aviation FBO Holdings LLC and Signature. Supervisors on Jan. 30 awarded the contract to run Signature’s fixed-based operation to ACI Jet in San Luis Obispo. Signature has asked the FAA to investigate whether the process that led to the vote complied with federal law. It says it was discriminated against. The county said it doesn’t comment on “pending litigation.”
