Education
University of California President Janet Napolitano nominated Howard Gillman for the University of California-Irvine’s chancellor post. The nomination requires the approval of UC’s Board of Regents. Gillman has been provost and executive vice chancellor of UCI since June 2013. The provost is the chief academic and operating officer of the university. Gillman has served as interim chancellor since former Chancellor Michael Drake left UCI on July 1 to become president of Ohio State University. He’s also a UCI professor of political science and law (see related OC Insider item, page 3).
The Coast Community College District Board of Trustees appointed Tom Harris interim chancellor. He replaces Andrew Jones, who resigned a few weeks before the start of fall classes. Harris came out of retirement to take the position after a 50-year career in education administration. He formerly served as chancellor of the North Orange County Community College District.
Finance
Newport Beach made a list of the top 10 cities for financial professionals. National finance staffing firm Accounting Principals named it to the unranked list, along with Los Angeles, based on positions most in demand, average salaries, and quality of life, among other factors.
A man convicted of conspiracy to commit mail fraud in a “foreclosure rescue” scam operated out of Orange County from 2004 to 2006 was sentenced to 35 years in prison, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California. Charles Head, 40 and now of Pittsburg, Pa., led the scam through Head Financial, which netted more than $15 million in fraudulently obtained money from homeowners, many in California, the attorney’s office said in a news release. He and brother Jeremy Michael Head, 34, of Huntington Beach, were convicted in the case last year. Jeremy Head is awaiting sentencing.
Healthcare
Irvine-based Biolase Inc. said Jeffrey Nugent is now its permanent chief executive. Nugent, a Biolase director, had served as acting chief executive since June. Biolase makes lasers for dental and other medical uses. Nugent, who was previously president and chief executive of Ascension Orthopedics Inc., replaces Federico Pignatelli, who resigned from the post in June and later left the company’s board.
Irvine-based medical device company AcuFocus Inc. received $21 million in venture funding. A number of the company’s existing investors participated in the round, including Versant Ventures, an investment firm with an office in Newport Beach; SV Life Sciences, a Boston-based venture capital firm; the Carlyle Group in Washington, D.C.; and Medtronic, a Minneapolis-based medical technology company. AcuFocus, which aims to treat age-related loss of near vision, said it plans to use the money to support international business strategies, along with research and development projects. The latest funding brings the total amount of venture capital support for the company to about $86 million. AcuFocus is headed by Chief Executive Jim Mazzo, a healthcare-industry veteran.
Hospitality
Chesapeake Lodging Trust said it sold the 153-room Courtyard Anaheim at Disneyland Resort for $32.5 million, or about $212,000 per room. The REIT owns about 20 hotels with about 6,000 rooms, mainly in business and convention markets, in eight states and Washington, D.C., according to a statement, which didn’t identify the buyer of the Anaheim hotel.
Manufacturing
Anaheim-based bathtub manufacturer Aquatic was acquired by the Sterling Group, a private equity firm in Houston, on undisclosed terms from London-based engineering and manufacturing company Tomkins PLC. Aquatic has about 725 employees and operates manufacturing facilities in six states, where it makes tubs, showers, doors and other accessories.
Other
OC prosecutors asked for documents and other evidence found in a City of Irvine probe of Great Park finances. Auditors have been looking into the way more than $200 million was spent on the park, and former park executives have said in depositions that consultants for the project regularly overcharged for unnecessary work or work that had to be redone.
