A new report from brokerage JLL shows that Orange County has added nearly 245,000 people to its population since 2010. The region’s great weather (recent rain and chilly temps aside, see page 4) is no doubt a reason: eight of the top 10 domestic metro areas supplying the new residents are cold-weather locales, the report says.
Mohamed El-Erian isn’t afraid to hold contrarian views, so perhaps it’s not surprising the Laguna Beach resident is headed the opposite way, toward wetter weather. Last week, the Allianz chief economic adviser was named president of Queens’ College, a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England. He starts in October 2020.
El-Erian served as chief executive and co-chief investment officer at Allianz-owned PIMCO from 2007 to 2014. His former colleagues in Newport Beach are sending some money, if not personnel, over the pond for real estate deals: a Reuters report last week noted PIMCO has begun investing heavily in a “contrarian bet on beleaguered U.K. retail sites.”
Check out this week’s Finance Special Report for much more on the area’s varied and growing investment scene.
Laguna Beach’s Jim Mazzo, global president of ophthalmic devices for Carl Zeiss Meditech, sent greetings from Rome late last month, where he was picking up the Lifetime Achievement award from the Italian Society of Ophthalmology, which bills itself as “among the most ancient and representative scientific associations in Europe,” and a reference point for the 7,000 ophthalmologists in that country.
Mazzo’s a big fan of Staar Surgical’s Caren Mason, chief executive of the $1.1 billion-valued implantable lens maker whose company recently moved headquarters to OC (see story, front page). Staar derives a large portion of its business from Asia, due to the region’s rising levels of myopia, or nearsightedness.
Mason and Mazzo (and numerous other eyecare execs) will be back in Newport Beach at the end of the month, when OCTANe holds its Ophthalmology Technology Summit at Fashion Island Hotel. Glaukos Chief Executive Tom Burns is the keynote speaker.
There are a few other upcoming local events with global reach.
The National Asian American Community Foundation is holding its inaugural Aspire Awards Gala on June 14 at the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall. It will “bring together some 300 guests, including some of California’s most prominent philanthropists and leaders from the corporate, nonprofit and entertainment industries,” such as Vizio’s William Wang and Charlie Zhang, founder of Pick Up Stix.
Among the gala’s five honorees is Brian Chuan, senior director of international and domestic markets at South Coast Plaza.
On July 11, the Japan America Society of Southern California will hold its 110th Anniversary Dinner and Gala Celebration at Angel Stadium.
The honorees are Angels slugger (and recovering pitcher) Shohei Ohtani and Marie Kondo, the ultimate cleanup hitter.
