Ommid Bavarian
Lotus Innovations
Irvine
It is an exciting time to be a CFO in Orange County, particularly as the county continues to lead Southern California in economic growth and employment. I am particularly excited to continue investing in high technology here. Orange County is a business-friendly community with a highly skilled and educated workforce, making it a fertile environment for technology and services-focused private equity investment. Lotus invests in small and midsize networking and telecommunications services and software companies in the county and across the U.S., including partners and service providers supporting IBM, AT&T, Sprint, Google and other major technology firms.
While economic growth and employment in the county have largely recovered from the effects of the financial crisis, accessing growth capital often continues to be difficult for small and midsize companies. Banks continue to be reluctant to lend to smaller businesses, which creates opportunities for private equity investors to help companies grow. Lotus is fortunate to have strong relationships with its investors and lending partners, which enable us to capitalize on growth investment opportunities in promising businesses. The CFO plays a critical role in managing these relationships and ensuring robust, open communication.
In addition, the tax and regulatory environment poses challenges for California businesses, and responsibility for navigating those challenges often falls to the CFO.
Another critical need for smaller companies that has become more apparent over the past several years is the implementation and realtime monitoring of cash-based metrics, such as working capital and free cash flow. While the accuracy of cash flow measurement and forecasting has always been fundamental, it has grown in relative importance in recent years as we continue to operate in an environment with limited margin for error.
The great news is that investors have capital to invest and are aggressively looking for opportunities to diversify their investments and generate higher risk-adjusted returns. This creates great opportunities for Lotus Innovations. My role is to assist our companies by guiding and improving their budgeting and forecasting processes, helping to manage their free cash flow and working capital, and implementing robust financial management and accounting processes and procedures. The shared services model that Lotus has built to support its portfolio companies provides an ideal culture to enable me to have a positive and lasting impact on the success of our businesses and returns for our investors.
Steven L. Brake
Del Taco
Lake Forest
This year we are focused on continuing to drive strong same-store sales through our successful brand repositioning, which highlights Del Taco’s use of fresh ingredients in every restaurant’s working kitchen, such as cheddar cheese hand-grated from a 40 pound block, beans that are slow cooked for three hours, and freshly grilled chicken and steak. This allows us to expand our premium menu items, such as Handcrafted Ensaladas and fresh-grilled Carne Asada Steak, while we also reinforce our compelling value proposition led by our Buck & Under menu, which currently features 16 items.
This unique barbell strategy gives us the ability to shift our focus between premium menu innovation and driving traditional quick-service restaurant visits with our variety and value, with the added convenience of a drive-thru. While we continue to balance our unique value proposition in an environment with continued wage pressure, Del Taco’s brand positioning and menu strategy is strongly resonating with consumers, which allows us to continue to drive sales and profit performance without being solely reliant on menu price increases.
Peter Hovenier
Boingo
Anaheim
The biggest opportunity this year is the continued growth of the wireless telecommunication infrastructure market. At Boingo, we’re uniquely positioned to capture an outsized share of the explosion of mobile data usage and broader network densification trends.
Our biggest challenge is our recruitment efforts. Orange County and the Los Angeles metro area are teeming with highly qualified candidates. It’s a competitive technology market, so continuing to find and retain top-tier talent is a big focus for Boingo this year.
Greg Krause
Orange County’s Credit Union
Anaheim
The first few months of this year have shown record mortgage volume at Orange County’s Credit Union, but the continued possibility of rising interest rates could negatively impact loan demand, especially in Orange County, where affordability is a concern for homebuyers. Likewise, financial institutions can continue to expect pressures on margins if rates rise as predicted. That is why it is critical for institutions to have multiple sources of revenue to provide stability during various economic cycles.
This election year, the expectation is increased market volatility in both the stock and bond markets.
Recognizing that in today’s world there will always be information security risks, we place the highest priority on protecting our customer data. The key is having multiple layers of systems to reduce data vulnerability; strong collaboration with law enforcement and government agencies; and plans that narrow the gap between occurrence and action.
Laurie Peterson
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Orange County and the Inland Empire
Santa Ana
This year, Big Brothers Big Sisters has embarked on a strategic plan to grow more than 30% over the next three years, aiming to provide 4,000 children with one-to-one mentoring relationships by 2019.
This does not come without its challenges, as we need to be able to grow with scale in terms of staffing a professional team to recruit high-quality volunteers and support our matches. Additionally, a challenge lies in trying to educate the public about costs associated with the services we provide. There is a common misconception about social-impact organizations—people believe that because we rely heavily on volunteers that it means there’s no need for an operating budget. As the need for additional funding grows with each new child we serve, it becomes even more critical for us to explain what it takes financially to support a match, as well as the return on investment it will have for society.
Bryan Sullivan
loanDepot
Foothill Ranch
In a year filled with an unknown direction for interest rates, and a global economy yet to find its bearings, it’s important to position ourselves so we can take advantage of the opportunities the market provides to us—no matter how long or short the windows might be.
Financial data and the use of technology are making it easier for consumers to bank, pay bills and now get financing, something we are doing at loanDepot. However, with technology and data, the responsibility for safeguarding information becomes an even more important part of our business and operations.
Scott Ullem
Edwards Lifesciences
Irvine
There’s no shortage of macroeconomic and business uncertainties this year. We have an active enterprise risk management process in place to address major risks and to be prepared with contingency plans.
While many things in 2016 are uncertain, we are staying focused on executing our strategic plan, which is centered around changing the way medicine is practiced to benefit patients.
