SCP Plays Carnegie Hall; Vogel Steps Up; Kiani Answers Call

The Insider hears that the “Segerstrom family and South Coast Plaza” intend to build on ties to Carnegie Hall in New York and “other respected arts institutions” in coming months. The famed retail mecca in Costa Mesa joined BofA as a co-sponsor of last week’s gala celebrating the 125th anniversary of the famed performing arts venue in Manhattan. Look for word of a summertime event at South Coast Plaza as an example of more high-end symbiosis centered on the arts … Several branches of the Segerstrom family share an entry on this year’s OC 50—our annual inventory of the most influential members of the community of business here and subject of the special-section insert you’ll find within this issue. Stories related to this year’s influentials—which include a handful of newcomers—range from a page 1 overview of the list to the Style File that features perennial OC 50er Mildred García of Cal State-Fullerton on page 51 … Never too early to consider next year’s OC 50, especially after Raj Manufacturing Co-President Lisa Vogel earned future consideration with a sharp keynote at the Business Journal’s 22nd annual Women in Business Awards last week at Hotel Irvine (see related news item, page 4; profiles of this year’s honorees in next week’s print edition). Vogel gave the crowd of more than 800 plenty to think about—and provided a whole new perspective on her mother and Raj co-founder Marta Bhathal, who brought her daughter into this world ready to adapt to whatever life tossed her way … Bhathal’s story involved a green 1967 Mustang on a wild ride to Hoag. Another member of the OC 50 recently took flight in a private jet filled with top cancer specialists from around the country, landing in Washington for a meeting with Vice President Joe Biden. The Veep—who recently lost a son to the disease—is point person on President Barack Obama’s “moon shot” at a cure for cancer. Masimo Inc.’s Joe Kiani—who’s well-connected in the Democratic Party and getting better known all the time for his Patient Safety Movement—recently made the time and arrangements for the trip at Biden’s request … George Argyros is a member of the OC 50 who has a lot of pull with the GOP, but it will be a bipartisan affair when he and wife, Julia, receive a Lifetime Achievement Award during the Mayor’s Celebration—Art of Leadership during a dinner at the Segerstrom Center in Costa Mesa this week … The Argyroses remain as busy as any of their cohorts on the OC 50 lately. They managed to slip a $7 million donation to Hoag’s nursing program into the mix just after their entry on the list went to press … UC-Irvine Chancellor Howard Gillman gets his share of ink as a member of the OC 50, and the school he leads got plenty more, thanks a recent front-page piece in the Wall Street Journal with a headline of “China’s Flawed Schools Drive Students to U.S.” The story detailed how China’s burgeoning middle-class is “fed up with high-pressure tests and low standards” and looking abroad for their kids’ college educations. The first example: Fan Yue, the daughter of entrepreneurs who started a paintbrush factory in China and relented to her wishes to attend UCI after a scouting trip to the U.S. with her high school class left her impressed with “leafy campuses and a sense of academic freedom” here.