Will Haddad Re-Up With Navy? Locals on Publicity Blitz

Expect to hear more from various sources around the state about the growing stature of Emile Haddad and Aliso Viejo-based FivePoint Holdings Inc. The Business Journal takes our customary lead on coverage of local luminaries with a front-page piece that outlines the company’s new structure and Haddad’s latest strategic pivot, which puts the outfit on course to take a buy-develop-hold tack with its commercial portfolio. And don’t expect the plan to stop with FivePoint’s current master-planned developments at its Great Park Neighborhoods in Irvine, or its others in the Santa Clarita Valley in northern L.A. County and in the Bay Area. The Insider hears Haddad could be back in touch with the U.S. Navy—which sold off the El Toro Marine Base as the basis of Great Park Neighborhoods—on a site for a future project … Jim Mazzo didn’t get three minutes on Good Morning America—and his absence likely helped the Kamra inlay from AcuFocus Inc. shine brightly in the national spotlight. It’s not that Mazzo, the device maker’s CEO, is unsuited for the small screen. But the piece stood out because all of the overwhelmingly positive reviews of the Kamra—which costs about $5,000 and is designed to treat the near-vision loss that comes on with age—were from patients and medical professionals. The GMA piece followed a similarly strong consumer review of Kamra in the Wall Street Journal … Martha Daniel, CEO of Information Management Resources Inc., is in for a double-dip of exposure herself. It will start with Daniel on a panel on cybersecurity during the May 17-18 run of the Technology Investor Forum at Hotel Irvine. The crowd will get bigger on May 19 when Daniel heads to AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, to deliver the keynote for Keeping the Promise 2016, a networking event hosted by the Disabled Veterans Business Alliance, which aims to provide “connections that become prospects, and advocacy that ensures veterans get the opportunities they deserve” … Lynae Chang of dietary supplement maker BOSCOGEN also is riding the publicity circuit these days. She recently traveled to Washington to pick up a Presidential E Star Award for excellence in exporting from Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker and is expected to be on hand for the Irvine Chamber of Commerce-sponsored Orange County World Trade Week, a breakfast and forum slated for May 17 at the Irvine Marriott … The Irvine Chamber tapped Kelly Vlahakis-Hanks as keynoter for the event, and she ought to be warmed up for the podium after her recent turn on stage as one of five honorees at the Business Journal’s recent Women in Business awards (see profiles, pages 1, 4, 6, 8, 11) … Our Rick Reiff got an A-List podium assignment as emcee of last week’s Mayor’s Celebration—the Art of Leadership at the Samueli Theater at the Segerstrom Center. Co-honoree Julia Argyros kidded that she got the ‘short straw” and so would have to do most of the talking for her and George, and proceeded to do a great job of it, praising Costa Mesa for its accomplishments in business and the arts, calling it “a big city inside of a small city.” The honors for the Argyroses highlighted CM’s “big city” ambitions, and the “small city” tribute to longtime resident, retired Orange Coast College prof, California water historian and former Mesa Water District board member Hank Panian was equally poignant.