On April 13, Lisa Bhathal Merage was in the war room of the Portland Fire, as the expansion WNBA franchise her Raj Sports owns took part in the league’s annual draft, choosing Spain’s Iyana Martín Carrión with the seventh pick.
Two days later, Merage was at Ocean 48 in Newport Center, at a dinner honoring her and the other winners of the Business Journal’s March 26 Excellence in Entrepreneurship (EiE) Awards.
The attendees counted several local food heavyweights, including Pick Up Stix founder Charlie Zhang, the keynote speaker of the EiE event, and a 2025 award winner. Guests also included EiE winners Ivy Ha and Viet Nguyen of Kei Concepts, who were honored last month as our Restaurateurs of the Year.
Also on hand: EiE winners Kavous Gitibin of Go Rentals, Kurt Busch of Syntiant Corp and Vinnie Curcie of OC Solar, along with Ocean 48’s Oliver Badgio and Business Journal Publisher Richard Reisman.
Merage, whose Newport Beach-based firm also owns the Portland Thorns women’s soccer team, is putting down roots in that city, recently buying a condo at Portland’s Ritz-Carlton tower.
Syntiant’s Busch counted the longest business trips among the EiE winners, with the semiconductor and AI computing company’s manufacturing operations spread across several locations in Asia, requiring frequent overseas trips.
The firm, founded in 2017 and expected to go public in the next year or two, opened a new manufacturing and R&D campus in Malaysia this January that supports 800 workers.
Pimco’s close ties to Washington, D.C., appear set to continue.
President Donald Trump this month nominated Erin Browne to serve as the Treasury Department’s under secretary for international affairs, a role that includes overseeing U.S. economic policy on the G7 and G20, as well as international finance, debt, trade and relations with the World Bank and IMF.
Browne currently is a managing director and portfolio manager in the Newport Beach office of the bond giant, “leading asset allocation strategies, including Pimco’s multi-asset funds and RealPath Blend target date offering,” the company says.
She joined the firm in 2018. Over the past seven years, her RealPath Blend mutual funds “rank, on average, in the top half of their peer groups and rank even better on a risk-adjusted basis,” according to a Morningstar analysis last month.
Pimco said in an internal memo that Browne would remain “fully engaged and collaborating both with clients and colleagues until (the Senate confirmation) process is complete.”
CEO Manny Roman and Chief Investment Officer Daniel Ivascyn said in a note to staff that they were “honored that this continues Pimco’s proud record of seeing our colleagues selected to serve in key roles in public office.”
Ben Bernanke, former chair of the Federal Reserve, retired from his role on Pimco’s Global Advisory Board (GAB) last year after a 10-year run. He was replaced on the GAB by Janet Yellen, the former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and Fed Chair. Gordon Brown, the former U.K. prime minister, now chairs the GAB.
