Charlie Zhang serves as the treasurer of the Richard Nixon Foundation’s board, which oversees the Yorba Linda library and museum dedicated to the 37th president.
It’s less a political statement than it is “an act of gratitude,” said Zhang, whose family lived in Shanghai. He was taken away as a boy to work in the fields of rural China, as part of the re-education campaign imposed by the State. He wouldn’t have made it here, at age 24, if not for Nixon’s 1972 visit to China, which opened diplomatic ties between the two countries.
“No Nixon, no Charlie,” said Zhang during his keynote speech at the Business Journal’s March 26 Excellence in Entrepreneurship Awards; see this week’s edition for profiles on the latest collection of winners.
Other foundation board members with similar stories include billionaire Ming Hsieh, founder of Fulgent Therapeutics and a prominent USC backer.
“When we came here, we saw how you could build your own life, a better life, if you really worked hard and studied hard,” Hsieh told USC a few years ago.
Zhang, the founder of fast-food chain Pick Up Stix and now the head of Laguna Hills-based investor Zion Enterprises, also credits OC for his success.
“Orange County gave me a chance,” said Zhang, whose first restaurant, Shanghai Charlie’s, opened in San Juan Capistrano in 1984. “People were kind when they didn’t have to be.”
Amar Santana, OC’s best-known chef for the better part of a decade, gets an overdue recognition as our Chef of the Year in this week’s edition; see Christopher Trela’s front-pagthe great tax benefits with the build of Golden 1 Center, we saw firsthand the social impact it created,” Merage said.
Revitate’s first fund was called Revoz and was started with capital from friends and family.
Eight years later, Revitate has seven different funds and has made more than $2 billion in investments across over 25 assets.
Merage said that with every investment, the firm tracks the social impact that it creates before, during and after construction, which she oversees as chief impact officerand food centers have since recovered from 2020; SCP’s Collage, anchored by family favorite Paradise Dynasty, does brisk business in the Bloomingdale’s wing of the mall.
Santa Ana’s MainPlace Mall is looking to add its name to the mix; the mall’s owner is eyeing a new, 17,000-square-foot Culinary District at the center, now seeing a bevy of residential development on its grounds. See Joseph Pimentel’s front-page story for more.
The St. Regis is doubling down on resort properties with OC ties.
The luxe hotel division of Marriott International last month announced plans to bring the top resort on northwest Maui, the former Montage Kapalua Bay, into its portfolio next year.
The 25-acre property is owned by KWC Management; Irvine’s Montage Hotel & Resorts previously sold its stake in the property. Irvine’s White Label Asset Management remains involved in the resort and is helping with the repositioning of the resort.
Closer to home, The Resort at Pelican Hill is in the midst of a major overhaul, in preparation of the 332-key Newport Coast hotel becoming a St. Regis property next year.
