The hottest spot north of Havana last weekend was the area around Palm Springs, where well-wishers gathered at the La Quinta resort to celebrate a milestone birthday—the big 2-0—for noted philanthropist and arts patron Julia Argyros.
Notable attendees included Kelly and Jim Mazzo, Marta and Raj Bhathal, Bette and Wylie Aitken, Lynne and Jim Doti, and Argyros Foundation Executive Director Wendy Hales, as well as numerous Argyros family members and Business Journal publisher Richard Reisman, who notes the event’s entertainment included a performance from Barry Manilow, who made it down from Las Vegas.
Argyros got to celebrate the event thanks to a rare birthdate; she was born on leap day. Others with the same birthday include another woman with deep ties to the Palm Springs area, the late Dinah Shore, whose famed estate is about a 15-minute drive from the La Quinta resort.
I got to share a table with a notable fellow journalist at last Saturday’s sixth annual Napa in Newport wine auction: 23-year-old Hawken Miller, a recent USC grad and budding multimedia journalist who took center stage at the Monarch Beach Resort dinner event to discuss his experience battling Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
Hawken’s parents, Debra and Paul Miller, in 2003 established CureDuchenne, a Newport Beach charity whose mission to is extend and improve the lives of those affected by the fatal genetic disease that causes muscle degeneration in young boys.
The Napa in Newport event drew several hundred guests, dozens of participating Napa-area vintners, one Master Sommelier (local Michael Jordan) and food from Ocean & Main Chef Craig Strong.
The auction brought in more than $1 million; notable wine-related offerings included a trip to the members-only Napa Valley Reserve Winery, courtesy of Kelly Vlahakis-Hanks, head of Cypress-based Earth Friendly Products and a Reserve member.
Other attendees included Mechanics Bank CEO John DeCero, Lugano Diamonds’ Moti Ferder and Roth Capital’s Byron Roth, who has an IPO in the works (see story, this page).
Whittier Trust didn’t let coronavirus fears stop its annual forecast held March 5 at Newport Beach’s Pacific Club, notes our Peter J. Brennan.
On the day the Dow Jones dropped 3.6%, Whittier Chief Investment Officer Sandip Bhagat fearlessly told the audience that the investment firm doesn’t see a recession either this year or in 2021 because of “the remarkable strength” of the U.S. economy in recent months and the uneven potency of the virus across age groups and by distance away from its epicenter in China.
Fears about the virus will hopefully have subsided by April 29 when Greg Custer, Whittier’s top local executive, will be honored with a Man of Character award by the Boy Scouts of America’s Orange County Council. Both Custer and Brennan are Eagle Scouts.
