The event recognized outstanding professional women who have made significant contributions to their organizations, their professions and the Orange County community.

Their backgrounds and industries are varied—from the operations lead of Orange County’s top jeweler to one of Newport Beach’s top specialty hospital executives—but all remained resilient throughout the pandemic and have kept their respective firms in growth mode during the challenging economic environment that followed.

The Business Journal recently caught up with the five winners to see just how they’re managing this as their worlds have changed in the past year.

The next Women in Business Awards is scheduled for Oct. 5 at the Irvine Marriott.

Aimee Weisner, an independent board member for three public medical companies including Aliso Viejo-based device and drug maker Glaukos Corp. (NYSE: GKOS), is the keynote speaker.

28th Annual Women in Business Awards Winners (2022)

Allyson Brooks: Filling Gaps in Women’s Healthcare

Shirin Behzadi: The Company Helper

Jessica Word: Flow of Business Returning as COVID-19 Eases

Tammy Cooper: Technologent Eyes 2023 Sales Strength

Idit Ferder: Lugano’s Luxe Local Expansion

The post 2022 Women in Business Winners: Sustaining Success appeared first on Orange County Business Journal.

The multi-generation firm says it is a case study in living by those words. Founded by Ken Tait in 1964, the company once allowed a competitor to use its offices and equipment, for free, after a fire had destroyed its own headquarters.

Tait & Associates CEO Tom Tait, the former mayor of Anaheim, and Managing Director Trevor Tait, along with Chairman Emeritus Ken Tait, keynoted the Business Journal’s 24th annual Family-Owned Business Awards ceremony on May 31.

The family recounted Ken Tait’s journey from Montana to the Korean War, to discovering the first oil well in Libya in 1957, before ultimately making his way to Southern California to open a small civil engineering consulting firm that over the decades would grow exponentially­.

Nearly 400 attended the lunchtime event at the Irvine Marriott.

The event celebrates distinguished OC-based family-owned firms who have made noticeable community contributions and business accomplishments.

5 Honorees

This year’s five honorees, selected from over 40 nominees, were:

• Yorba Linda’s HomeQuest, one of the largest manufactured home retailers in the western U.S., in the Small Business category.
• Mountain View Services, a Newport Beach-based supplier of groceries, medical supplies, janitorial supplies, and other products to healthcare and other facilities, in the Medium Business category.
• Costa Mesa’s Crisp Imaging, which bills itself as the West Coast’s premier independent digital printing provider for construction and other industries, in the Large Business category.
• Restaurant operator Mutt’s, which counts a pair of Newport Beach locations, received the Up and Coming Award.
• The El Cholo Family of Restaurants, led by 2023 Business Journal Restaurateur of the Year Ron Salisbury, earned the Longevity Award.

The five winners will be profiled in the June 12 print edition of the Business Journal.

Upcoming
The Business Journal’s next event is the Innovator of the Year Awards on Sept. 7. The deadline to nominate individuals is June 14.
Kurt Busch, co-founder and CEO of Irvine-based semiconductor company firm Syntiant, will be the keynote speaker.

The post Family-Owned Businesses ­Honored appeared first on Orange County Business Journal.

Daniel Lubeck, managing director of Newport Beach private equity firm Solis Capital Partners LLC, was this year’s master of ceremonies at the event, which drew the largest crowd in its history.

The event was also the best-attended Business Journal Signature Event since the onset of the pandemic, and drew the biggest crowd for an event at the Irvine Marriott to date this year.

Notable CEOs attending the event included Masimo’s Joe Kiani, 5.11 Tactical’s Francisco Morales, Goodwill of Orange County’s Nicole Suydam, and Fox Racing’s Jeff McGuane, along with numerous leaders from the area’s collection of accounting, legal, and consulting industries.

5 Honorees

This year’s five honorees, selected from 75 nominees, were:

• Micah Young, of Irvine-based medical technology maker Masimo (Nasdaq: MASI), in the Public Company category;
• Mike Feher, of Irvine-based heart-focused device maker CathWorks, in the Private Company category;
• Elizabeth Jensen, of Santa Ana-based Goodwill of Orange County, which aids over 19,200 people annually to find employment, in the Not-for-Profit Organization category;
• Grant Reindl, of Santa Ana engineering service provider Salas O’Brien, in the Rising Star category; and
• Tammy Cooper, from the Irvine office of information technology solutions company, Technologent, earned the Lifetime Achievement Award.

The five award winners will be profiled in the May 22 print edition of the Business Journal.

Upcoming Events

The Business Journal’s next two events are the Family-Owned Business Awards on May 31 followed by the Innovator of the Year Awards on Sept. 7. The deadline to nominate individuals for the latter event is June 14.

Tait & Associates Inc.’s Tom Tait and Trevor Tait will deliver the keynote for the Family-Owned Business Awards.

Kurt Busch, co-founder and chief executive of Irvine semiconductor company Syntiant Corp., will be the keynote speaker at the Innovator of the Year Awards ceremony.

The post CFOs Honored at Annual Business Journal Awards appeared first on Orange County Business Journal.

“Failure is a part of life,” Jones told the audience of the 22nd annual Business Journal’s Excellence in Entrepreneurship Awards on March 9. “The most important thing is to learn from your mistakes, let it galvanize you to get back to work, and never give up.”

Jones, who built Allied Universal from a $12 million security firm into the world’s seventh-largest employer with 800,000 people and a run rate of $20 billion, got his entrepreneurial start at the age of 7 with a shoe-shining business that failed to gain traction.
His advice to aspiring entrepreneurs?

“Go build your own shoeshine stand and do the hard work.”

Jones was the keynote speaker at the Business Journal event at the Irvine Marriott, which drew a crowd topping 300 people.

5 Honorees

The event’s five honorees, selected from more than 100 nominees, were:
– William Shopoff, chief executive and president of Irvine’s Shopoff Realty Investments.
– Shannon Eusey, chief executive of Newport Beach-based Beacon Pointe Advisors.
– George Adams, president of Orange-based SA Recycling.
– Alex Bhathal, founder of Newport Beach’s Raj Capital and Revitate.
– Francisco Morales, chief executive and co-founder of Costa Mesa’s 5.11 Tactical.

The award winners will be profiled in the March 20 print edition of the Business Journal.

Upcoming Events

The Business Journal’s next two events are the CFO of the Year Awards on May 11 followed by the Family-Owned Business Awards on May 31. The deadline to nominate individuals for the latter event is March 15.

Dan Lubeck, managing director of Solis Capital Partners LLC, is the CFO awards event’s master of ceremonies.

Tait & Associates Inc.’s Tom Tait and Trevor Tait will deliver the keynote for the Family-Owned Business Awards.

The post Entrepreneurs Honored at Business Journal Awards Ceremony appeared first on Orange County Business Journal.

Perks
Making the list carries many fringe benefits. Your company will be part of a select group of employers recognized for their treatment, recruitment and retention of employees. The list should be a source of pride for employers that can help with employee morale and recruiting.
Making the list also brings good exposure to clients, customers, bankers, vendors and peers.
We’re considering just about all types of employers in the county: locally based companies, subsidiaries of companies based elsewhere, professional services firms, banks, government agencies, nonprofit organizations, hospitals and universities.

Requirements
Employers must have at least 15 part- and full-time OC employees and have been in business for at least a year.
They will be ranked by category: small, 15 to 49 U.S. employees; midsize, 50 to 249; and large, 250 or more.
Visit www.bestplacestoworkorangecounty.com for details about our list and information on how to enter your company in the ranking.
There’s no cost to enter. There is a nominal fee for any company that opts to use paper-based surveys instead of electronic surveys.
Employers are given two surveys as part of the assessment process.
The employer assessment requires information about organizational policies, practices, benefits and demographics, and is filled out by management.
The employee survey questions employees about their work experience and engagement.
Employers will be asked to provide email contact information for employees. All gathered information is confidential and won’t be released to any third parties.
The Business Journal’s list will include only basic employment and benefits information about employers. Our stories on the employers will be general profiles.
Specific comments and other details from the employee surveys won’t be made public. Employers that go through the process but don’t make the list of winners won’t be cited in any way.

Workforce Research Group
The Business Journal is working with Houston-based Workforce Research Group on the development of our list.
Peter Burke, founder of Workforce Research, has nearly 20 years of experience managing this program for other business publications and magazines across the country, and has a track record that meets the standards of the Business Journal.
Survey results, if desired, are available for purchase from Workforce Research Group.
We’ll solicit employers to be surveyed through March 3, and employers and employees will be queried in the following weeks.
A timeline with all of the 2023 Best Places deadlines is available at www.bestplacestoworkorangecounty.com.

Contacts
For more information, contact Dana Truong by email at truong@ocbj.com.
You also can get more details from Abigail Akers of Workforce Research Group at (281) 602-5004 or aakers@workforcerg.com.

The post Wanted: Best Places to Work for OCBJ’s 2023 List appeared first on Orange County Business Journal.

Arnie Pinkston, GC for Irvine’s Edwards Lifesciences Corp. (NYSE: EW) and a 2017 GC award winner, keynoted the event, which recognizes the significant role in-house counsels play in the success of businesses within the community.

Below is a selection of photos from the evening event, and a pre-event gathering for nominees, sponsors, and prior event winners.

The post Business Journal GC Event Draws Crowd of 400 appeared first on Orange County Business Journal.

Arnie Pinkston, corporate vice president and general counsel at Irvine’s Edwards Lifesciences Corp. (NYSE: EW), delivered the keynote address.

Pinkston, a 2017 award winner, previously served as GC at Allergan, where he successfully helped the company stymie a hostile takeover bid.
This year’s five honorees are:

• Franco Tenerelli, chief legal officer at Newport Beach homebuilder Landsea Homes Corp. (Nasdaq: LSEA), in the Public Company category.

• Jon Howell, general counsel of Irvine-based Hyperice, in the Private Company category.

• Njeri Mutura, assistant general counsel of strategic pursuits and complex technology transactions for Microsoft Corp., in the Specialty Counsel category.

• Linda Park, corporate secretary, SVP, and associate general counsel at Edwards Lifesciences, won the Rising Star Award.

• Alteryx Inc. (NYSE: AYX) won the In-House Legal Team Award.
For more on the winners, see the Nov. 21 print edition of the Business Journal.

The post Business Journal Honors Local General Counsels appeared first on Orange County Business Journal.

If so, please let us know.

The Orange County Business Journal is currently taking nominations for the 2022 Companies that Care Awards.

It’s the third edition of our Companies that Care Awards; the Special Report highlights businesses, both OC-based and those with significant operations here, that have gone above and beyond to tackle a variety of challenging and pressing community issues.

Screened nominees will be featured on a list in the Special Report to be published on Dec. 19, 2022. In addition, the Special Report will include profiles of five standout companies selected by the Business Journal’s editorial team for their notable achievements in the prior year.

Nomination

In the nomination process, companies are asked to report company dollars donated in Orange County, as well as in-kind donations.

There is a free response section asking for detailed philanthropic efforts and accomplishments of the company.

Nominations can be made by the companies themselves, or by an organization that has benefitted from a company’s giving. The deadline to submit is Nov. 22, 2022.

Website, Contact

The online form to submit for consideration is at www.ocbj.com/2022-companies-that-care.

For more information, contact Director of Advertising & Marketing, Sumer Bowles at sbowles@ocbj.com.

The post Caring Companies Wanted For 3rd Annual Awards, List appeared first on Orange County Business Journal.

The nonprofit was able to maintain its community-based programs by going virtual, but its school platforms were more directly impacted.

Chief Executive Sloane Keane pointed to reports of learning loss, mental crises and negative behavior because of the lack of support.

“The youth we have not been able to serve are crying out,” Keane told the Business Journal.

This year, the organization has been granted access to 45 elementary campuses across 21 districts, marking a much-needed return.

Facilitated by BB&BS staff, the after-school programs are back on-site once a week for elementary students to be tutored by fellow high school students.

The goal is to be back to pre-COVID numbers by December, approaching 1,400 matches. Almost 75% of the nonprofit’s site-based matches should be filled by the end of 2022 which would be a 10% increase in matches from 2020, according to Keane.

The organization has also continued its post-18 program for graduating mentors transitioning from minor to adult, focused on upward mobility.

“We have a responsibility to invest in the future,” Keane said.

By January of next year, BB&BS of OC will have 100 employees across its two offices, a 25% increase from the prior two years.

Keane is now looking to volunteers to help meet community needs post-COVID.

More than 100 youth are awaiting a mentor in OC and the Inland Empire, according to the nonprofit. On July 1, BB&BS began its “100 mentors in 100 days” campaign which now has about 250 inquiries and over 50 new volunteers.

“We cannot do this without people raising their hand and people investing in their community,” Keane said.

The Business Journal annually honors five women business leaders from diverse industries at the Women in Business Awards. The 27th annual awards will take place on Thursday, Oct. 20 at the Irvine Marriott. For more info, visit: https://www.ocbj.com/events/2022-women-in-business-awards/ 

The post OC Women in Business: Sloane Keane appeared first on Orange County Business Journal.

The Irvine-based marketing organization (Nasdaq: ADV), which is Orange County’s largest and most valuable marketing firm, has deployed a new recruiting software that has accelerated its hiring speed by 50%, according to Advantage officials. The company is also investing in wages to improve its retention rate as wage inflation remains at historically high levels.

“Our success continues to hinge on our talent, and at Advantage, we are talent first,” Griffin, who was promoted to CEO earlier this year, told analysts on an earnings call.

“It’s really important that we’re constantly a place where we can attract and retain the very best talent to come and innovate and grow,” she told the Business Journal last November, after being honored at the Business Journal’s 2021 Women in Business Awards.

Services at Advantage range from helping companies such as Unilever and McCormick & Co. on their individual product sales, to working directly with giant retailers like Walmart and Kroger on their own sales and marketing strategies.

The company, which went public in 2020, reported a 15% year-over-year increase in second-quarter revenue to $981 million. The growth was primarily driven by its marketing and sales segments, which saw gains of 31% and 8% from the year prior, respectively.

Griffin, who has worked at Advantage since 2008, was promoted from chief commercial officer and president to CEO in April this year. She succeeded Tanya Domier, who assumed the role of executive chair after running the company for nine years.

Griffin “has many special qualities that will help her succeed as our next CEO,” Domier said in a letter to Advantage employees.

“Not only is she extraordinarily intelligent with great energy and passion for the business, she is a deeply strategic thinker with great vision for the future and a respected leader who lives and embodies core Advantage values.”

The Business Journal annually honors five women business leaders from diverse industries at the Women in Business Awards. The 27th annual awards will take place on Thursday, Oct. 20 at the Irvine Marriott. For more info, visit: https://www.ocbj.com/events/2022-women-in-business-awards/ 

The post OC Women in Business: Jill Griffin appeared first on Orange County Business Journal.