Since Crisp Imaging last year won a Business Journal Family-Owned Business award for the large company category, it has increased sales by about 18% and has acquired three more companies, Crisp said.

It also hosted its 13th annual Super Bowl Party where about 500 people showed up at the American Legion Post in Newport Beach’s Balboa Peninsula to support Marines and veterans. He also turned 65 years old.

“Family is strong, business is good—we had a great first quarter,” Crisp told the Business Journal.

“We’re supporting the causes that are dear to us. The Super Bowl Party was fabulous.”

Crisp had a fast-rising career in large corporations before landing a job more than 20 years ago with recreational vehicle maker Fleetwood Enterprises. Within a year, that company went through a round of layoffs and Crisp was let go.

“I didn’t do so good with it. At the time, I wasn’t happy, but what a blessing that was,” Crisp said last year.

He and his wife, Julie, in 2001 started a printing company that became Crisp Imaging, which also employs their son Carter Crisp, a vice president in charge of marketing.

Crisp Imaging is known for printing a wide variety of products from reprographics to digital services. It survived increasing digitization by pivoting with the times, such as with its “Docu-Dock” that helps public entities like schools easily store online their architectural and other building plans.

Clients have included Rubios, Kaiser Permanent, USC Village, SoFi Stadium and Los Angeles International Airport. During the pandemic, Crisp Imaging pivoted by producing 15 million products such as directional signage labels that were placed on floors.

The company’s made 13 acquisitions over the past three years and is now at a run rate approaching $35 million. It’s aiming to make another five to 10 acquisitions in the next 18 months, so it can approach as $45 million run rate, Crisp said.

“We’ve made some big acquisitions at the end of last year, so we’re on a little bit of pause now,” Crisp said.

Gary and Julie Crisp own 70% of the company that now employs 200 at 25 locations. The company is aiming to continue its West Coast expansion into areas like Denver and New Mexico.

“We’re expanding everywhere in the West,” he said. “I’m doing it through the traditional banking ways, which takes longer than normal.”

The post Crisp Family: Optimistic About Future of Print Industry appeared first on Orange County Business Journal.

The nonprofit performing arts school, co-founded by local entrepreneur and philanthropist Charlie Zhang, is planning a new $40 million facility at Irvine’s Great Park.

The 85,000-square-foot facility would include education and practice spaces, rehearsal rooms, an auditorium, and offices, according to city filings. The building could also serve as the administrative home for several other local music- and art-related organizations, including the Pacific Symphony, Lyric Opera and Pacific Chorale.

The project would be a big step up in size for OCMD, which currently operates out of a 21,000-square-foot building elsewhere in the city, along Fitch Avenue. The nonprofit would sell that building to pay for a portion of the new facility and would fund the remainder of the project via a commercial construction loan secured by donation pledges, according to city filings.

Property records show Zhang paid $8.2 million in 2016 for the Fitch Avenue facility.

The City of Irvine late last month approved a plan that will move OCMD’s expansion plans forward, alongside another nearby $65 million facility at the former Marine Corps Air Station El Toro base that will serve as the new home for fellow nonprofit Pretend City.

“Moving to the Great Park is going to be an incredible gift to the community and to the kids we’re serving,” OCMD’s Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Douglas Freeman told the Business Journal.

Bigger Stage

Pick Up Stix founder Zhang and Freeman created OCMD to provide top quality musical arts education and training for children, regardless of their family’s ability to pay.

It currently serves close to 400 students. Most hail from Irvine, Costa Mesa, Tustin and Santa Ana.

Its existing, 21,000-square-foot facility opened in 2017, and includes practice rooms, classrooms and studio space for recording and dance. It also counts a 140-seat theater.

The new plans mark a major upsizing of the nonprofit’s ambition.

OCMD’s new building is to include 27 studios, 10 practice rooms and a sound stage.

Preparing students for professional conservatories and careers “requires a lot of space,” Freeman said. “The demand for the kind of instruction that we provide definitely exceeds capacity.”

Out of the 85,000 square feet, 15,000 square feet will be allotted for a 450-seat theater that OCMD plans to also make available to the community.

“We will have enough room for local schools to bring their kids or local ensembles, jazz groups and other groups that usually have no place to go,” Freeman said.

Student Boost

OCMD currently brings in around $2.5 million in revenue annually, according to tax filings. It is currently operating near its maximum capacity of students; the school saw attendance fall in the early stages of the pandemic, when it had to temporarily close and shift to online learning, but has since rebounded.

“We lost a few years, but we’re building up again,” Zhang told the Business Journal.

During a visit to the school’s current location in late 2022, Irvine City Manager Oliver Chi proposed the move to the Great Park, putting in motion the current plans, Zhang said.

“We wanted to take that opportunity to build a state-of-the-art facility for the next generation,” Zhang said.

Zhang, who now runs Laguna Niguel-based real estate investment firm Zion Enterprises after selling Pick Up Stix for $50 million in 2001, was inspired to start the community music school because while growing up in Shanghai, he played the clarinet and was offered a scholarship to a music academy in Los Angeles, which brought him to the U.S.

Boosting Visibility

“Most people don’t know we exist because we’re a young school,” Freeman said.

The relocation to the Great Park will boost its visibility, and its enrollment. The new space should be large enough to double the number of students OCMD can enroll, Freeman said.

Currently, about 40% of the school’s students are on financial aid, according to Freeman.

Those who can’t afford tuition, which averages from $50 to $100 per lesson, are supported by an endowed scholarship fund.

OCMD also offers programs geared toward military veterans, as well as seniors with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

Freeman said the school is starting to work to publicize its work to aid in raising the funds needed to cover the cost of development for the new building.

Pretend City’s New Home

Pretend City, a nonprofit that operates a children’s museum and provides early childhood development services, has its own expansion plans in the works at the Great Park.

It is planning a $65 million facility at an area of the city-owned park that’s called the Cultural Terrace, close to the forthcoming new home for Orange County Music & Dance.

The new development will include 20,000 square feet of indoor and 20,000 square feet of outdoor exhibit spaces, alongside offices, facilities, and a new restaurant, among other things.

Pretend City will also have rentable spaces for partner nonprofits in Orange County, such as inclusive preschool Beyond Blindness and mental health services organization Start Well.

“Pretend City is looking forward to bringing our early learning and child development programs to even more families, helping them ensure their children are growing up healthy and ready to succeed in school,” Executive Director Ellen Pais said in a statement.

The museum describes itself as “the world in a nutshell,” with 19 interactive exhibits in a kid-sized city including a post office, Trader Joe’s grocery store and a fire station.

With the added space, Pretend City will be able to create 14 new learning exhibits and serve up to four times more visiting school children annually, according to its website.

The post Nonprofit Art School Plots $40M Project at Irvine’s Great Park appeared first on Orange County Business Journal.

SA Recycling Chief Executive George Adams Jr. has another way to describe handling millions of tons of scrap metal bound for recycling each year: fun.

The company operates at more than 140 sites, ranging across the country from Georgia to California, with a major outpost on Terminal Island in the Port of Los Angeles.

“I began driving tow trucks when I was 17. Later, I started working alongside my father for 40 something years. My two brothers also work in the company and are my partners, and after all these years we’re still really close,” Adams told Recycling Magazine in an article published last month.

He added: “Then, my sons came into the business after they finished college. So, I guess that’s what makes it the most fun. It’s working with my sons.”

The Business Journal honored Adams almost a year ago at the Irvine Marriott with an Excellence in Entrepreneurship Award for leading the growth of Orange-based SA Recycling.

The privately held firm ranked No. 8 on the Business Journal’s fastest-growing OC large private companies last year, with revenue of $3.2 billion for the 12 months ended last June 30.

By sales, SA Recycling last year ranked No. 6 among all privately held companies in OC.

Electric Crane

Among the company’s innovations at Terminal Island is an electric-powered mobile crane that’s far more environmentally friendly than old-fashioned diesel models.

“This is definitely the finest scrap crane in the world,” Adams said at an event last summer, as he congratulated the port for its efforts to make the busy area “carbon-free.”
SA Recycling also uses electric vehicles there.

The Terminal Island plant shreds 500 to 600 cars each day, NPR member station KCRW said in a report last month.

“SA Recycling makes about $350 per car by selling the bits and pieces to companies in Asia: Korea, Vietnam, India,” according to KCRW. “China used to buy most of this material, but it’s not taking much anymore.”

1970s Start

George Adams Sr. in the 1970s started Anaheim-based scrap metal firm Orange County Steel Salvage, which eventually became SA Recycling.

The current CEO took over the company from his father in the mid-1980s.

As of last year, SA Recycling processed over 5 million tons of recycled metal every year with about 3,100 employees and 25 metal shredders companywide.

The company recycles both iron-based metals such as steel and non-ferrous metals including copper and aluminum.

The post George Adams Jr.: $3B+ in Sales, and Growing appeared first on Orange County Business Journal.

This week’s Business Journal list of Largest Charitable Gifts list highlights 82 donations valued at $1 million or more directed toward OC-based groups last year.

On a combined basis, those gifts totaled nearly $429 million, down 9% from the year prior.
In 2023, there were eight gifts of $10 million or more, and three of $50 million or more.

No. 1 Gift

Topping the list is Panda Express founders Peggy and Andrew Cherng, who emigrated from Burma, which nowadays is called Myanmar.

The couple’s Panda Charitable Family Foundation donated $100 million to the City of Hope Orange County, the largest-ever gift in the cancer hospital’s century-long history.

Funds from the gift will be directed both to City of Hope’s Duarte base and its expanding campus in Irvine.

The funding deal, announced in September, helped create the Cherng Family Center for Integrative Oncology at City of Hope, a program focused on providing holistic therapies for cancer patients.

“With this transformative gift we’re able to accelerate this program that we’ve established even faster,” Edward Kim, physician-in-chief of City of Hope Orange County, told the Business Journal.

The oncology program has plans to expand its clinical services outside of Orange County to its other campuses in Chicago, Atlanta and Phoenix, according to Richard Lee, the Cherng Family Director’s Chair for the center.

Lee said the partnership came about at the “right place and right time” as City of Hope begins to establish itself as a leader in integrative oncology.

He said the oncology program is conducting multiple clinical trials and received a more than $3 million grant from the National Cancer Institute to study the potential harms and benefits of cannabis use in myeloma patients.

Hoag Backers

Hospitals remained top of mind for many notable donors last year.

Hoag Hospital Foundation received the second-largest gift on the list, tied with the University of California, Irvine, for $50 million from longtime Newport Beach philanthropist Richard H. Pickup to establish the Richard H. Pickup Center for Brain Health.

“Hoag is making great strides in the understanding of brain health and Alzheimer’s disease,” Pickup, who has backed other Hoag initiatives over the years, said in a statement.

Top-Tier Education

Six of the 10 largest gifts went to universities in the area, including UCI and Chapman University.

For the third straight year, UCI led the donor list, receiving 17 donations of $1 million or more, totaling $114 million.

The school received $50 million from the Samueli Foundation to launch three new research institutes under the banner of “Engineering+” for the Henry Samueli School of Engineering.
“Susan and Henry Samueli’s generous gift will establish the Engineering+ research institutes, empowering multidisciplinary teams to address key global challenges in health, society and the environment,” Magnus Egerstedt, dean of the school of engineering, told the Business Journal.

The Samuelis’ donation will also help establish the Office of Inreach, which will be dedicated to supporting the well-being, academic success and career development of undergraduate students.

Chapman received the second greatest number of gifts in 2023: 14 for a total of $48 million, including a $10 million gift from Julie and George Argyros to elevate Chapman’s business school to the Argyros College of Business and Economics.

“The incredible generosity of our donors helps ensure that Chapman continues its momentum as a top-tier university committed to academic excellence,” Chapman President Daniele Struppa told the Business Journal.

Chapman has made significant headway in its Inspire fundraising campaign, which has a goal of raising $500 million by 2028. It has raised $368 million to date, according to the school’s top officials.

The post OC Colleges, Hospitals See Focus of 2023 Donations appeared first on Orange County Business Journal.

Mt. San Antonio, the state’s biggest community college, last spring opened a new 110,000 square-foot aquatics complex that includes a 59-meter competition pool, a 30-meter teaching/diving pool with movable bulkheads and seating for up to 5,000 spectators.

In addition to training, USA Water Polo will hold competitions at the college for both the men’s and women’s national team programs against many of the best teams in the world. Events such as the prestigious Masters National Championships and age group national selection camps, will also be held at Mt. San Antonio.

“Mt. San Antonio College is a longtime proponent of the Olympic movement and its new aquatics complex is consistent with that exceptional commitment to excellence – it is truly one of the finest aquatics centers in the world,” USA Water Polo Chief Executive Christopher Ramsey said in a statement.

Ramsey in December told the Business Journal that the men’s team may medal at this summer’s Olympics in Paris.

The city of Irvine has discussed building a $90 million water polo complex sometime after 2028.

The post USA Water Polo Inks Deal with Walnut College appeared first on Orange County Business Journal.

The Irvine-based master developer (NYSE: FPH), valued at $374 million as of last week, annually supports a host of nonprofits in education, healthcare, innovation and housing—all of which help a community thrive, officials said.

Local beneficiaries of Five Point Holdings’ charitable initiatives this year include the Irvine Public Schools Foundation (IPSF), Irvine-based housing- and hunger-focused nonprofit Families Forward, Newport Beach-based business accelerator Octane and cancer research and treatment network City of Hope Orange County, which has a permanent home at FivePoint’s Great Park Neighborhoods in Irvine.

Though FivePoint declined to disclose its total amount of charitable donations, its support for nonprofits goes beyond the checks it signs with volunteer work by not only employees but also residents of its Great Park Neighborhoods in Irvine, which this year marked the 10th year anniversary of its first community.

Over 6,000 families now call the Great Park Neighborhoods home.

“When City of Hope cures another cancer patient, or Families Forward helps families establish permanent housing, or IPSF offers greater access to music education and grants to expand innovative teaching programs, the community benefits as a whole and becomes even stronger,” FivePoint CEO Dan Hedigan told the Business Journal.

By contributing to local nonprofits, “we want to offer a proof of concept that Irvine is a great place to live and work, and that it is a place where you can pursue and accomplish your dreams.”

FivePoint is one of 79 businesses featured in this week’s Buisness Journal listing of Companies That Care.

Caring for Kids

Several organizations on FivePoint’s roster of trusted nonprofits are dedicated to helping underprivileged kids, such as IPSF.

FivePoint this year once again sponsored IPSF’s largest annual fundraising event, the Spirit of Excellence Gala. FivePoint has been supporting the gala for over a decade, officials said.

The money raised from the event, which brought in over $5 million this year, goes to developing art, music and science school programs for Irvine’s student population of 36,000 as well as funding scholarships for the city’s low-income students.

“When other companies see that FivePoint supports us, they follow,” IPSF CEO Neda Eaton told the Business Journal. “By being leaders in endorsing us, they’re helping us out in more ways than they can imagine.”

Feeding the Needy

FivePoint is also a regular sponsor of the Light Up the Night Gala by Families Forward, which provides meals and housing for families in need.

The nonprofit held its gala this year in August at Irvine’s Great Park, adjacent to FivePoint’s Great Park Neighborhoods community, which counts over 6,200 homes and upon build-out, should have over 10,000 homes.

Last month, executives from the company packed ingredients for Thanksgiving meals, which Families Forward sent to over 900 families struggling with food insecurity, according to officials.

This month, FivePoint employees are volunteering in Families Forward’s Holiday Wish List program, which doles out gifts to children in low-income families.

“Their generosity every year is continuing to grow,” Families Forward CEO Madelynn Hirneise said of FivePoint’s donations. “The volunteer support from FivePoint has really allowed us to increase the number of families we connect with.”

Families Forward last year served over 14,000 children and adults, up from 10,000 a few years ago.

Health and Hope

Residents of FivePoint’s communities have also volunteered their time to local organizations.

The company this year mobilized families of its Great Park Neighborhoods to recognize the nurses and staff helping cancer patients at City of Hope OC.

Participating residents, from parents to schoolchildren, wrote letters and created drawings thanking nurses for their work. The notes were pasted onto the cancer network’s “Hope” letters on its OC campus, which is adjacent to FivePoint’s headquarters.

Beyond those little gestures of gratitude, FivePoint has been a “good neighbor” ever since the healthcare network planted its roots in the area in 2018 through an invitation by FivePoint founder Emile Haddad, City of Hope CEO Annette Walker told the Business Journal.

Efforts include allowing City of Hope to use FivePoint’s parking lot for overflow and helping the healthcare network get entitlements for its upcoming cancer hospital at the Great Park Neighborhoods.

City of Hope opened its 190,000-square-foot Lennar Foundation Cancer Center at the Great Park Neighborhoods last year, and is scheduled to open the adjacent hospital by 2025.

Fueling Innovation

While many of FivePoint’s nonprofits focus on supporting those who need help now, the company also assists organizations that aim to foster a better future through entrepreneurship.

FivePoint has regularly provided event venues and financial support to the foundation for Octane, whose LaunchPad capital funding program has helped companies raise $4.3 billion in funding.

The company earlier this year sponsored Octane’s Tech Innovation Forum in May and its Medical Innovation Forum in October.

“Both our organizations have a shared goal of increasing innovation and assuring Orange County is seen as a global hub of innovation,” Octane CEO Bill Carpou told the Business Journal.

The post FivePoint Supports Irvine Public Schools, Low-Income Families & More appeared first on Orange County Business Journal.

Ingram Micro, one of the world’s largest wholesale distributors of technology products, had $50.8 billion in 2022 net sales, making it the largest private company based in OC by revenue by a wide margin.

The company is working with a half-dozen organizations “that are
focused on delivering smiles during the holidays,” including Meals on Wheels, the Thomas House Family Shelter Toy Drive and Festival of Children, according to Executive Vice President Scott Sherman.

“We’re just doing what we should be doing as a good corporate citizen here in Orange County,” according to Sherman, who heads human resources for Ingram Micro.

He notes the company—which employs nearly 850 in Orange County—follows the staff’s lead when it comes to determining causes. The list is long, and includes the United Way, Red Cross, the American Heart Association, Girls Inc. OC and social responsibility promoter OneOC.

“It’s not about simply writing a check,” Sherman told the Business Journal. “It’s about supporting an organization, getting involved, working with them and sometimes also writing a check.

“We really follow the lead of our employees, of our associates.”

Flourishing Business

Ingram Micro’s 2023 donations include $1,500 for the holiday event of Hands Together, a child development nonprofit in Santa Ana, as well as $20,000 for Red Cross disaster relief efforts.

Ingram Micro says it is “deeply committed to helping the Orange County community in which we live and work.”

“We are proud to support this commitment in a variety of ways—from our Corporate Giving Campaign to our Matching Gift Program and disaster relief support, we are passionate about giving back,” the company said. “We recognize that when our communities flourish, so does our business.”

Business, People

“We get a return on investment of what we invest in our community,” Sherman adds.
“The Ingram family that founded us was very community-minded. We’re happy to continue what they started decades ago.”

Sherman said the company highlights the “the good work done by our associates,” but doesn’t take a lot of victory laps for the company.

“We make mention of what we’re doing in the community, and we tell folks how they can get more involved and we hope they do,” Sherman says. He said that’s happening in many of the more than 60 countries where the company has operations around the world.

Ingram Micro recruits at local universities, and also works with the CEO Leadership Alliance Orange County to boost the area’s economic growth and prosperity.

Public Listing

The company has said it intends to return to a public listing though no date has been released.

About 15 months ago, Ingram Micro posted a two-paragraph statement saying it had filed a “confidential submission” with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a potential IPO.

Ingram Micro was previously a public company—it raised some $300 million in a 1996 IPO—but went private in late 2016 when it was acquired by China’s HNA Group for $6 billion. Ownership moved back to American hands in July 2021, when Tom Gores’ investment firm Platinum Equity of Los Angeles paid $7.2 billion for the company.

The post Employees Lead Giving Efforts at Ingram Micro appeared first on Orange County Business Journal.

“It was the first place where I saw high-rise buildings, which really impressed me as a child in the ’60s,” Harrah told the Business Journal.

Today, the CEO of Caribou Industries Inc. is working on multiple projects that will add to Santa Ana’s skyline and give back to the city that captured his heart as a kid.

Caribou, which has acquired, renovated and developed over 5 million square feet in Santa Ana and Hawaii, earlier this month received approval from the city of Santa Ana for a multifamily project that’s over four years in the making.

The company has spent some $5.6 million on building permits for the mixed-use development, dubbed 3rd and Broadway Promenade.

Construction for 3rd and Broadway Promenade is expected to begin second quarter next year, according to officials. The projected delivery date is third quarter of 2025.

A smaller, passion project in Santa Ana is also in the planning stages for Harrah.

That development, named El Niño, is a proposed training center for boxing and baile folklórico, a traditional style of dance that can be traced back to the indigenous people of Mexico.

The center will target low-income students, whose families may not be able to afford other more costly extracurricular, after-school programs.

Harrah plans to invest about $3 million into the facility; a clear timeline has not been set.

“This will keep local kids off the streets and steer them away from gangs and drugs,” Harrah said. “It’ll allow kids to broaden their horizon as to what they might want to be—it might change their idea of a future vocation.”

Caribou Industries, one of 79 companies featured in this week’s Companies That Care Special Report, this year donated $350,000 to organizations based in Orange County, a large sum of which went to educational programs. Harrah is a large supporter of the Orange County School of the Arts (OCSA) and Orange County Educational Arts Academy (OCEAA).

Incentivizing Good Grades

Harrah is currently on the hunt for El Niño’s home.

He’s hoping to purchase a building in Santa Ana that he can donate to the facility’s program managers, he said.

In plans, El Niño spans 15,000 square feet, with a mixed martial arts gym, weight room and dance studio.

Membership to the center’s youth programs will depend on the grades they get.

Students that score a B-plus and above on their report cards will be able to attend the program for free. Students with grades lower than a B-plus will have to pay a monthly membership fee of $25.

The lower a student’s grade, the more their membership will cost, with $75 being the most a member can pay monthly, according to Harrah.

“It’s my idea to encourage them to do well in school,” Harrah said. “Like, you need to eat your dinner before you can have dessert.”

Past School Projects

El Niño aims to be an expansion of Caribou Industries’ impact on education in Santa Ana.
Harrah previously designed, built and financed the campus for charter school OCSA, which was completed in 2000.

Caribou Industries also designed and built the campus for OCEAA, which enrolls students from kindergarten to eighth grade. That campus was completed in 2003.

Harrah has sat in on multiple classes at OCEAA, whose unique programs include two-way bilingual immersion.

The teaching method, which Harrah witnessed in person, combines native English and Spanish speakers in a class, so both groups of students can be first language models and second language learners for each other.

“It’s very cool to see first graders switch languages,” Harrah said. “It’s meant to enhance their learning skills.”

Other youth programs Harrah supports include the Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Orange Coast and KidWorks, which provides mentorship and leadership development programs for OC’s underprivileged youth.

Educational programming is just one area of Harrah’s whole philanthropic footprint, but it is a cause Harrah holds near and dear to his heart because “today’s youth are tomorrow’s future,” he said.

“I want to support all aspects of education, especially so I can help those who can’t afford it,” he added.

3rd and Broadway

Caribou Industries’ 3rd and Broadway Promenade is one of two multifamily projects the company has lined up for Santa Ana.

That development calls for a 16-story, 171-unit apartment building, a 75-room hotel and about 13,500 square feet of retail in downtown Santa Ana.

It’s also less than a mile away from Caribou Industries’ long-planned One Broadway Plaza, which is now proposing 468 apartment homes, 100,000 square feet of high-rise office and 50,000 square feet of amenities including restaurants, a theater and a heliport landing site.

Caribou Industries is currently in the midst of changing the project’s zoning from commercial to residential and hopes to break ground on the project in the next two years.

To him, the timing of both Santa Ana projects “couldn’t be more perfect,” he said in reference to the growing preference toward pedestrian-friendly spaces over automotive-dominant areas.

The area around 3rd and Broadway Promenade touts a walkability score of 97% and is in close proximity to the city’s new light rail system, according to officials.

“Driving cars, buying houses, mowing lawns and cleaning pools don’t seem to be what people want anymore,” Harrah said. “Our projects will usher in that new lifestyle.”

The post Caribou Industries Keeps Santa Ana Top of Mind appeared first on Orange County Business Journal.

One of its most recent projects was a five-week workplace internship where 14 students from underserved communities could learn about the architecture and design industry. Ware Malcomb’s design professionals taught the students basic principles of design and mentored them through their team project to design a studio house.

The students presented their projects at a “Design Pin Up” attended by Chairman Lawrence Armstrong and other office leaders.

The company said several students expressed a strong interest in pursuing a design industry career path and took the initiative to connect via LinkedIn.

The Career Exploration Experience (CEE) is a program of the CEO Leadership Alliance of Orange County. The program is designed to allow students to explore careers, develop technical skills, gain practical work experience, and refine their professional skills as they work in small teams to complete micro-projects. This was the second year Ware Malcomb has participated in the CEE program.

Companies That Care

Irvine-based Ware Malcomb ranked No. 2 on the Business Journal’s annual list of architectural firms, reporting $73.4 million in billings for the year ended June 30.

The company is one of 79 companies featured in the Business Journal’s annual listing of Companies That Care, the centerpiece of this week’s print edition.

The architectural firm since 1979 has offered scholarships and internships that provide expanded academic and career development opportunities to students based on need and talent.

It currently has a “WM Community” page that states, “We believe in giving back to our communities.”

It sponsors and participates in a wide variety of organizations such as the Ronald McDonald House and the Second Harvest Food Bank.

The company has raised more than $700,000 for the United Way in a firmwide annual giving campaign, more than $125,000 for the Boys and Girls Club through Pack to School fundraisers, and more than $100,000 for the Susan G. Komen Foundation, just to name a few.

Armstrong is vice chair of Orange County United Way.

“Orange County United Way has a long track record of getting things done that are important for our community because of the incredible team of committed individuals who work hard every day to actually get results,” Armstrong said.

The post Ware Malcomb Showcases Design Career Path appeared first on Orange County Business Journal.

“I saw it was a marvelous international museum,” he told the Business Journal.

“It fit my personality; it’s a mixture of Asian art, Pacific art, North American cultures. To me, it’s a multicultural museum.”

O’Harrow in August became the chief executive and president at the Santa Ana-based museum, which ranks No. 57 on the Business Journal’s annual list of nonprofits, with revenue up 29% to $9.3 million for the 12-month period ended June 30.

He replaced Peter Keller, who headed Bowers for 31 years before his unexpected death a year ago. Keller brought in over 50 critically acclaimed exhibitions such as Secrets of the Silk Road, Terra Cotta Warriors, and Mummies: Treasures from the British Museum.

Keller also forged partnerships with some of the greatest museums throughout the world, including the British Museum and the Palace Museums in Beijing and Taiwan.

“My predecessor, Peter Keller, did a remarkable job expanding the museum, not only physically, but also globally,” O’Harrow said.

The new CEO is looking to further that success as head of Bowers Museum, which he says is “famous for bringing the world to Orange County.”

“It’s a fully international museum that covers thousands of years of human existence.”

Human Existence

In the past decade, O’Harrow ran the Honolulu Museum of Art and the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City, which he compared to the Orange County Museum of Art in Costa Mesa.

Bowers is different than the OC Museum of Art, which he said focuses on contemporary art by living artists.

“Their role is to explore new frontiers and new ideas,” O’Harrow said. “Although we’re interested in new ideas, we’re also covering a lot more human existence with art and culture that goes back thousands of years.”

The 100,000-square-foot museum along Main Street, which annually attracts about 150,000 visitors, has eight permanent collection exhibitions with a particular focus on the art and culture of Asia and the Pacific.

In the coming spring, the museum is planning a show to highlight Asian Comics.

“It’s such an important art format,” he said, noting Orange County has several video game companies who hire artists.

“All museums want to appeal to broader and younger demographics. We hope this will be a big show for all ages.”

Executives Welcomed

O’Harrow’s goals as CEO include connecting more with the community and bolstering Bowers’ endowment, which is currently around $25 million.

In past years, its board of directors has attracted business heavyweights like real estate exec Ed Roski and First American Financial’s Parker Kennedy, whose family has been a longtime supporter of the museum.

It still packs weight with top level executives like finance committee chair Robert Rona, who was non-executive chairman of the Capital Group, the Los Angeles-based investment firm nowadays with $2.3 trillion in assets.

An honorary board member is Charlie Zhang, who founded the Pick Up Stix Chinese fast-food restaurant chain.

The museum’s board currently includes William H. Lyon, former CEO of William Lyon Homes; John Lee, who is on the board of directors at loanDepot Inc.; and Mary Tu, whose husband John Tu co-founded Kingston Technology Co., the second biggest privately held company based in Orange County when ranked by revenue.

The Mary and John Tu Foundation in August donated $1 million to Bowers to support the expansion and improvement of various education and exhibition programs, including a program to encourage creativity in the senior community.

The museum has a variety of its sections named after donors like the Dorothy and Donald Kennedy Wing, the Anderson-Hsu-Tu Gallery, and the Sharon D. Thompson Foyer.

“We’re always looking for business-minded people to partner with us,” O’Harrow said.
O’Harrow would like to showcase more of the museum’s 100,000 objects, particularly sub-Saharan Africa and Mesoamerica.

He’s aiming to update the older wing of the museum that features a historical Californian collection with artifacts from famous families who originally settled in California like the Picos, Yorbas and Selpulvedas.

“We are the cultural archive of Orange County,” O’Harrow said. “The community connects well with the museum.

“It’s very accessible and it’s very pretty.”

Bowers Highlights Iconic ‘The Great Wave’

The Bowers Museum is currently featuring what it calls “one of history’s most iconic prints”: Katsushika Hokusai’s “The Great Wave.”

It’s part of a collection of more than 100 paintings, woodblock prints and book illustrations from Hokusai, a Japanese artist who lived from 1760 to 1849.

He is considered by some to be the father of modern-day manga, a style of Japanese comic books and graphic novels aimed at adults as well as children.

The museum this year introduced three other exhibitions featuring bead art from women in South Africa, paintings and sculptures selected by the California Art Club, and most recently, a photography gallery compiled by Peter Fetterman.

“Beyond the Great Wave: Works by Hokusai from the British Museum,” is on display until Jan. 7.

“The Great Wave” is a woodblock print from Hokusai’s art series titled “Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji.” The piece on display at Bowers is one of the earliest preserved examples of the print Hokusai created in 1831 and hangs alongside multiple paintings and drawings from the artist’s 70-year career.

The exhibit marks the first time this specific print of “The Great Wave” has traveled to California.

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