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from OCBJ.com - Orange County Business Journal
OC Insider, January 30, 2012
Make Way for CSU Long Beach; Farewell Column
Cal State Fullerton leads all big universities with 88,000 alums living or working in Orange County. Who’s second? Not UCI with 42,000, USC with 35,000, or UCLA with 30,000. It’s L.A. County neighbor Cal State Long Beach, 68,000 alums strong. Nearly 900 of them work at Boeing, more than 200 at Disney and more than 100 at Hoag. “We are OC’s other major university,” says CSULB Prez King Alexander, who collected the figures as part of a marketing and fundraising outreach being aimed at alumni and businesses. Long Beach’s alums include Jim Mazzo (Abbott Medical Optics), Ray Wirta (Irvine Company), Cynthia Graff (Lindora), Masoud Moshayedi (Simple Tech), Tim Ryan (Honda Center), David Stone (Western National Group), county DA Tony Rackauckas, Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, former Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle and PBS SoCal’s Ed Arnold. Alexander says he hopes Angels pitcher Jered Weaver returns someday to complete his degree, too. And look out, Chapman U: Alexander says Chapman benefactor Julia Argyros not only was a Long Beach cheerleader, “she and George met at one of our football games” (back when the 49ers played football) …
Alexander was on the search committee that interviewed candidates to succeed longtime Cal State Fullerton Prez Milton Gordon. He praises last week’s selection of Mildred Garcia, but the competitive Alexander kids that he’d like to see the new head Titan “deemphasize baseball” …
Alexander, an expert in higher education finance, joined eight other college presidents at a recent White House meeting with President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan; Obama referenced their recommendations on tuition affordability in last week’s State of the Union …
Lawyer Wylie and Bette Aitken and developer Jeff and Nancy Stack are hosting breakfast with Obama Feb. 16 at the Stacks’ Corona del Mar home, part of a Southland fundraising swing for the president …
Rick Evanich is out as managing director of the Island Hotel in Newport Center; Pelican Hill resident manager Donald Stamets is in as new GM …
In the coming weeks Wahoo’s Fish Taco will open locations at Old Towne Orange, UC Santa Barbara, U of Nebraska and—start spreading the news—Park Avenue in New York City. By year’s end the Santa Ana-based chain expects to have raised its store count to 70 in six states. “People still want a piece of the Southern California lifestyle,” says owner Wing Lam …
EE RR signs off: It’s been a great run, but after 15 years as the OC Insider, I’ve made a difficult decision to give up the column so that I can devote more time to my expanded TV show, SoCal Insider with Rick Reiff. My talented colleague Jerry Sullivan will take over this space next week. I’ll remain the OCBJ’s executive editor and a conduit for Insider items. To the column’s subjects, sources and you dear readers, thanks for joining me on the ride. Let’s keep in touch.
Rick Reiff
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