Daily Business Report-Jan. 31, 2018
Adela de la Torre currently serves as vice chancellor, student affairs and campus diversity at UC Davis.
Adela de la Torre Becomes First
Woman President of San Diego State
The California State University Board of Trustees has appointed Adela de la Torre to serve as president of San Diego State University. De la Torre currently serves as vice chancellor, student affairs and campus diversity at the University of California, Davis.
De la Torre becomes the ninth permanent president of SDSU and the first woman to serve in that role. She will join the campus in late June 2018. Sally Roush is currently serving as university president and was appointed to serve in that role on an interim basis after former president Elliot Hirshman accepted the position of president at Stevenson University in Maryland.
De la Torre will join SDSU from UC Davis where she has served in various leadership roles culminating in her role as vice chancellor, student affairs and campus diversity. In that capacity she oversees a division that encompasses 28 departments and units that provide programs, services and facilities to foster academic success, student development and campus community.
De la Torre’s additional experience in higher education includes service as director of the Mexican American Studies and Research Center at the University of Arizona (1996-2002).
De la Torre is also familiar with the CSU, having served in the management fellows program at the CSU Office of the Chancellor (1995-96), as the chair of the Chicano/Latino studies department at Long Beach State University (LBSU) from 1991-95, and as a professor of health care administration (1988-96) also at LBSU. She earned a B.S. in political economy of natural resources and an M.S. and Ph.D. in agricultural and resource economics all from the University of California, Berkeley.
“SDSU boasts a robust and dynamic variety of academic offerings taught by world-class faculty as well as a commitment to serve a brilliant and diverse population of students. It is an incredibly prestigious university and a wonderful point of pride for San Diego,” said de la Torre. “I am excited to join the vibrant university community that exists both in San Diego and the Imperial Valley, and I look forward to meeting and working with faculty, staff, students, alumni and supporters to further the SDSU mission.”
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San Diego Tourism Authority Seeks
to Entice Visitors from China and Taiwan
San Diego Tourism Authority is partnering with marketing agency Brand USA to market San Diego as a top travel destination to China and Taiwan. Brand USA was established by Congress in 2010 to promote the U.S. to travelers from foreign countries.
A Brand USA production crew, including a Mandarin-speaking on-camera talent, will be in San Diego today and Thursday to capture some of San Diego’s most iconic destinations for a series of videos that will market San Diego as a destination to China and Taiwan.
San Diego locations highlighted in the series include Balboa Park, SeaWorld San Diego, Mission Bay, USS Midway Museum and Embracing Peace sculpture, Chicano Park, Liberty Public Market and more.
Partnering with Brand USA allows San Diego to benefit by expanding and extending the destination’s marketing reach into China and Taiwan. By reaching more potential international travelers, who stay longer and spend more in market than domestic travelers, tourism marketing efforts help drive the region’s economy and create local jobs, according to the Tourism Authority.
“In 2016, nearly 35 million visitors spent $10.4 billion dollars in San Diego,” said Joe Terzi, Tourism Authority president and CEO. “By working with Brand USA, we are partnering with an organization that has a proven track record of successfully marketing to international visitors, which is a key targeted growth area for San Diego tourism.”
According to a study released by Oxford Economics, over the past three years Brand USA’s marketing efforts have generated more than 3 million incremental international visitors to the United States, benefiting the U.S. economy with nearly $21 billion in total economic impact, which has supported, on average, 50,000 incremental jobs a year.
“The enthusiasm for learning about the USA abroad is as strong as it’s ever been,” said Tom Garzilli, chief marketing officer, Brand USA. “We have the strategy of talking about the iconic places and experiences that make the USA unique.”
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Airport Authority Signs Third-Party
Operator to Manage Innovation Lab
The San Diego County Regional Airport Authority has signed a third-party operator to manage the Innovation Lab, a space in the former Commuter Terminal at Lindbergh Field that gives startups a chance to break into the aviation industry.
The two-year agreement is with Detecon Innovation Institute, which was signed to refine and manage the Innovation Lab. The institute’s parent, Detecon Inc., is the management consulting practice of Deutsche Telekom, which owns T-Mobile.
“We want innovations that improve the overall airport experience,” said Rick Belliotti, the Airport Authority’s director for innovation and small business development. “Our sweet spot will be enhancing customer satisfaction, making the time travelers spend in the airport environment more enjoyable.”
The first innovation to come out of the Lab is At Your Gate, a mobile concessions ordering and delivery service. Passengers will be able to shop for food, beverage and retail items without leaving their gate. Their items will then be delivered right to the gate hold area.
“We will identify and recruit innovators through mix-up events, collaboration with venture capital firms and access to an array of start-up databases,” said Eric Dulkeith, senior executive with Detecon Innovation Institute. “Once we maximize the number of innovators coming to us, we will evaluate them and incubate the most promising.”
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Spring Valley Property Acquired
for Residential Development
CalAtlantic Homes, an Orange County-based homebuilder, has acquired the Sweetwater Village Shopping Center in Spring Valley for $5 million and plans to develop the land into a 93-unit single-family residential community.
The 82,458-square foot Sweetwater Village Shopping Center was constructed in 1980.The property is located at 2778-2782 Sweetwater Springs Blvd. Colliers International’s San Diego Land Team represented CalAtlantic Homes and the seller, the Lambden Family Trust.
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LPC West Acquires 2 San Diego County
Industrial Properties for $22.4 Million
LPC West has acquired two fully-leased San Diego County industrial properties, totaling more than 175,000 square feet, in off-market transactions for a combined $22.4 million.
The first, a 77,220-square-foot industrial distribution warehouse, is located at 5260 Anna Ave. in San Diego in the Morena District. LPC West purchased the property from Bixby SPE Finance 1 LLC for $11,482,908.
Since the time of sale, LPC West renovated the interior office space and the warehouse sprinkler system, along with adding a new exterior track roll-up door and loading dock. Cushman & Wakefield represented Bixby in the transaction, while LPC West represented itself.
“This centrally-located, coastal, infill sub-market services the ‘last-mile’ industrial fulfillment needs for many users, helping to make this property a great fit with our investment requirements,” said Brig Black, executive vice president – Southern California for LPC West.
The second property, a 105,537-square-foot R&D/industrial/regional headquarters building, is located in Eastlake Business Park at 860 Harold Ave. in Chula Vista. LPC West purchased the asset from Leviton Manufacturing for $10,913,000.
Over the next several months, LPC West will renovate the lobby and upgrade the parking lot, signage and exterior landscaping, including painting the entire exterior of the building. Cushman Wakefield represented Leviton Manufacturing and LPC West.
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Keel Laid for Future USNS Miguel Keith
A Keel laying ceremony was held Tuesday for the future USNS Miguel Keith (ESB 5) at the General Dynamics NASSCO shipyard in San Diego.
A keel laying is the formal recognition of the start of a ship’s construction. It is the joining together of a ship’s modular components and the authentication or etching of the ship sponsors initials into a ceremonial plate.
“A keel laying is the first major milestone in the construction of a new ship,” said Capt. Scot Searles, Strategic Sealift and Theater Sealift program manager. “The keel is the symbolic backbone of the ship. Over the next several months ESB 5 will begin to take shape and I look forward to seeing its progress as we continue constructing this versatile ship.”
ESBs are highly flexible, modular platforms that are optimized to support a variety of maritime based missions.
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Groundbreaking Parkinson’s Research at
LJ Institute Funded by Michael J. Fox Foundation
La Jolla Institute Professor Allesandro Sette has been awarded a $340,000 grant by the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research to follow up on an earlier study that provided the strongest evidence to date that autoimmunity plays a role in Parkinson’s disease.
Part of the new study, a collaborative effort that brings together immunologists, Parkinson’s clinicians and neuroscientists at the La Jolla Institute, UC San Diego, Rush University Medical Center and Columbia University Medical School, will focus on the in-depth characterization of T cells that recognize fragments of alpha-synuclein, a protein that accumulates in the brain cells of people with Parkinson’s disease.
“Our discovery raised the tantalizing possibility that the death of neurons in Parkinson’s could be prevented by novel therapies that dampen this unwanted immune response,” says Alessandro Sette, head of the Division of Vaccine Discovery. “Defining the T cell autoimmune feature of Parkinson’s could provide new directions in therapy, including their use as biomarkers that identify individuals who are at risk or in the early stages of the disease.”
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Personnel Announcements
Jack Shannon Joins Synteract
Jack Shannon has joined Synteract, an international contract research organization, as chief commercial officer. He joins the company from Chiltern, a Covance company, where he was vice president, global business development biopharma.
At Synteract, Shannon will oversee the global sales and marketing functions to drive growth in market share and the integrated commercial success of the organization.
Shannon brings 17 years of CRO and pharma/biotech industry experience in leading global sales and marketing teams. During his time in the industry, he has worked with clients ranging from small biotech to large pharma, providing solutions that address their specific needs. In his role at Chiltern, he was responsible for managing the global biopharma sales team in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. Prior to that, he spent seven years at PRA Health Sciences, as executive director, business development, managing key strategic partnerships and the inside sales team. He also held several senior roles in business development and proposals over a seven-year period with
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San Diego Community College
District to Celebrate Black History Month
From a celebration of jazz at San Diego City College to a screening of the Academy Award-winning film “Selma” at San Diego Miramar College, the San Diego Community College District will be celebrating Black History Month with an array of activities and exhibits throughout February.
The first will be the Rosa Parks Birthday Recognition & Luncheon 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. on Thursday. All are invited to walk from G-103 at the Humanities and Multicultural Studies Building to the bus stop at Mesa College Drive and Mesa College Circle in recognition of Rosa Parks and the many months of walking during the Montgomery bus boycott.
San Diego Mesa College, 7250 Mesa College Drive, 92111.
Click here for a listing of all other events during the month.
