Daily Business Report-April 11, 2018
Political scientist Barbara F. Walter (Photo Credit: Erik Jepsen/ UC San Diego Publications and Creative Services)
UC San Diego Professor Takes Home Grand
Prize for Engaging Analysis of News and Events
By Christine Clark
The misuse of Facebook data by Cambridge Analytica, the politicization of U.S. intelligence agencies, and the civil wars crises plaguing regions in the Middle East, Africa and beyond are just a few of the topics tackled in Political Violence @ a Glance. The blog was launched by Barbara F. Walter, political science professor at the University of California San Diego’s School of Global Policy and Strategy.
Walter, and the blog’s co-founders, were recently honored by the Online Achievement in International Studies Awards (also known as “the Duckies”). This is the second time the blog was awarded for its thoughtful application of news events and relevance to ongoing scholarly and policy debates in international relations.
“This blog is a way for me to remain deeply connected to what is going on in the wider world and to bring the knowledge that we create at UC San Diego to pressing policy problems,” Walter, an expert on security, civil wars and rebel groups, said. “I’m always amazed at how many people read the blog and how important it has become in D.C. circles.”
The blog was first honored in 2015 and in recent years, the grand prize went to the Washington Post’s Monkey Cage, which Walter frequently contributes to as well.
Walter’s expertise has been sought by the U.S. State Department, the Central Intelligence Agency, the United Nations, foreign governments and more. She recently briefed the U.S. Senate on the prospects for peace in Syria in February and has appeared on CNN numerous times.
“Professor Walter’s distinguished career exemplifies the impact faculty and research at the School of Global Policy and Strategy have on global conflict and cooperation,” said Peter Cowhey, the school’s Dean, and Qualcomm Endowed Chair in Communications and Technology Policy. “Her rigorous scholarship on civil wars, extremism and terrorism continues to shed valuable light on the world’s conflicts.”
Founded by Walter and Erica Chenoweth of the University of Denver in 2012, the blog consistently produces expert analysis of problems related to violence and protest in the world’s conflict zones.
Notable entries from Walter include “Why Civil Wars have Gotten Longer, Bloodier, and More Numerous,” which details how the Internet’s spawn of global, instantaneous communication has transformed and elongated the ways civil wars are fought.
“The Internet has created incentives for warring factions to frame their struggle in global terms in order to attract the widest audience of supporters,” she writes. “This creates greater opportunities for outside states to become involved in the war to try to influence the outcome.”
She added, “The current civil wars in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Libya, Chad, Nigeria, Somalia and the Central African Republic (to name a few) are exhibiting all of the characteristics of internet-era conflicts. All of these wars broke out post-2003. All of them are being fought by multiple armed factions. All are distinctive for their brutality toward civilians.”
Though Walter largely focusses on civil wars In Political Violence @ at a Glance, her and other contributors often delve into other subject areas to translate academic research and statistical studies into material that is accessible and engaging.
For example, Walter explains how socioeconomic frustrations in 1920s Europe mirrored some of the dissatisfaction Middle America expressed in the lead up to the 2016 presidential election in a blog post titled “Why My German-Born Dad is Terrified of Trump.”
“The Americans who are voting for Trump are dissatisfied and frustrated,” she wrote. “Their world was crumbling, their pride is hurt, unemployment is high and partisanship divides the country. In their view, America is not changing for the better. Trump is taking advantage of this.”
When asked about the value of blogging, Walter points out that it benefits the general public, policymakers, and academics.
“My first love is research,” Walter said. “Blogging is definitely my second love and it’s the way that I can potentially have much greater impact. People are desperate for high quality analysis, especially of complex current events. I think the blog does a really good job explaining what’s going on in the world in an engaging way. It’s really fun to write for it. I hope it’s equally fun to read.”
To read more Political Violence @ A Glance, click here.
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Joseph Householder Named Sempra Energy
COO in Major Leadership Changes
Sempra Energy announced a series of leadership changes resulting from the impending retirement of CEO and President Debra L. Reed. She will step down as president and CEO on May 1 and retire as chairman on Dec. 1.
Jeffrey W. Martin was appointed her successor as Sempra Energy’s CEO and Joseph A. Householder, her successor as Sempra Energy’s president, both effective May 1. Martin currently is Sempra Energy’s executive vice president and chief financial officer. Householder currently is Sempra Energy’s corporate group president of infrastructure businesses.
The company announced Tuesday that Householder also has been appointed Sempra Energy’s chief operating officer, effective May 1. Also, effective immediately, Dennis V. Arriola has been appointed Sempra Energy’s chief strategy officer and executive vice president of external affairs and South America. Previously, Arriola was Sempra Energy’s executive vice president of corporate strategy and external affairs, and now has added responsibility for oversight of the company’s South American operations.
Additionally, Trevor I. Mihalik has been appointed Sempra Energy’s executive vice president and chief financial officer and Peter R. Wall, the company’s vice president, controller and chief accounting officer, both effective May 1.
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Stratford Arms Apartment Complex
in El Cajon Sells for $7.75 Million
Stratford Arms, a 35-unit apartment complex, located at 1397 East Washington Ave. in El Cajon, has been purchased for $7.75 million
by F & F EL Cajon LP. The seller was the Hillgren Family Trust, a private investor. Kidder Mathews’ multifamily investment brokers, Eric Comer, Jim Neil, and Merrick Matricardi, represented both parties in the transaction.
Stratford Arms is a mix of 29 townhomes and six single-story units. All are two-bedroom units.
“In the last 12 months, there have been 20 multifamily sales of properties with more than five units in the city of El Cajon. At a sale price of $221,428 per unit, Stratford Arms represents the highest price per unit transaction in El Cajon in the last 12 months,” said Comer.
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Illumina, Loxo Oncology to Develop
Pan-Cancer Companion Diagnostics
GenomeWeb
Illumina and Loxo Oncology said that they plan to develop sequencing-based pan-cancer companion diagnostics for two of Loxo’s targeted oncology drugs.
The companies will use a version of Illumina’s TruSight 170 panel, a hybrid capture panel launched in the beginning of 2017 that analyzes both DNA and RNA. The test will be run on Illumina’s NextSeq 550Dx platform.
The two companies aim to validate the panel for NTRK fusions and RET fusions/mutations as a Class III US Food and Drug Administration-approved diagnostic in conjunction with Loxo’s larotrectinib and LOXO-292, respectively. Last year, Loxo presented clinical data on larotrectinib as treatment for patients whose tumors had TRK fusions. Loxo is currently conducting a Phase I clinical trial for LOXO-292.
In addition, the companies plan to seek regulatory approval for the other content on the TST 170 panel to be marketed as a Class II tumor profiling test. Illumina will also seek CE marking for the assay.
Loxo’s Chief Business Officer Jacob Van Naarden said in a statement that the company has tested a number of different NGS assays and that TST 170 “consistently demonstrated robust performance with its assessment of DNA and RNA,” and could identify patients with NTRK fusions, RET fusions, RET mutations and other alterations.
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North County Transit District Receives
$1.2 Million Toward Zero Emission Vehicles
The Federal Transit Administration has awarded the North County Transit District (NCTD) $1.2 million to support the purchase of zero emission electric buses to replace diesel buses in the NCTD fleet.
NCTD’s project was one of 139 projects across the country that the FTA selected as part of a competitive grant process under the FTA Buses and Bus Facilities Infrastructure Investment Program. The FTA received more than 450 applications and awarded $264.4 million in funding.
Over the last two years, NCTD has been working to establish both public and private partnerships to support the implementation of zero emission bus technology. In spring 2017, NCTD established a non-binding agreement with San Diego Gas and Electric that supported the submission of a proposal to the California Public Utilities Commission that would support the installation, operations, and maintenance of charging infrastructure for NCTD. The proposal is currently pending with and a decision is expected by the first quarter of 2019.
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San Diego Partners with Clean
Coalition on Solar Development Efforts
The city of San Diego has been selected by the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory to participate in a collaborative research effort to explore new ways that solar energy can improve the affordability, reliability and resiliency of the nation’s electric grid. The city is one of nine teams selected to join the program, which is known as the Solar Energy Innovation Network. As part of the network, the city will partner with Clean Coalition, a nonprofit organization that works to transition local infrastructure to renewable energy.
The city’s participation will include financial, analytical and facilitation support as it works to identify and address new challenges and opportunities stemming from solar energy and other distributed energy technologies in San Diego. The solutions developed and demonstrated by the city will serve as a blueprint for other communities as they plan and move their solar initiatives forward.
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NAVAIR Taps System for Servers to Support
Fire Scout Management System Software
ExecutiveBiz
The Naval Air Systems Command of the U.S. Navy has selected Systel to support an unmanned autonomous helicopter program. The company said it will provide rugged, high-density computing servers designed with optimized size, weight and power for NAVAIR’s MQ-8C Fire Scout.
Systel’s 2U and 4U servers are geared to support intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and anti-submarine warfare operations of ground control stations and aircraft that include the Fire Scout, C-130J Super Hercules, Multi-Role Enforcement Aircraft King Air, P-3 Orion and P-8A Poseidon.
NAVAIR’s Fire Scout is built to provide reconnaissance, situational awareness and precision targeting support for ground, air and sea operations
MQ-8C utilizes the Minotaur Track Management and Mission Management System software that allows several aircraft and vessels to share full common operating pictures from integrated sensors and data.
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Port Selects Protea Property Management
to Manage and Operate Seaport Village
The Port of San Diego Board of Port Commissioners has selected Protea Property Management, Inc., a San Diego-based property management firm, to manage and operate Seaport Village after the current lease expires on Sept. 30, 2018. The action was taken to ensure the shopping and dining complex remains open for residents, visitors and the businesses that operate within it until the Port’s planned redevelopment of the Central Embarcadero.
The Port will begin work with Protea, the businesses within Seaport Village and the current lessee on a transition plan leading up to Oct. 1, 2018.
In 2016, the Port board selected the 1HWY1 team and its “Seaport San Diego” concept for the redevelopment of the Central Embarcadero, which includes Seaport Village and surrounding areas. Because of the size of the redevelopment and uniqueness of some of the proposed programmatic components, design, planning, and permitting will likely take several years, according to Port officials.
Protea owns and operates two specialty retail centers, Flower Hill Promenade and Pangaea Outpost, both located in San Diego.
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Personnel Announcements
Sean Palleschi Joins Cubic Corporation
Cubic Corporation announced that its Cubic Global Defense business division has hired Sean Palleschi as vice president, financial operations and controller. Palleschi will be responsible for the general and cost accounting activities for Cubic and will be the key financial adviser to the business division president, Dave Buss. He will drive the financial planning process, including the analysis of return on investments and will execute measures to increase profit and cash flow.
Prior to joining Cubic, Palleschi was the regionals and geared turbofan associate finance director for UTAS Aerostructures, where he led the full profit and loss; balance sheet and controls; and compliance responsibility for nine regionals and GTF programs. Palleschi also completed a 14-year career with Pratt & Whitney where he served in a number of finance leadership roles, spanning various business units. His roles included finance controller and transition manager for the company’s Military Auxiliary Power Engines unit, financial planning and analysis manager for AeroPower as well as controller, business practices officer for manufacturing operation.
Palleschi holds a Bachelor of Science in Finance from the University of Connecticut and a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
