Daily Business Report-Feb. 13, 2020
Aircraft Compatibility Testing on USS Gerald R. Ford. (Footage courtesy of U.S. Navy)
General Atomics’ electromagnetic launch
and advanced arresting gear systems cleared
for shipboard launch aboard USS Gerald Ford
General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems announced that the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) and Advanced Arresting Gear (AAG) have been cleared for shipboard launch and recovery of all currently deployed Naval aircraft types aboard USS Gerald R. Ford.
The Navy issued bulletins that identify the weights and engaging speeds authorized for shipboard aircraft launch and recovery, and signal systems are operationally safe for use aboard the USS Gerald R. Ford.
“EMALS and AAG can launch and recover the current air wing and any future aircraft, to provide greater flexibility than the legacy systems aboard Nimitz-class carriers,” said Scott Forney, president of General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems. “The Navy is expecting flight deck certification to take place in the coming months and will conduct a steady stream of cats and traps this year – we’re talking in the thousands — to move the ship closer to full mission capability and capacity.”
The company is delivering the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System and Advanced Arresting Gear for the future John F. Kennedy and Enterprise. Significant cost savings are being realized through multiple ship production contracts, which minimize gaps in production while maximizing planning, scheduling and delivery to support all three Ford-class carriers.
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Powershift: Transform Any Situation,
Close Any Deal and Achieve Any Outcome
Daymond John to speak March 20 during Women’s Week
The bestselling author and star of ABC’s “Shark Tank” reveals how to master the three prongs of influence: reputation, negotiation, and relationships.
Have you ever wanted to make a big change in your life but weren’t sure where to start? In Powershift, Daymond John shares the answer. To take control of your destiny and drive the change you want to see, you need to lay the groundwork so you’re prepared to seize every opportunity that comes your way.
Whether you’re an innovator working to turn your big idea into a reality, a professional looking to land a major promotion, or a busy parent trying to find more time to focus on what’s really important to you, Daymond shows you how to shift your power and energy towards positive change.
Women’s Week events run March 16 -20 Everyone is invited, and tickets can be purchased at www.sdwomensweek.com.
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Trying to right Calbright, the state’s
new online community college
by Dan Morain | CALmatters
Calbright, the state’s new online community college, has faced setbacks and controversy since its founding in 2018. Now officials are hoping a new interim CEO, Ajita Menon, can help right the ship, CalMatters’ Felicia Mello tells us.
Menon is a former adviser to the Obama-era U.S. Department of Education and community colleges Chancellor Eloy Ortiz Oakley. She will lead the college’s efforts to provide flexible job training to low-income adults.
Menon’s challenges include helping with job placement for Calbright’s 450-plus students who are working toward certificates in medical coding, information technology and cybersecurity.
Calbright board chairman Tom Epstein said Menon’s public sector background was attractive to board members still smarting from the tenure of former Chief Executive Officer Heather Hiles. The college is conducting a national search for a permanent CEO.
Epstein told Mello that Menon “will help repair some of the relationships with public officials, community college leaders and faculty because she has long worked cooperatively with all of those groups.”
Calbright is enrolling students. But as of last month, the college hadn’t hired full-time faculty.
Democratic Assemblyman Jose Medina of Riverside has requested an audit of the college’s finances.
The Senate education committee will hold a hearing today on the college’s progress.
Hiles, an education technology entrepreneur, raised concerns when she signed a pricey, no-bid contract for executive recruitment and tried to hire instructors without input from the community colleges’ faculty senate. Hiles resigned last month.
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Adobe and SDSU partner to create
more digitally literate campus
by Lainie Fraser | SDSU
More than 100 national thought leaders in the higher education community gathered at San Diego State University to share how they use Adobe Creative Cloud software to promote digital literacy on their campuses as part of Adobe’s annual Creative Campus event
SDSU President Adela de la Torre and Chief Information Officer Jerry Sheehan addressed the audience on Tuesday in the Conrad Prebys Aztec Student Union’s Montezuma Hall speaking about the importance of digital literacy, which enables students, faculty and staff to interact with digital tools that allow them to create, innovate and problem solve. Digital literacy is at the center of SDSU’s mission to help create the leaders of tomorrow in California’s growing technology-based economy.
As part of the event, SDSU announced a new partnership with Adobe focused on promoting a digital literacy across the campus community. SDSU plans to make Adobe Creative Cloud services free for all students by summer.
The Adobe AzTech Alliance (A3) is designed to inspire students to create and share innovative work, provide opportunities for students and faculty to express unique perspectives while building a digitally literate campus and expanding the audience for scholarly work.
The A3 program will begin in March and will provide a faculty fellowship and mini grants.
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Chemistry technique acts as ‘warp drive’
for creating better synthetic molecules for medicine
In a study with implications for the future of drug discovery, Scripps Research scientists showed they were able to turn simple chemicals into unique 3-D structures resembling those found in nature—structures with desirable properties for medicines.
In the process, they found a potential drug lead for inflammatory disease, which is now being investigated further. The research appears in Nature Chemistry.
“We were able to start with flat molecules and use a single chemical operation to create much more complex shapes, such as those you would expect from metabolites of medicinal plants or marine organisms,” says Ryan Shenvi, Scripps Research chemistry professor and senior author of the study. “In essence, we found a way to bridge the gap between the synthetic space and natural products, opening up a whole new realm to explore for potential drugs.”
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Interior designers organization moves
administrative offices to Downtown
The 750-member San Diego chapter of the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) has moved its administrative offices to 233 A St., Suite 200, where it will share space with The American Institute of Architects (AIA) San Diego chapter. The AIA has been housed in this historic 1927 Centre City Building, which is adjacent to City Hall, for the past 38 years.
“This is the first phase of our collaboration with AIA,” said Bertha Hernandez, ASID chapter president. “It shows our support for the future San Diego Center for Design (CfD), which the local AIA chapter is championing. We’re honored to be among the first design organizations to join this momentous effort.”
The proposed CfD is a 4,000-square-foot multi-purpose convening and presentation space on the Civic Center Plaza aimed at expanding public engagement connected to urban design and development and activating San Diego’s preeminent public square. The site was formerly home of the popular Downtown Johnny Brown’s, one of the first supporters of the local artisanal beer movement.
“The CfD is destined to be the epicenter for the exploration of regional challenges regarding the built environment and we’re proud ASID will be part of that,” said Hernandez.
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Second Chance receives $90,000
donation from Lucky Duck Foundation
Second Chancereceived a $90,000 grant to provide stable sober-living housing, job training, and reentry services for formerly incarcerated adults. The grant, awarded by the Lucky Duck Foundation, will provide resources for newly released adults who would otherwise be homeless.
Formerly incarcerated individuals are almost 10 times more likely to be homeless than the general public. For this reason, Second Chance owns and operates five transitional sober-living homes. These supervised alcohol/substance-free properties provide a safe, stable living environment. Structure, staff and peer-driven accountability inspires personal responsibility, restores self-esteem and eliminates isolation by creating a community atmosphere with the ultimate goal of independent living.
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Avidity Biosciences appoints
Joseph Baroldi chief operating officer
Avidity Biosciences, Inc., a privately-held biotechnology company in San Diego, announced the appointment of Joseph Baroldi as chief operating officer.
Baroldi brings over 20 years of experience in the life sciences industry to Avidity. Most recently, he was vice president of business development at Ionis Pharmaceuticals, where he held several roles of increasing responsibility over the last decade.
During this time, Baroldi led Ionis’ corporate and business development activities, alliance management and competitive intelligence, executing more than 20 transactions that resulted in approximately $2 billion in upfront cash. Before that, Baroldi held several roles in strategic planning and scientific research at Hologic (formerly Gen-Probe, Inc.).
Baroldi received his B.S. in Biological Sciences from UC Irvine and his M.B.A. from the Rady School of Management at UC San Diego.
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Ligand Pharmaceuticals to acquire
core assets of Icagen Inc.
Ligand Pharmaceuticals Inc. announced the signing of an agreement whereby Ligand will acquire the core assets of Icagen Inc.’s North Carolina operations, including partnered programs, proprietary ion channel screening and assay platforms, x-ray fluorescence capabilities, custom screening technologies and novel unpartnered preclinical-stage molecules for $15 million in cash.
Icagen will also be entitled to receive up to an additional $25 million of cash payments based on certain revenue achievements.
The acquired assets include Icagen’s partnered programs with Roche focused on neurological diseases, and with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation focused on cystic fibrosis. Ligand is also acquiring six Icagen preclinical-stage internal programs targeting diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, pain and other disorders.
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University of San Diego appoints
Tim Keane to lead School of Business
The University of San Diego has appointed Tim Keane, a former Fortune 500 executive and technology entrepreneur, to lead its School of Business.
Kean’s private sector experience includes 20 years in marketing at Anheuser-Busch where he founded a business analytics department. He left the company to launch a software venture that became a Microsoft Joint Development Partner and was later sold to a Canadian firm.
Keane entered academe in 2004 at Rockhurst University in Kansas City. He was named a Ewing Marion Kauffman Entrepreneurial Scholar and launched the Helzberg School of Management’s Center for Leadership and Ethics.
Keane moved to Saint Louis University to lead the business school’s ethics initiatives, where he led a cross-disciplinary team in launching one of the first sustainability research centers in the nation.
Prior to joining the USD team, Keane was the founding dean of a new college of business in Denver at Regis University. He led the cultivation of the largest gift in the university’s history to name the new business school.
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Girl Scout Cookies on Tap 2020
Girl Scouts partner with breweries in this fundraiser
Cookies on Tap is back for a seventh year…and bigger than ever. During this popular event for adult fans of Girl Scout cookies, local craft brewers pair their wares with America’s favorite seasonal treats.
The breweries purchase the cookies from local Girl Scout troops, which use the proceeds to fund their activities, camps sessions, and community service projects. Each partner brewery will donate 20 percent of the price of its Cookies on Tap flights to Girl Scouts San Diego for its programs in the areas of STEM, outdoors, life skills, and entrepreneurship, as well as the financial assistance that keeps Girl Scouting available and affordable for all girls.
Each brewery is featuring Lemon-Ups, a zesty new cookie stamped “I am a leader,” “I am a go-getter,” and other messages about the leadership qualities girls develop through Girl Scouting.
Saturday, Feb. 15: Thorn Brewing Co. will serve Lemon-Ups with Treading Lightly IPA.
Sunday, Feb. 16: Little Miss Brewing will pair Lemon-Ups/Tropic Thunder American IPA, Trefoils/Dessert Fox Strawberry and Vanilla American Wheat Ale w/lactose, Tagalongs/Esconia Porter (brewed in collaboration with Escondido Brewing), Thin Mints/Wartime Chocolate Cake Porter, and Samoas/BA Big Boy American Strong Ale. (3514 Adams Ave., Normal Heights)
Friday-Sunday, Feb. 21-23: Stone Brewing Company will combine Lemon-Ups/Stone Borreo Gose with Sour Cherry, S’mores/Stone IPA, Tagalongs/Stone Lifeblood, and Samoas/”Stone ///Fear.Movie.Lions” Double IPA. (World Bistro and Gardens at 1999 Citracado Parkway, Escondido and 2816 Historic Decatur Rd., Liberty Station; Tap Rooms at 795 J St., East Village; and 1202 Kettner Blvd., downtown San Diego)
Through Sunday, March 8: Guadalupe Brewery Tap House will pair Lemon-Ups/Hook’d IPA, Samoas/Imperialismo Imperial Stout, Tagalongs/El Vainillo Vanilla Cream Ale, and Do-si-dos/Tonantzin Golden Belgian Ale. (31 S. Santa Fe Ave., Vista).
