Daily Business Report-May 4, 2021
Save Our Heritage Organisation to hold
38th annual People in Preservation Awards
Save Our Heritage Organisation, San Diego’s countywide preservation group, celebrates its 38th annual People In Preservation Awards, on Thursday, May 27, during National Preservation Month with an online award presentation.
This year’s awards will honor 12 distinctive projects and people ranging across multiple historic preservation mediums, from building restorations and adaptive reuse to historic community traditions and important arts and cultural centers, with an outstanding group of people and projects, including the extensive restoration of a Mid-Century Modern coastal gem, the rehabilitation of a support building at Hotel del Coronado, and the recognition of a long-time writer especially known for her work in La Jolla.
The Balboa Park Conservancy raised the funds and organized a collaborative restoration of Alcazar Garden with the City of San Diego, one of the Preservation Award winners.
In 2019, work began on various water features, landscape and tree trimming, walkway updates, restoration of the historic art tiles, and fresh coats of paint matching historical color schemes
For the complete list of People in Preservation Award winners, contact SOHOsandiego.org.
PHOTO: Alcazar Garden-Cultural Landscape, Restoration. Photo courtesy Balboa Park Conservancy
Illumina to donate $60 million sequencing capabilities
to establish global pathogen genomics initiative
Illumina Inc. has committed $60 million in sequencing capabilities to a global pathogen genomics initiative, in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and other public and private entities. The initiative expands on the Africa Pathogen Genomics Initiative (Africa PGI) announced in October 2020, and will help create a comprehensive pathogen genomic network around the world, building critical public health capabilities in areas of need.
Illumina will donate next-generation sequencing platforms, reagents, and training support worth approximately $60 million over five years. The expanded scope will begin with a focus on South Asia, equipping national public health institutions with better public health tools, bringing us closer to the vision of an early warning system for global pathogens.
Jack in the Box names new chief people
officer and new chief information officer
Jack in the Box Inc. has named Steve Piano as chief people officer and Carlson Choi as chief information officer as the company continues the strategic transformation of its executive leadership team.
Piano, who most recently served as head of human resources for GNC Holdings LLC, a $1.6 billion global health, wellness and supplements brand and previously was executive vice president of HR at MoneyGram, brings more than 10 years of executive-level HR experience to the company. He joined Jack in the Box on April 26 and will support the company’s employees at its San Diego Restaurant Support Center, as well as its systemwide locations.
Choi joins the company from Jollibee Foods Corporation, a $4 billion global restaurant operator with a portfolio of franchised brands, where he was global chief digital officer and chief information officer. Prior to that, Choi served as a global VP in the digital initiatives group at world toy leader Mattel Inc.
Stephanie Teller named executive
director of The Sundt Foundation
The Sundt Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Sundt Construction, has named Stefanie Teller as its new executive director. The Foundation distributes approximately $1 million each year in grants to nonprofit organizations that focus on improving the lives of disadvantaged individuals and families in nine metropolitan areas where Sundt has offices. To date, it has donated $11 million to various social causes and disaster relief efforts.
Before her selection, Teller served terms as president and vice president of its board of directors. She is also an employee of Sundt Construction, where she serves as the company’s vice president and director of corporate communications as well as a member of its eight-person executive team.
Teller is a member of the board of directors for both the Children’s Museum Tucson and Primavera Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to breaking the cycle of poverty and homelessness.
SENTRE acquires Azusa Center industrial
facility in Los Angeles for $12.5 million
San Diego-based SENTRE has closed the $12.5 million acquisition of Azusa Center, a two-building 75,081-square-foot industrial facility, fully leased toMortech Manufacturing at its location at 301 & 411 N. Aerojet Drive in the San Gabriel Valley area of Los Angeles.
The property was acquired from Mortech Manufacturing, an industry leader in the manufacturing and sales of mortuary equipment.
The CBRE Capital Markets Debt & Structured Finance Placement team, comprised of Executive Vice President Scott Peterson and Senior Analyst Morgon Fraser, represented SENTRE in the placement of $7.5 million fixed-rate, five-year term financing with a prominent publicly traded life insurance company.
The novel coronavirus’ spike protein
plays additional key role in illness
Scientists have known for a while that SARS-CoV-2’s distinctive “spike” proteins help the virus infect its host by latching on to healthy cells. Now, a major new study shows that they also play a key role in the disease itself.
The paper, published on April 30, 2021, in Circulation Research, also shows conclusively that COVID-19 is a vascular disease, demonstrating exactly how the SARS-CoV-2 virus damages and attacks the vascular system on a cellular level. The findings help explain COVID-19’s wide variety of seemingly unconnected complications, and could open the door for new research into more effective therapies.
“A lot of people think of it as a respiratory disease, but it’s really a vascular disease,” says Assistant Research Professor Uri Manor, who is co-senior author of the study. “That could explain why some people have strokes, and why some people have issues in other parts of the body. The commonality between them is that they all have vascular underpinnings.”
Illumina named to Time’s 100 Most Influential Companies
Time recently named San Diego-based Illumina to its “2021 Time 100 Most Influential Companies” list for its genetic sequencing technology, which helped scientists fight the pandemic in real time. Ther genomicd powerhoudr joins a number of top global companies on the list with San Diego offices, including Pfizer, Sony, and Amazon.
SDG&E to go to net-zero emissions by 2045
San Diego Gas & Electric has pledged to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2045. The utility is developing two hydrogen pilot projects, three battey storage projects, and clean transportation project in El Cajon, and ultimately plans to capture and store carbon to help it reach the net-zero target.
Apple capitalizing on San Diego engineering hub;
adding thousands of jobs
Apple plans to vastly increase its engineering footprint within San Diego’s thriving tech scene, pledging to grow its local workforce to more than 5,000 employees over the next five years. Apple joins Google, Amazon, and other major tech brands aiming to take advantage of the region’s well-established entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Sempra Energy named one of ‘America’s Best
Employers for Diversity’ by Forbes
Sempra Energy has been named to Forbes’ “America’s Best Employers for Diversity” list for 2021, marking the third consecutive year that the company has been recognized. Sempra Energy ranked 79th out of 500 companies this year, up from 328th last year, and was the second highest-ranking employer in the utility industry.
Forbes’ ranking was determined from an independent survey of 50,000 employees working for major companies in the U.S. Respondents were asked about their employers’ diversity practices related to age, gender equality, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation equality and general diversity. The ranking also considered diversity among board and executive teams.
