Daily Business Report: Monday, Nov. 14, 2022
Biotechnology industry gets a boost
from community college degrees
By Shalin Jyotishi
Most community college baccalaureates are offered in traditional fields such as business, education and health care, but MiraCosta College has launched the nation’s first community college biomanufacturing bachelor’s degree to meet the workforce needs of Fortune 500 biotechnology giants like Pfizer, Abbott Laboratories, and Thermo Fisher Scientific.
“Most university degree programs focus on the research side. We wanted to offer a degree in the production side which didn’t exist anywhere else, and, locally, there was a need in the industry,” said Mike Fino, MiraCosta’s dean of mathematics and sciences, who spearheaded the program.
MiraCosta’s degree launched in 2014 after then-Gov. Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill 850 to permit a pilot cohort of community colleges to offer bachelor’s degrees provided they addressed a concrete need and weren’t competing with university programs.
Pictured at Top: Dolores Grijalva a student in MiraCosta College’s Biomanufacturing Bachelor’s Degree program. (Credit: Mike Fino, MiraCosta College). Below: student Kendra Williamson. (Credit: MiraCosta College)
Nov. 19 luxury auction set for tri-level,
gated estate in Rancho Del Mar
A luxury home in Del Mar has been scheduled for sale at a luxury auction on Nov. 19. The property first hit the market asking $8 million, though it will now be offered without reserve in next Saturday’s sale, meaning it will be sold to the auction’s highest bidder regardless of the amount of the high bid. The homeowners retained property auction specialist Platinum Luxury Auctions for the sale. Platinum is working in tandem with the property’s listing brokerage of record, Agentdesks Incorporated, out of San Francisco.
The residence is located within the community of Rancho Del Mar, a private and gated development of 27 luxury homes located adjacent to the Lomas Santa Fe Country Club.
The home’s three living levels combine for a total of 8,500 square feet of living area, with 6 bedrooms, 7 full and one-half baths. The current owners built the home in 2011, enlisting the help of local architect William Currier to create the Tuscan-inspired abode. Thanks to one of the owners having a business background in the import and export of European building materials, the property’s design benefits from the extensive use of fine marbles, custom stone and brick, and beautiful wooden beams throughout.
San Diego ranked as the top digital city in the country
The City of San Diego won the No. 1 ranking in the Center for Digital Government’s 2022 Digital Cities Survey, recognizing cities using technology to tackle social problems, enhance services, strengthen security and more.
In recent years, the city has expanded public Wi-Fi to over 400 locations citywide as part of the award-winning SD Access 4 All initiative, with over 200,000 unique users and 1.4 million connections in the first year. The initiative also includes a free hotline for basic tech support and free in-person classes to help people learn how to use a computer and navigate the internet.
In addition, the city is preparing to launch the San Diego Regional Cyber Lab later this year to help local agencies and businesses prevent and protect against cyberattacks.
The city has been ranked first in the “500,000 or more population” category.
2022 Employment Law Seminar
Pettit Kohn Ingrassia Lutz & Dolin’s annual Employment Law Symposium on Wednesday is the place for human resource professionals and business owners to learn about the upcoming California employment laws, defense strategies, and emerging trends. The in-person and livestreamed conference is a blend of information gathering, professional development, and employment law education that includes comprehensive actionable insights. It will also provide opportunities to connect with and learn from established and experienced employment law attorneys in California.
The symposium will be held from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Farmer & the Seahorse, 10996 Torreyana Road, San Diego 92121. Register
Greater San Diego Association of Realtors gets
Gold Global Achievement Program Award
The National Association of Realtors has awarded the Greater San Diego Association of Realtors its “Gold Global Achievement Program Award.” NAR’s Global Achievement Program is designed to recognize and reward the most active Realtor associations in global business, noting that SDAR’s International Real Estate Committee (IREC) has demonstrated a solid level of service to its global members over the past year. Among the more than 130 global business councils nationwide, the IREC has demonstrated a commitment to helping SDAR members capture their share of the global real estate market in the United States, in addition to connecting their council and members to the global community in the San Diego region.
Dexcom launches athlete recruiting platform
In addition to posting 18 percent revenue growth in quarter 3, local medical device leader Dexcom has announced the launch of Dexcom U — a program highlighting college athletes with Type 1 diabetes. These student athletes will be given a platform to share their story, act as role models, and receive mentorship from professional athletes and other figures with diabetes in hopes to inspire youth with diabetes to continue living active, healthy lives.
Lipidio Pharmaceuticals
secures $20 million in Series A
San Diego’s Lipidio Pharmaceuticals secured $20 million in Series A to continue its focus on dermatological and metabolic diseases. The startup will use the funds to further develop its lead candidate for various indications, including acne, sebaceous hyperplasia, obesity, and Prader-Willi Syndrome.
Civic Communities receives $55 million
in New Markets Tax Credit
Civic Communities has been awarded a $55 million New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) allocation from the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund), the division of the U.S. Department of the Treasury. “These tax credits allow us to continue investing in transformative projects with partners like Family Health Centers of San Diego, Access Youth Academy, San Ysidro Health, and most recently San Diego Rescue Mission,” sai Andrew Phillips, Civic Communities president. “It’s essential to have these resources to catalyze investment and ensure these projects have a strong chance at success.”
Free online watersmart landscape
design workshops offered
More San Diego County residents are taking advantage of free, online webinars helping them conserve water and create beautiful landscapes at the same time. New workshops are scheduled through December, funded in part by the County of San Diego Watershed Protection Program. Registration is required. Weekday workshops are held from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m., and Saturday workshops lasts from 9 a.m. to noon. Click here for a schedule and to register.
The Ken Blanchard Companies partners with
Cloverleaf to offer coaching and management resource
Escondido-based The Ken Blanchard Companies is partnering with Cloverleaf, an automated coaching technology designed to bring out the best in workers and teams. The Ken Blanchard Companies defines coaching as focused conversations that accelerate performance and development. With Blanchard’s coaching methodology for individuals, teams, groups, and executives, and Cloverleaf’s insights on assessments, targeted resources, and daily coaching, people are more likely to achieve their goals. Curated articles, blogs, podcasts, and research from The Ken Blanchard Companies are now available to users as part of the Resources Feed within the Cloverleaf platform.
TuSimple appoints permanent CEO and
announces changes to its board of directors
Cheng Lu is returning to TuSimple as chief executive officer. Lu previously served as CEO from September 2020 to March 2022, a period of important milestones, including the launch of the Autonomous Freight Network, key partnership deals, and a successful IPO. Lu replaces Ersin Yumer, TuSimple’s executive vice president of operations, who had been serving as the interim CEO and president. The company also announced that Mo Chen, a cofounder and major shareholder of TuSimple, has been named executive chairman of the board of directors.
Life is Good opens new storefront in La Jolla
Life is Good, the original positive lifestyle brand, announced its new storefront location at 2927 Girard Ave. in La Jolla. This location is the first Life is Good store in California, and designers made extra efforts to embrace the SoCal vibes when designing the 1,600-square-foot space. Offering apparel and accessories for men, women, and kids, the store boasts murals painted by a local artist and is in the perfect location for shoppers.
New oneAPI Center of Excellence
focuses on earthquake research
The San Diego Supercomputer Center at UC San Diego in collaboration with the Southern California Earthquake Center is hosting a new oneAPI Center of Excellence. The center’s focus is to address the challenges of numerically simulating the dynamics of fault rupture and seismic ground motion in realistic 3D models. It will do this by optimizing an award-winning open-source simulation code using oneAPI, which features cross-architecture programming to create portable, high-performance multiarchitecture code for advanced high-performance computing systems.
