Daily Business Report-July 3, 2018
From left: Lynnette Zelezny of CSU Bakersfield, Thomas Parham of CSU Dominguez Hills, Adela de la Torre of San Diego State University.
New presidents take the helm
at three CSU campuses
The California State University system, in which women now make up the majority of campus leaders, is leading the charge to further diversify its ranks.
New leaders are taking on the role of president at the CSU’s Bakersfield (Lynnette Zelezny), Dominguez Hills (Thomas Parham) and San Diego (Adela de la Torre) campuses. To date, female presidents lead 12 of the 23 CSU campuses.
“In our presidential searches, we strive to find the person with the skills, experience and aspirations best suited to lead a respective campus,” said CSU Chancellor Timothy P. White. “The work to diversify the pool of candidates has been intentional, as people coming from diverse backgrounds bring a richness of ideas crucial to serving the diverse students of California who will go on to work in a global economy.”
The CSU has engaged in system-wide efforts to diversify faculty, staff and campus executives to provide role models and mentoring opportunities, as well as a variety of backgrounds and ideas, all with the goal of enhancing achievement of the most diverse student population in the country.
While women have made up the majority of students on university campuses across the country since the late 1970s, female university presidents remain in the minority. According to a 2016 report by the American Council on Education, just 30.1 percent of university presidents are female — a number that only grew by seven percentage points over the past decade.
Since White became CSU Chancellor at the end of 2012, the CSU Board of Trustees has appointed 16 new presidents, 10 of whom were women.
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GreatCall opens new headquarters
within Pacific Plaza office project
GreatCall, manufacturer of medical alert products, has opened its new Class A corporate headquarters in San Diego. GreatCall’s employees along with corporate management recently moved into more than 55,000 square feet of office space that just finished construction at 10945 Vista Sorrento Parkway. GreatCall’s new multi-story headquarters remains positioned within Pacific Plaza, a prestigious office project overlooking the Torrey Pines Mesa where the company has operated for many years.
“Our culture is one of the reasons we are successful, and we wanted our space to represent what is important to GreatCall,” said Brian Berning, GreatCall’s CFO. “From a ‘functional fitness’ room, showers and lockers, to a private patio for cooling off after a workout or unwinding after a long day, the real estate team made sure that all employee feedback was taken into consideration as the design was finalized.”
“The move provided the company with a fantastic opportunity to work off a ‘blank slate’ from a design standpoint, and they were 100 percent focused on meeting the needs of their growing workforce, which they have with this spectacular space,” said Tom van Betten, executive director of Cushman & Wakefield in San Diego, who represents GreatCall.
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Brixton Capital to turn former El Cajon
Police Dept. site into retail-hotel complex
Brixton Capital has purchased the former El Cajon Police Station located at 100 Fletcher Parkway in El Cajon for $4.2 million. The site, purchased from the city of El Cajon, marks Brixton’s fourth acquisition of 2018.
Brixton will transform the approximately 4.11 acres of developable land into Fletcher Marketplace, a mixed-use project comprised of approximately 16,000 square feet of retail space and a 60,000-square-foot hotel. Brixton will sell 1.4 acres of the site to Excel Hotel Group, which will handle the hotel development portion of the project while Brixton simultaneously builds the retail portion.
According to Bob Emri, chief investment officer at Brixton Capital, “This is an excellent opportunity to completely transform a high-profile corner in El Cajon. We have worked closely with the city the past two years to make this the best site possible and are excited to begin development.”
The retail center is 99 percent pre-leased and includes tenants In-and-Out, Blaze Pizza, California Fish Grill, Urbane Café and Mattress Firm.
“Retailing is undergoing massive changes, yet there are still exciting opportunities to create environments where customers’ daily needs are met for dining, entertainment and travel accommodations,” said Marc Brutten, chairman and founder of Brixton Capital.
Don Moser and Matt Moser at Retail Insite represented both parties in the transaction and also manage leasing for Brixton Capital. Dempsey Construction will be the contractor.
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Zodiac and Fluidra close merger, creating
global leader in the pool industry
Vista-based pool equipment manufacturer Zodiac has finalized its $1.5 billion merger with Fluidra, a publicly traded pool equipment manufacturer based out of Spain. The combined company will keep the Fluidra name and remain listed on the Spanish stock exchange.The company is well positioned for growth, driven by its enhanced portfolio of highly recognized brands, broad product offering and expansive global footprint covering over 45 countries.
The new Fluidra will have combined sales and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation of approximately $1.5 billion and $234 million, respectively. Additionally, the company has identified $40.7 million of run rate cost synergies, which it expects to be fully achievable by 2020.
Fluidra will maintain its global headquarters in Sabadell (Barcelona), Spain and North American headquarters in Vista. Former Fluidra Executive President Eloi Planes will serve as executive chairman of its board of directors, and former Zodiac CEO Bruce Brooks will serve as the company’s CEO.
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Well-Known animal health drug could
stop outbreaks of malaria and Zika virus
Medicines given to household pets to kill fleas and ticks might be effective for preventing outbreaks of malaria, Zika fever and other dangerous insect-borne diseases that infect millions of people worldwide, according to a new study led by scientists at Calibr, a nonprofit drug discovery institute closely affiliated with Scripps Research and TropIQ Health Sciences, a Dutch social enterprise.
The researchers found that a class of drugs called isoxazolines, sold in veterinary products such as fluralaner (Bravecto) and afoxolaner (NexGard) to protect pets from fleas and ticks, also kills species of disease-carrying mosquitos that feed on human blood.
The research team, led by TropIQ’s Koen Dechering and Calibr’s Matt Tremblay, determined via experimental studies on mosquitoes and computer modeling that giving isoxazoline drugs to less than a third of the population in areas prone to seasonal outbreaks of insect-borne diseases could prevent up to 97 percent of all cases of infection. The results of the study were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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New product launch from Bose
tied to UC San Diego startup Hush
Audio equipment giant Bose recently launched noise-masking sleepbuds, and there’s a Jacobs School of Engineering connection. In 2016 Bose acquired Hush, a noise-cancelling smart earplug startup launched by undergraduates at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering. The students conceptualized the ear plugs in the Product Design and Entrepreneurship class taught by mechanical engineering professor Nate Delson. They founded Hush to pursue the idea after the course ended. After the acquisition, Hush’s product was integrated into Bose’s noise-masking sleepbud line.
The original three UC San Diego student co-founders of Hush are Daniel Lee, Daniel Synn and Daniel “Chesong” Lee.
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Summary of upcoming major events
at the San Diego Convention Center:
• Big Bay Boom Fireworks Viewing Party, July 4
• Esri User Conference, July 9-13 (14,500 attendees)
• San Diego Comic-Con, July 19-22 (135,000 attendees)
• Dancerpalooza, July 24-29 (1,600 attendees)
• 2018 General Manager Leadership Summit, July 31-Aug. 3 (5,000 attendees)
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Mobile health technologies
can track cardio risk factors
One of the major challenges to preventing and treating cardiovascular disease, which accounts for an estimated 31 percent of deaths worldwide, is monitoring patients when they are outside of a doctor’s office.
The emergence of mobile health technologies, such as activity trackers, sleep monitors, electronic blood pressure devices and others offer the new ability to track both traditional cardiovascular risk factors (e.g. blood pressure) and other factors that increase a person’s risk for cardiovascular disease (e.g. poor sleep), at home, and at high sampling rates.
A study by researchers at the Scripps Translational Science Institute provides new evidence that these cardiovascular risk factors can be accurately measured and tracked independently outside of a physician’s office using new mobile health technologies, while requiring minimal training of participants. The study was published in the journal Hypertension.
Read more…
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New exhibit ‘Oddities’ digs into
creepy archives at Birch Aquarium
sdnews.com
Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institution of Oceanography has launched “Oddities: Hidden Heroes of the Scripps Collections,” a comic book-inspired exhibit that highlights the astonishing adaptations (aka superpowers) of ocean species.
Oddities is created in partnership with the team from the Scripps Oceanographic Collections, where millions of specimens allow scientists to understand some of the amazing adaptations marine creatures have developed to survive. From super vision and invisibility to protective armor and the ability to create electricity to zap prey, real marine creatures do amazing things every day that stretch even the wildest imagination.
“I don’t think an exhibit like this would be possible anywhere else,” said Harry Helling, executive director of Birch Aquarium. “It’s truly a unique collaboration between the researchers of the Scripps Collections and the talented Exhibits and Education teams here at Birch Aquarium. Our guests are in for a real treat!”
Oddities opened June 29 and will be on display through spring 2019.
Read more…
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Personnel Announcements
Girl Scouts San Diego promotes Lani Longacre
Girl Scouts San Diego has promoted Lani Longacre to the position of chief mission delivery officer.
In her role, Longacre oversees a comprehensive, multifunctional, integrated plan for program enrichment, membership growth and retention, and volunteer engagement and development. As a key member of the CEO’s Senior Management Team, she also helps shape strategic direction and implement local and national initiatives for the 23,000-member local council.
As director of retail and product program, Longacre led Girl Scouts San Diego’s largest program. Guided by 2,000 volunteers, Girl Scouts in San Diego and Imperial counties learn life and leadership skills as they participate in America’s leading entrepreneurial and financial literacy program for girls. Longacre also significantly improved business processes for both staff and volunteers by updating resources; simplifying procedures; and introducing e-learning programs, online sales, inventory software, project management software, and payment processing.
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Enjoy Your Independence Day Holiday!
