NO. 7, VOL. XXXI
PRESENTING THE
AWARDS
2016
Julie Seal, CEO of Mirus Promotions, is one of the stars in our 40 Under 40 Awards for 2016. See the winners beginning on PAGE 12
GIVE DAD THE GIFT OF DONOVAN’S WORLD CLASS SERVICE OPEN 3PM - 9 PM, SUNDAY, JUNE 16, 2013.
2016 | ISSUE 7 Volume XXXI
Our mission is to always provide quality journalism for our readers by being fair, accurate and ethical and a credible resource for our advertisers.
Chairman | CEO Robert Page BobPage@sandiegometro.com
COV E R STO RY The 40 Under 40 Awards for 2016
We proudly present the winners of the 2016 40 Under 40 Awards, a group of men and women who represent the best and brightest minds in San Diego County, among them Julie Seal (pictured). The annual awards luncheon will be Friday, Sept. 16, at the Sheraton Hotel & Marina. See Page 12.
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Victoria Clafin Woodhull: The first woman before Hillary
This 1872 candidate for President of the United States was the first and quite possibly the most eccentric person ever nominated (Donald Trump notwithstanding.) Read Bob Page’s profile.
Reality Changers — Rescuing Youths
Christopher Yanov is a gang leader in City Heights. Over the last 16 years, he’s initiated 1,000 young people into his ranks, teaching the older members how to recruit younger ones and making sure they stay involved. His gang is like a second family to many, giving them a place where someone’s always got their back. But Yanov’s gang is different than most.
Flexible Wearable Electronic Skin Patch
Engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed a flexible wearable sensor that can accurately measure a person’s blood alcohol level from sweat and transmit the data wirelessly to a laptop, smartphone or other mobile device. The device can be worn on the skin and could be used by doctors and police officers for continuous, non-invasive and real-time monitoring of blood alcohol content.
Innovative Work Space
Some of the leading commercial real estate firms are helping facilitate what the city of San Diego calls the “innovation economy” with fresh approaches to workspace environments. Read April Harter Enriquez’s story.
Publisher Rebeca Page RebecaPage@sandiegometro.com Managing Editor Manny Cruz Manny@sandiegometro.com Graphic Designer Christopher Baker cbaker@sandiegometro.com Photography/Illustration Eric Peters David Rottenberg Contributing Writers Andrew Dyer Stephen Moore Jennifer Coburn April Harter Enriquez Advertising SALES & MARKETING DIRECTOR Rebeca Page
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SD METRO magazine is published by REP Publishing, Inc. The entire contents of SD METRO is copyrighted, 2016, by REP Publishing, Inc. Reporduction in whole or in part is prohibited without prior written consent. All rights reserved. All editorial and advertising inquires can be made by calling or writing to the above. Editorial and ad deadline is the 24th of the month preceding the month of publicaion. Mail subscriptions of SD METRO are available for $50 a year for addresses within the United States. A PDF version of this issue is available at sandiegometro.com Additional information, including past articles, online-only content and the Daily Business Report can be found at sandiegometro.com. For reprints or plaques of articles published in SD METRO , please call Rebeca Page at 858-461-4484 All real estate advertising in this newspaper is subject to the Fair Housing Act which makes it illegal to advertise “any Prefernce limitation or discriminatin based on race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national orgigin, or an intention, to make any preference, limitation or discrimination. “Familial status includes children under the age of 18 living wit hparents or legal custodians; pregnant women and people securing custody of children under 18. This magazine will not knowingly accept any advertising for real estate which in in violation of this law. Our readers are hereby informed that all dwellings advertised in this magazine are available on an equal opportunity basis. To complain of discrimination call HUD Toll-Free at 1-800-669-9777. Th Toll-free telephone number for the hearing impaired is 1-800-927-9275.
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PUBLISHER’S COLUMN
Victoria Clafin Woodhull — the first woman before Hillary By Bob Page Au contraire, Hillary! No, you are not the first woman to be nominated for the presidency of the United States. History tells us otherwise. This 1872 candidate was the first and quite possibly the most eccentric person ever nominated. Consider the following: • She ran 48 years before women gained the right to vote by the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920. • She was in jail on election day on obscenity charges. • She chose a noted African-American as her vice president nominee, although he disavowed any identity with her. • Her mother was illiterate and her father was a petty criminal. • With little formal education, her father turned her into a traveling clairvoyant. • She believed in free love. • Married an alcoholic doctor at 18. • She was a feminist before feminism. Meet Victoria Clafin Woodhull. Woodhull was the candidate of the Equal Rights Party in 1872. She ran against Horace Greeley of the Democratic Party and President Ulysses S. Grant, who represented the Republican Party. Woodhull chose Frederick Douglass, who had escaped slavery in Maryland, as her vice president nominee. He was a social reformer, abolitionist, writer, editor and statesman. Douglass was the first African-American nominated for vice president. However, he was nominated without his knowledge, never campaigned for the ticket and endorsed Grant for re-election. At the 1888 Republican National Convention, Douglass became the first African-American to receive a vote for President of the United States in a major party roll call vote. Her father put Woodhull and her sister to work selling fortunes and contacting spirits. The sisters claimed they made a small fortune during the Civil War as traveling clairvoyants. She and her sister, Tennessee Clafin, moved to New York and became the first female brokers on Wall Street although they never gained a seat on the New York Stock Exchange. As a presidential candidate, she campaigned for women’s suffrage, nationalization of the railroads, an eight-hour workday, welfare for the poor and the abolition of the death penalty. Her name appeared on ballots in some states but no one knows how many votes she received because they apparently were never counted. She was thrown in jail a few days before the 1872 election for having published ( she also owned a newspaper) an article calling Henry Ward Beecher, a popular preacher, an adulterous hypocrite. Beecher’s followers put together enough arrest warrants to put Woodhull and her sister behind bars. The charges against them were for sending obscene materials through the mails. They also faced libel charges for an article accusing a Wall Street trader of getting two teenage girls drunk and seducing them. They had their share of critics, among them Harrier Beecher
Stowe, Beecher’s sister and the author of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” She called Woodhull an “imprudent witch” and a “vile jailbird.” Cartoonist Thomas Nast depicted her as “Mrs. Satan.” In today’s world, Woodhull would be considered a feminist and ardently pro choice. She believed that women should have the right to escape bad marriages and control their own bodies. She infuriated Victorian sensitivities saying, “I want the love of you all, promiscuously,” and practiced what she preached by living at one point with an ex-husband, current husband and a lover in the same apartment. However, she also said that women should not cohabit with men until they were acknowledged as equals. Her sister had an affair with Cornelius Vanderbilt, the railroad baron of his day. He distrusted medical doctors and instead became a client of her clairvoyance. Vanderbilt’s stock tips netted the sisters nearly $1 million, money with which they would ultimately use to move to England where they married and spent the rest of their lives. Tennessee married Francis Cook, 1st Viscount of Monserrate. Victoria married for the third time to British banker John Martin. The sisters are buried in England. So there you are, Hillary. You are not the first.
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SAN DIEGO SCENE
Rendering of The Glen at Scripps Ranch. (Courtest Continuing Life Communities)
Last Big Parcel in Scripps Ranch Sold for Assisted Living Community Continuing Life Communities, a Carlsbad-based retirement community management company, has purchased a 53-acre land parcel in Scripps Ranch for $18.5 million to develop a continuing care retirement community. The project — The Glen at Scripps Ranch — will be located at 10495 and 10410 Pomerado Road. Plans for The Glen at Scripps Ranch include 450 assisted living units comprised of apartment and single-family residences with attached garages as well as 60 skilled nursing beds. The campus will
include a fitness center and spa, tennis courts, short-game golf course, walking and cycling trails, and movie theater among other amenities. Continuing Life Communities plans to break ground this month. “This is the last large undeveloped site in Scripps Ranch, which provides a spectacular location to develop a first class community that is greatly needed for the baby boomer population nearing and already in retirement,” said David Santistevan, executive vice president at Colliers International, which represented the buyer and the seller, Alliant Educational Foundation.
Old Globe’s Managing Director Leaving To Take Top Artistic Job in Buffalo Michael G. Murphy, general manager and managing director of The Old Globe Theatre for the past 13 years whose accomplishments included the construction of the Conrad Prebys Theatre Center and pioneering the annual performances of Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, will leave the company on Sept. 26 to become president and CEO of Shea’s Performing Arts Center in Buffalo, N.Y. Murphy will begin his new job in the first week of October. He will replace Anthony Conte, retiring after 15 years at
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Shea’s. “In the 13 years I’ve been here I’ve watched the Globe continue to grow in its national prominence and deepen its service to San Diego and I’m so proud to have made a contribution to that growth,” said Murphy. “I’m grateful to the artists, board members, donors, staff, and audiences who each play an important part making the Globe the flagship arts organization of San Diego.” Among his many accomplishments during his tenure at the Globe are the sensory-
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friendly annual performances he pioneered for Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (currently in their fourth year and immensely popular as a new family tradition). These performances, presented in a family-friendly and supportive environment for children and adults on the autism spectrum and their families, along with a number of other special-needs families, allow these sometimes isolated families to experience art and entertainment together in a safe and fun way, an experience that isn’t always easy to come by.
SAN DIEGO SCENE
UC San Diego Professor Awarded Prestigious Meteoritical Society Medal Mark Thiemens, a former dean and professor of chemistry and biochemistry at UC San Diego, has won the most prestigious prize awarded in the field of meteoritics — the scientific discipline concerned with the study of solar system origin, evolution and history. Thiemens, who served for the past 16 years as the founding dean of the Division of Physical Sciences, was announced as the winner of the Leonard Medal for 2017 at the annual meeting in Berlin, Germany of the Meteoritical Society, the International Society for Meteoritics and Planetary Science. The prize was established in 1962 to honor the first president of the society, Frederick Leonard. Thiemens, who stepped down as dean last month to spend more time on his research activities, is the fourth in a long line of prominent chemistry professors at UC San Diego to receive the Leonard Medal. All were leaders in their respective fields and all, coincidentally enough, started their careers at the University of Chicago, where Thiemens did his postdoctoral research. During his research career at UC San Diego, Thiemens developed new techniques of understanding the composition of the early atmosphere of the Earth, life’s imprint and the evolution of Mars. In 2006, the minor planet center at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, the clearinghouse for naming asteroids, designated a minor planet orbiting the inner part of the main asteroid belt (7004) Markthiemens in honor of his work with meteorites and extra-terrestrial materials.
Mark Thiemens with meteorite (UC San Diego)
Corporate Headquarters Completed For ICW Group Insurance Companies according to Ware Malcolm. Design details and amenities include: • Open ceilings, shared natural light, the use of rich color.
Offices of ICW Group Insurance Companies.
Construction of the new San Diego headquarters of ICW Group Insurance Companies has been completed. Ware Malcolm provided interior architecture and design services for the project at 15025 Innovation Drive. The firm’s design completely transformed the existing 68,105 square foot corporate headquarters of ICW Group. Ware Malcomb also provided an evaluation of new guidelines for space allocation and furniture standards. Sustainability played an important part in design and material selections,
• Areas of open two-story volume provide a sense of spaciousness and a strong relationship to nature. • A “living” green wall coupled with areas of open wood plank ceiling and wall applications also provide a connection to the outdoors. • Lighting and noise-cancelling technology to ensure productivity. • Work stations and offices come equipped with sit/stand desks and the latest ergonomic furniture. • New state-of-the-art gym and wellness room. The general contractor for the project was Burger Construction.
Convention Center Corporation Names New VP and General Manager The San Diego Convensociate director at the Univertion Center Corporation has sity of Dayton Arena in Dayappointed Karen Totaro as ton, Ohio for five years. senior vice president and genTotaro started in the business eral manager — a new posiat the University of Illinois in tion. She joins the ageny after Champaign/ Urbana as the serving as the general manmarketing manager for the ager of the Atlantic City Assembly Hall Arena. Convention Center. During her career Totaro Totaro starts her new job on has had an active role in the Sept. 30. International Association of Karen Totaro Prior to Atlantic City, ToVenue Managers by serving taro held the position of assistant genin several capacities which have included her recent role as chair of the eral manager at the Duke Energy Convention Center. Before that, she board as well as 1st and 2nd vice chair served as the assistant executive direcof the board of directors. tor at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland for nine years and the as-
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Cubic Global Receives $52 Million Contract Modification from Army Cubic Global Defense, a business unit of Cubic Corporation, has received a contract modification award worth more than $52 million from the U.S. Army Contracting Command to support rotational and predeployment training exercises at the U.S. Army Joint Readiness Training Center ( JRTC) in Fort Polk, La. Under the contract, Cubic will continue
to assist the JRTC with integrating U.S. and allied forces into rotational training exercises through scenarios. These types of exercises are conducted for units targeted for deployment in support of ongoing military operations overseas and include situational training, live fire, force-on-force and integrated live, virtual and constructive training.
Cubic has served the JRTC since 2001, assisting the Army in training over 138 brigade combat teams and over one million soldiers. Cubic received an initial five-year contract in 2001 and won the competitive bid in 2007 for one-base year with nine renewable option years.
36-Unit Apartment Complex in Grantville Sold to East Eight LLC for $7.45 Million Waring Gardens Apartments, a 36-unit complex on Adobe Falls Road in the Grantville area of San Diego, has been sold for $7.45 million to East Eight LLC. Waring Gardens LP was the seller. The complex was built in 1980 and consists of three two-story buildings. The buildings total 29,600 square feet and features one and two bedroom floor plans, with an average unit size of 822 square
feet. All units include air conditioning, carpeted floors and walk-in closets. The community amenities include a swimming pool, spa, picnic area with barbecue, common laundry room and limited tucked-under garage parking. CBRE represented the seller. The buyer was represented by Performa Property Management.
Waring Gardens Apartments
Chicago REIT Acquires Point Loma Luxury Apartments for $90 Million JLL Income Property Trust, a real estate investment trust, has acquired Dylan Point Loma, a newly-developed, ultra-luxury 180-unit coastal apartment community in Point Loma, for $90 million. Besides the 180 townhomes with attached garages, Dylan Point Loma has a 6,000-square-foot community clubhouse, resort-style saltwater pool and spa with cabanas and luxury lounges, fitness equipment, volleyball court, barbeque areas, landscaping and open spaces. It is located at 2930 Barnard St. “Dylan Point Loma exemplifies our core apartment investment strategy,” said Allan Swaringen, president and CEO of JLL Income Property Trust, which is based in Chicago. “We committed to this investment over a year ago and will complete the property’s lease up in keeping with our ‘lease to core’ apartment strategy.” LaSalle ranks the San Diego Downtown and coastal close-in apartment market as one of the top five target markets for core apartment investing in the U.S. It said the 8
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Dylan Point Loma
market is perennially among the most supply constrained in the U.S. where vacancies have averaged below 4 percent during the past 10 years, compared to the national average apartment vacancy of 5.5 percent. San Diego is also a top-ranking market in terms of rent growth and LaSalle’s Market Tracking System forecasts continued strong rent growth driven by low vacancies,
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steady job growth in San Diego’s technology, tourism, biotech and defense sectors, and limited new construction, according to LaSalle.Currently, San Diego has one of the lowest apartment vacancy rates in the country at 2.5 percent, with vacancies in the Point Loma submarket reaching 2 percent.
E D U C AT I O N
REALITY CHANGERS Rescuing youth from gangs and poverty By Jennifer Coburn
Chris Yanov, founder and president of Reality Changers.
Christopher Yanov is a gang leader in City Heights. Over the last 16 years, he’s initiated 1,000 young people into his ranks, teaching the older members how to recruit younger ones and making sure they stay involved. His gang is like a second family to many, giving them a place where someone’s always got their back. But Yanov’s gang is different than most. Instead of drugs and crime, this one deals in education and achievement with intense focus on college admission. Eyes on the Prize Yanov’s nonprofit Reality Changers has two programs: College Town and College Apps Academy. The first identifies eighth graders with grade point averages between 0.0 and 2.0, and offers them academic support and community service opportunities. The goal is to help students get the most out of their middle and high school experience, and develop a competitive resume which they can use when they start College Apps Academy in 12th grade. This component of Reality Changers, which students can participate in even if they have not been through the College Town program, provides SAT and ACT tutoring, essay writing support, interview prepara-
tion, and guidance through financial aid and scholarships for students who will be the first in their families to attend college. Ninety-seven percent of Reality Changers’ graduates attend college, with students having attended most Ivy League schools and all 10 of the University of California campuses. They’ve sent students to all but one of California State University’s 23 campuses. One expects these type of stats coming from affluent San Diego communities, but the organization is headquartered in a community where 26 percent of households are at the poverty line and the median family income is just over half of what it is for San Diego County. In City Heights, the probation capital of San Diego, gang activity is high and only 3 percent of adults have a college degree. Students are twice as likely to drop out of high school than their peers across the county. Christopher Yanov, founder and president of Reality Changers, spent the early years of his career in gang prevention, which gave him experience working with young people, but also served as a catalyst for his shift in methodology. He says the traditional approach to gang prevention spends too much time talking about nega-
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tive behavior, and not enough highlighting positive alternatives. Yanov and his staff of more than two dozen want to change the conversation among young people in City Heights. Instead of kids asking each other what gang they’re in, Reality Changers hopes they’ll discuss colleges they’d like to attend. “If someone’s walking a tightrope and I tell them not to look down, that’s probably where they’re going to look, and they’re going to fall,” he said. “But if I tell that person to keep their eyes on reaching their goal on the other side, they’ve got a much better chance of making it.” Walking the Tightrope Eduardo Corona was on that tightrope in the fall of 2006. He had just started ninth grade and was in a gang with his friends when they decided to break into a school and steal equipment, including computers and laptops. “We had been drinking and we were bored,” he explained of the break-in. Soon, the police surrounded the school and arrested Corona and his friends. “It was like a movie scene with police cars and dogs.” Corona was facing a six-year sentence that would begin in Juvenile Hall, where both his brother and
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E D U C AT I O N sister had also spent time. Corona called Yanov to tell him that he wouldn’t be able to continue in Reality Changers because he “wouldn’t be around,” he said, having resigned to doing time in jail. “The really difficult part was disappointing him,” Corona said. To the young man’s surprise, Yanov showed up at his court hearing and told the judge about Reality Changers. The judge gave Corona a second chance with the condition that he continue in the program, then asked Yanov for several brochures. Throughout high school, Corona was determined to stay out of Juvenile Hall, but equally motivated to do right by Yanov. “I doubled my GPA in a month, and enrolled in a mechanical engineering program at UCSD” the following summer, an opportunity Reality Changers offers high school students who want to spend three weeks living on campus experiencing life as a student. “I disappointed (Yanov) once and wasn’t going to let it happen again,” said Corona, who now works as a Reality Changers achievement coach while he finishes his degree in sociology and psychology at San Diego State University. Focusing on First-Generation College Hopefuls Reality Changers serves students throughout the county, but focuses on firstgens, a population that typically faces greater economic hardship than most. Take Michael Gaulden, a San Diego teen who spent 10 years homeless. He slept in shelters, on the streets, and in cars, begging for spare change from strangers Downtown. Both his great grandfather and grandfather were murdered; his father was convicted of murder. “I was up next,” he told an audience of Reality Changers students. “According to statistics, I should be selling drugs, I should be incarcerated, I should be dead.” Instead, he graduated from UCLA and is now working with homeless youth at San Diego’s Monarch School. Addressing an audience of San Diego educators, Reality Changers teen Lucerito Gutierrez recalled her earliest memories scavenging for recyclable bottles and cans in dumpsters with her mother when she was 5 years old. Today she is a Gates Millennium
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Scholar studying computer science at UCSD. She hopes to design systems to deliver clean water to 1 billion people across the world.
Once facing time in Juvenile Hall, Eduardo Corona has gone from gang member to college student and Reality Changers achievement coach.
Reality Changers graduate Jessie Sanchez excelled at Harvard College.
Reality Changers graduate Lucerito Gutierrez shares memories of dumpster diving as a young child. Today she is a Gates Millennium Scholar attending UCSD.
Michael Gaulden went from homelessness to UCLA with the support of Reality Changers.
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Paying for College Former gang member Corona says when he was a teen he never thought about attending college because “that was for rich people.” Today, part of his work as a Reality Changers achievement coach is sharing information about the many scholarships and financial aid opportunities available, especially for first-gens and students of color. Reality Changers recently reached the $100 million mark in scholarships earned by students, including the prestigious Gates Millennium Scholarship, which offers a blank check for minority students for their college and graduate studies in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. This was a banner year with students earning $25 million through various scholarship awards. “With the support of our no-cost, comprehensive college prep program, traditionally under-served students are excelling in high school, performing well on entrance exams, writing compelling personal essays, and successfully interviewing with college admissions representatives. But an equally important component is being able to afford college tuition,” said Yanov. “We are proud to help these hard-working students make higher education a reality.” Social and Economic Impact Attending college can transform the lives of students and their families, but it may also offer a significant social and economic impact on the community at large. According to The Economics of Education, a joint report by the U.S. Departments of Treasury and Education, a college graduate can expect to earn 64 percent more than a high school graduate. The College Board reports far-reaching community benefits like increased tax revenues, and better public health and safety. In their study, “It’s Not An the awe-inspiring view Trostel of a sunrise from Just Money,” Philip and Marthe International Space Station revealed garet Chase Smith of the Policy Center & in the new IMAX film, ‘A Beautiful Planet. School of Economics at University of Maine list numerous social and economic benefits of college attendance, from dramatically reduced risk of being incarcerated
E D U C AT I O N to significantly higher rates of overall happiness. “There is no better return on investment than what you get out of these kids,” said Chad Nelley, Reality Changers board member and executive at ESET, a San Diego cybersecurity firm. He says his business supports Reality Changers as a way to give back to the community, but the economic impact is hard to ignore. “The economic lift of a college education is tremendous. And imagine the impact on the other side,” he said. The other side Nelley refers to is what might happen to students who do not have access to a program like Reality Changers. Of course, not all young people would end up in a gang or drop out of high school without Reality Changers. But many would. Reality Changers and its supporters like Nelley believe these young people deserve a chance at the upward social and economic mobility a college education offers. And so does the community. According to the San Diego Police Department, there are currently 4,100 gang members and 88 local gangs who perpetrate crime ranging from vandalism to murder. Reality Changers cites the California State Budget, which reports that taxpayers spend $252,000 a year to incarcerate one youth.
Graduates of Reality Changers proudly announce their final college decisions. This year the program will see 300 graduates throughout San Diego County.
“Reality Changers invests $4,000 in each high school student per year until senior year when it’s $1,500,” said Yanov. “You don’t need a degree from Stanford to know what the better deal is.” One Generation to Change Reality The Reality Changers motto is: “College changes everything.” And it only takes one generation to make that change. Back when Yanov worked in gang prevention, a term he considers a misnomer, he was stabbed by a 20-year-old gang member he knew from the streets. The young man has been in and out of prison, but his son is now enrolled in
Reality Changers by the Book (University of California Press, June 2016) Grit and Hope tells the story of five inner-city Hispanic students who start their college applications in the midst of the country’s worst recession and of Reality Changers, the program that aims to help them become the first in their families to go college. This year they must keep up their grades in AP courses, write compelling essays for their applications, and find scholarships to fund their dreams. One lives in a garage and struggles to get enough to eat. Two are academic standouts, but are undocumented, ineligible for state and federal financial assistance. One tries to keep his balance as his mother gets a lifethreatening diagnosis; another bonds with her sister when their parents are sidelined by substance abuse.
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Reality Changers, and is working hard to further his education. When juvenile arrestees are asked why they join gangs, nearly half say it offers a support network that is not available to them anywhere else. Yanov is looking to change that. His challenge is broadening access to the program through increased funding. “We have hundreds of young people on our wait list right now,” said Yanov. “Gangs don’t have wait lists,” he lamented, but says he and his staff are committed to creating new opportunities for student who wants to change their reality.
The book also follows Christopher Yanov, the program’s youthful, charismatic founder in a year that’s as critical for Reality Changers’ future as it is for the seniors. Yanov wants to grow Reality Changers into national visibility. He’s doubled the program’s size, and hired new employees, but he hasn’t anticipated that growing means he’ll have to surrender some control, and trust his new staff. It’s the story of a highly successful, yet flawed organization that must change in order to grow. Told with deep affection and without sentimentality, the students stories show that although poverty and cultural deprivation seriously complicate youths’ efforts to launch into young adulthood, the support of a strong program makes a critical difference.a
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PRESENTING OUR
HONOREES
2016
A SALUTE TO 40 OUTSTANDING SAN DIEGANS SD METRO is proud to present winners of our 40 Under 40 Awards for 2016, a group of men and women who represent some of the best and brightest minds of San Diego County. The 40 Under 40 Awards Luncheon will be held on Friday, Sept. 16, in the Bel Air Room in the Bay Tower of the Sheraton Hotel & Marina,1590 Harbor Island Drive. Registration is at 11:30 a.m. The luncheon and program lasts from noon to 1:30 p.m.
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40 UNDER 40
DR . N IC OL E T E M P E L AS SI SI Dr. Nicole Tempel Assisi, CEO of Thrive Public Schools, is an outstanding educator in San Diego. She leads collaboration and innovation in her locality and the larger community. Prior to founding Thrive Public Schools, Assisi taught for the San Diego Unified School District and High Tech High. From there she helped found two of California’s most acclaimed charter operators — Camino Nuevo and the Da Vinci Schools in Los Angeles. Drawing from those experiences, Assisi — with the support of the Charter Schools Growth Fund — sought to open Thrive, a school designed to support students to become community-minded, career-inspired and college-prepared.
J E N N I F E R BA R N E S Jennifer Barnes co-launched Pro Back Office, an outsourced accounting and human resources firm in 2012 that provides professional consulting and accounting support to businesses ranging from startups to mid-size in all industries and, very importantly, entrepreneurial business owners with great aspirations. Drawing from her passion for efficiency, Barnes has championed a unique approach to outsourced services that better serve growing companies by providing a more personal, customized offering. Jennifer has simultaneously created a great company culture, providing more fulfilling opportunities for finance, accounting and human resource professionals. Jennifer and PBO have won several awards and accolades, including being one of San Diego’s Fastest Growing Companies for 2016.
SHA N NON B RU BA K E R Shannon Brubaker, a partner at Best Best & Krieger, one of California’s largest law firms, is a highly regarded and sought-after litigator whose diverse practice centers on complex business and real property legal cases. Her legal portfolio doesn’t end there, however. Brubaker is also a fierce advocate for asylum seekers, whom she represents pro bono through various nonprofit organizations in Southern California. At Best Best & Krieger, Brubaker represents a wide array of clients, including corporations, government and religious organizations, banks and individuals in all aspects of litigation from case intake to resolution.
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40 UNDER 40
L AU R A BU C K L E Y Laura Buckley is a partner and tax attorney at Higgs Fletcher & Mack. She represents international individuals and businesses with their state and federal taxation matters and business transactions. She specializes in cost-effective resolution of tax controversies before the IRS, Franchise Tax Board, the state Board of Equalization as well as the U.S. Tax Court. Prior to joining Higgs Fletcher & Mack, she was an IRS chief counsel attorney and a special assistant U.S. Attorney and was selected as national chair for all IRS Counsel’s young attorneys. Buckley has been selected as a Rising Star by Super Lawyers. She is a member of the San Diego Rotary Club and is the current chair of the Young Tax Lawyer’s Committee of the California Bar Association. She has won numerous cases, including one in which the IRS was seeking $10 million in additional taxes from a client. Buckley and the IRS attorney spent weeks trying to settle. Two weeks before the trial, the IRS caved and conceded it could not prevail.
M E L I S S A C A M E RON Melissa Cameron is vice president of Southwest Strategies, one of San Diego’s largest public affairs and communications agencies. In her five years at the company, she has been promoted six times. During that time she has directed and managed a variety of accounts, working on issues of public outreach, land use planning and development, crisis communications, media relations and government relations. Cameron has also volunteered and has worked on a number of political campaigns since the age of 15, moving from stuffing envelopes to managing campaigns. She is in line to become president of the San Diego and Imperial Counties chapter of the Public Relations Society of America.
C H R I S C AT E Chris Cate is the first Asian-American elected to the San Diego City Council in over 50 years. He has served as vice president of the San Diego County Taxpayers Association. As a longtime taxpayer advocate, he has championed local and state legislation which ensures that cities and public agencies exercise accountability, efficiency and fiscal discipline on behalf of their taxpayers who fund them. During his tenure he successfully wrote the analysis for Proposition B, a local initiative that will save taxpayers more than $1 billion over 30 years. In his first year on the City Council, Cate has focused on four key areas: public safety, economic development, infrastructure and civic engagement. He has established new neighborhood watch captains in Clairemont and Mira Mesa to partner with the San Diego Police Department.
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J E N N I F E R C HA NG Jennifer Chang is a real estate attorney with the San Diego law firm Gresham Savage. She handles real estate financing, acquisitions, commercial leasing and advising on local and state zoning issues and code enforcement. Prior to law school, Chang worked as a business analyst in DaimlerChrysler Corporation’s Office of the General Counsel, where she gained considerable in-house transactional experience. As a board member of the Duke Club of San Diego from 2005 to 2014, Chang served on the Alumni Admissions interview team for over six years, interviewing prospective college students for admissions committee consideration. She also served as liaison with other school alumni groups in San Diego, organizing events and service projects.
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DR . C A ROL LY N N C U RC HOE Dr. Carol Lynn Curchoe was a high school dropout who obtained her Ph.D. in just three years from the University of Connecticut. She is one of the three women founders in biotech and clean energy. She is a founder of 32-ATPs LLC, a biological energy development company and co-founder of EduPaper Products (STEM Education). Her technology, the 32ATPs biological supercapacitor, recently won the Utah Innovation Award for Clean Technology. She is a molecular and cellular biologist whose work has been published in Biology of Reproduction, STEM cells and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, and cited nearly 200 times.
A M A N DA C U R R I E Amanda Currie is senior vice president of Amobee, a leading global marketing technology company. She is a seasoned executive, entrepreneur and an expert in digital marketing and technology. Currie was co-founder and vice president of Frontline Direct, which was acquired by Adconion Media Group in 2008, and she was with Adconion Direct when it was acquired by Amobee in June 2014. This last year has been record-setting for Amobee, and Currie has led the way overseeing strategic partnerships, business development and marketing efforts as the head of the San Diego office, the delivery hub of the global company. She has continued to develop the company’s core technology platform, Amobee Brand Intelligence, which analyzes and aggregates over 60 billion digital content engagements — what people view, read, interact with and share daily across multiple platforms.
C R I STA C U RT I S Crista Curtis is a long-time Southern California resident who is leading business development for OpTerra Energy’s recently opened Solana Beach office. She currently works with local school districts, cities and counties to develop synamic energy savings programs that utilize renewable energy and energy-efficient technologies. Curtis and her team of engineers were recently awarded a contract to implement comprehensive energy savings projects with the La Mesa-Spring Valley United School District. They maintain an on-going relationship with the San Dieguito Union High School District and its solar program. Curtis is a graduate of UC Riverside. She is actively involved with Cleantech San Diego and the League of California Cities. She is a member of the Seacoast Community Church in Encinitas and has participated in many of the church’s missions to Rwanda, Brazil, Egypt and Costa Rica.
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A R I KA DA N I E L S Arika Daniels founded the San Diego-based communications firm Scatena Daniels with Denise Skatena. It’s an agency that focuses on nonprofits, foundations and social-minded companies. Arika said her goal in starting Scatena Daniels was to be able to make a difference in her job every day, while doing what she loves best. “Working with companies that have heart” has proven to be the answer. Arika’s work has earned multiple awards from the Public Relations Society of America and International Association of Business Communicators. She has spent a lot of time doing pro bono work, most with Chula Vista’ Mission, a national nonprofit providing therapy and mentoring resources for young motherless girls.
M E L I S S A DE E N Melissa Deen is vice president of marketing for Sunrise Management, which currently oversees more than 13,000 multifamily units throughout California and the Southwest. She participates in strategic planning, corporate innovation and identification and implementation of industry best practices. She leads the marketing and business development initiatives for the company. She is a member of the Masters Academy and Executive Committee at Sunrise. Election to the Masters Academy recognizes consistent outstanding performance and a mastery of the skills required in an individual’s particular area of expertise. Deen is actively involved with the Building Industry Association of San Diego and a past president of the yGEN Council of BIA.
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M AT T DE L OAC H Matt DeLoach’s winemaking passion grew from four volunteers in 2012 to a company of 50 employees today. He started with an idea of pop-up dinners with guest chefs and wine pairings, but the vision flourished into something much larger. A hobby grew into a business, Abnormal Wine Company, with a tiny tasting room to showcase his wines to the public. From there, an upscale restaurant was built as an expansion to the wine tasting room, featuring both an urban winery and craft brewery inside. In addition to his restaurant business, Matt started Valio Con with partner Andrew Wilson, an annual tech conference for designers and makers. Since 2011, they have invited tech companies, designers and innovators around the world to Mission Bay to share about success and risks in the digital industry.
K R I ST I N E L L IOT T Kristin Elliott joined her family’s environmental water monitoring business, Precision Measurement Engineering (PME), 10 years ago and has been working towards creating a dynamic and dedicated team, defining the company vision and increasing growth. She has grown the company’s annual revenues from $300,000 to over $1 million. Its revenues are expected to grow to $1.5 million this year. Elliot has a very busy schedule, dividing her time between growing and developing PME, being involved with various business organizations, such as the San Diego Entrepreneur’s organization, and raising her two young children. PME attracts customers and businesses from throughout the world.
M A R E S A F R I E DM A N Maresa Friedman founded The Executive Cat Herder after running Global Operations & Market Development for Halo Business Intelligence, a global Analytics firm. She specializes in creating high impact changes with simple execution strategies. Her simple, no frills, and direct approach to project engagement has created a fractional COO/CMO model that has been embraced within the technology community. LinkedIn has named Friedman in the top 1 percent for Social Selling in the technology industry. She was also a judge for the Business Intelligence Stratus Awards and is currently a contributor to the Innovation Enterprise a platform connecting leaders from startups to Fortune 500 companies. She writes for the Chief Strategy Officer, Chief Data Officer and CFO channels. She is also on the board for the San Diego Civic Youth Ballet. She is also a founding member of The Collective Access, an organization dedicated to empowering the underserved within the San Diego Community.
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M AT T H E W G E A M A N Matthew Geaman is an exceptional architect and respected leader at Joseph Wong Design Associates. While an undergraduate at the University of Illinois he was inducted into the Architectural Honor Society, an academically elite group of students who demonstrated an uncommon degree of scholarship and excellence. He earned his Master of Architectural at Illinois with high honors. At Joseph Wong, he had complete oversight of the design and construction of the San Diego Community College District’s North City Campus while still an intern. He led Wong’s winning response effort to secure the $32 million San Diego Mesa College Social and Behavioral Science Building. He also led Wong’s winning efforts to secure two projects at UCSD.
STA R H U G H E S - G ORU P Star Hughes-Gorup is a director at Hughes Marino, the largest tenant representation company in San Diego. Star, the daughter of Hughes Marino founder Jason Hughes, has made a name for herself representing the young startups that are turning Downtown San Diego into a fledgling tech hub. Now, with a mastery of the market, her expertise and determined work ethic have not gone unnoticed. She was named a 2015 Broker of the Year by one of the largest landlords in Southern California, the Irvine Company. To date, Star has been instrumental in accelerating transactions for more than 1 million square feet in San Diego’s commercial markets. She is a vocal advocate for gender equality and is an active member of the Lawyers Club of San Diego, which is committed to advancing the status of women in society and in the workplace.
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A L R E E N HA E G G QU I ST Alreen Haeggquist is co-founder and managing partner of Zeldes Haeggquist & Eck LLP. She is dedicated to the advancement of women in the workplace as well as representing employees who have been wrongfully terminated or otherwise harassed and discriminated against at work. The overwhelming majority of her clients are women who have suffered egregious wrongs at the hands of their employers. Currently, Haeggquist is representing women plaintiffs in employment claims against such major corporations as Trader Joe’s, Sharp Healthcare and Kaiser Permanente. Her work as a litigator is squarely focused on ensuring women are given a fair shake in the workplace. All partners in her firm are women. She has won numerous awards, including being named a Super Lawyer for her work in employment litigation.
SR I N I VAS HA N UM A DAS S Attorney Srinivas Hanumadass has achieved many successful results over the course of his relatively short career, among them — vindicating the free speech rights of physicians before the California Supreme Court; obtaining a complete judgment in a sexual harassment/disability discrimination case in a bench trial and helping secure a $1.3 million award on behalf of his clients under the California whistleblower statutes in a jury trial. In just his first year at the CaseyGerry law firm, he has helped his clients obtain millions in successful verdicts and settlements. Hanumadass is the past president of the South Asian Bar Association and is the Scholarship Committee chair of the Lawyers Club of San Diego.
SHA NA HA Z A N Shana Hazan is the senior director of resource development for Jewish Family Services in San Diego, where she oversees the agency’s institutional and individual fund development, government relations and public policy works. Hazan and her team raised $14 million last year for the agency’s vital programs and services, such as the Positive Parenting Program that provides free parenting workshops throughout San Diego County to help parents strengthen their families. Passionate about high-quality early education, Hazan designed and secured $450,000 in funding for the Linda Vista Kindergarten Readiness Network. She also sits on the board of directors of CORE Educational Services which broadens educational opportunities for older youth.
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SE A N KA R A F I N Sean Karafin joined the staff at the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce in early 2015 as executive director of policy and economic research. Karafin has developed a reputation for sound economic research and advocacy that creates economic growth in the San Diego region. He has been the lead author on several high-profile research projects that have received media coverage and shaped the policy decisions of organizations and elected officials. Prior to joining the chamber, Karafin served in multiple roles at the San Diego County Taxpayers Association. Sean also has mentored several interns and his involvement in the chamber’s Young Leaders program helps to ensure that the next generation of business leaders have the tools and connections they need to succeed.
A NG I E L AS AG NA Angie Lasagna is vice president of community relations and external affairs for Mission Federal Credit Union. She began her banking career as a drive-up window teller at Grossmont Bank. Before joining Mission Federal, she was with Navy Federal as the bank’s member outreach manager, and was also regional marketing and public relations manager for USA Federal. At California Bank and Trust she advanced from a customer service representative to marketing officer. She has received numerous awards and honors in her career and has been on the boards of several nonprofits. Lasagna is currently chairwoman of the Credit Union for Kids Committee, and has served as chair for Miracle Maker for Rady Children’s Hospital. She has been a top fundraiser for City of Hope and for Kids New Day. She is a member of the boards of the San Diego Council for Literacy, Shoal Creek Elementary and Make A Wish Foundation. She earned a Certificate in Meeeting and Event Planning from San Diego State University.
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JA M I E M OR AG A Jamie Moraga is founder, president and CEO of intelliSolutions Inc., a woman-owned small business in the defense industry that is headquartered in San Diego. In addition to her leadership of intelliSolutions, Moraga was 2014 president for the San Diego Military Advisory Council and continues to serve on the National Defense Industrial Association Board of Trustees in Washington, D.C. Prior to starting intelliSolutions in 2006, she worked more than seven years in a communications, public relations, public affairs, program management, and marketing capacity where she managed a number of clients and supervised a variety of teams with emphasis in multiple areas, including the defense industry.
LU P I TA M OR A L E S Lupita Morales is the medical services manager for Fresh Start Surgical Gifts where she helps serve the medical needs of over 3,000 children and teens with physical deformities. She has organized and supervised screening clinics to spread Fresh Start’s mission to transform the lives of children with deformities caused by birth, trauma or disease through the gift of reconstructive surgery. She has established partnerships with local groups, including the San Diego County School District, Ronald McDonald House Charities as well as with Hospital Infantil De Las Californinias, and ConnectMed International and the International Program at Rady Children’s Hospital. She has worked to empower women in North County and Tijuana to escape a life of prostitution by providing the women with safe housing. She holds a bachelor’s degree and a Meeting and Event Planning Certificate from Cal State San Marcos.
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M A RG I E N E W M A N Margie Newman, owner and managing director of Intesa Communications Group in San Diego, has gone from an unknown to ubiquitous in a little over three years. Since relocating here in 2012, Newman founded Intesa, a full-service PR and web design firm; opened Intesa’s Washington, D.C. office; and joined the boards of the International Association of Business Communicators and the San Diego Council on Literacy. Newman was press aide to former Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen, serving as assistant for communications to the governor after his 2002 election. She later directed communications for the governor’s Books From Birth Foundation.
JAS ON PAG U IO Jason Paguio is president and chief executive officer of Parade Band Foundation and chief of staff to Deputy Mayor Steve Miesen of Chula Vista. He is a member of the governing board for Sharp Chula Vista Medical Center, and a board member of the Asian Pacific American Coalition, a partnership focused on cultivating civic engagement to forward the voices of San Diego’s 300,000-plus Asian American community. Paguio has taught leadership and created one of San Diego’s fastest growing leadership camps in partnership with San Diego State University. He is the chair-elect of the Chula Vista Charitable Foundation and is a member of the board of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce Young Leaders.
STACEY LANKFORD PENNINGTON Stacey Lankford Pennington is the principal and founder of SLP Urban Planning, an urban planning and design firm she founded in 2006 that is focused on integrating best practices in sustainability and community engagement. While Pennington spent several years balancing a broad spectrum of clients and projects, her current focus is on the urban planning and design, community engagement, activation and marketing of Makers Quarter, a block located in the Upper East Village of Downtown San Diego. Makers Quarter has broken ground in 2016, and will continue to reach development milestones throughout the year with Pennington leading the charge.
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KIM REED PERELL Kim Perell is president of Amobee, a wholly owned subsidiary of Singtel, one of Asia’s leading telecommunications groups. Amobee is a leading global marketing technology company with 550 employees spread across 20 offices worldwide, and serving over 1,000 leading brands and agencies, including Lexus, Kellogg’s and Kraft. Perell was previously CEO of Adconion Direct,which was acquired by Amobee in 2014 for $235 million. Under her direction, over $1 billion in ad spending was served across Adconiion Direct’s marketing platform. Prior to Adconion, Perell was the chief executive officer and founder of Frontline Direct, a leading performance marketing company which she self-funded from her kitchen table and grew to over $100 million in annual revenue. The global expansion of Amobee Brand Intelligence allows advertisers to activate media based on historical and real-time data and insights from over 60 billion content engagements daily across the web, mobile, social and video content.
M A R JA N R ASH E DI Marjan Rashedi is medical and dental director of North County Dental Surgery Center and president and pediatric dentist at SmileBuilders Children’s Dentistry. She founded the dental surgery center in 2015. This state-licensed ambulatory surgery center is Medicare certified and is the only dental ambulatory surgery center in San Diego County providing general anesthesia services to pediatric dental patients. Pediatric patients now have convenient access to a facility that can provide services to restore their oral health and alleviate pain in a timely manner. Dr. Rashedi focuses on post operative oral health care and believes in spending time educating patients and their families about proper oral hygiene, diet advice and disease prevention.
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J U L I E SE A L A true innovator, Julie Seal started Mirus Productions in 2009 and the company has become a thriving experiential marketing business. As of this year, Mirus Productions has supported clients in their fields and event marketing efforts coast-to-coast and completed its first brand promotions north of the border in Canada. She has created a new web platform that streamlines processes and procedures for clients, internal staff and her team. Clients are able to use the platform to schedule events, post-metric events, photos and expenses. She is a long-time supporter and fundraiser for UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center, the Aztec Mentor Program at San Diego State, the Rescue House, Breast Cancer and the Make-AWish Foundation of San Diego. Mirus Productons was recognized as one of San Diego’s Most Admired Companies by SD METRO Magazine in 2015. Mirus executed more than 3,000 promotions nationwide in 2015.
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M AT T SE M IC Matt Semic became partner in Latitude 33 Planning & Engineering in San Diego in just three years after joining the company. Only 15 employees were on staff when Semic arrived. That number has grown to 54 employees thanks, in large part, to his efforts to establish a dynamic company culture. About half of Latitude 33’s team consists of millennials. Semic worked hard to create a satisfying environment at the company with such perks as working only half-day on Friday, monthly group outings, team activities and participation with charitable community projects. Semic led diversification efforts of the firm’s work portfolio by entering more progressive markets, which created more than 50 percent revenue growth for Latitude 33 in each of the past two years.
K E L LY S OU Z A Kelly Souza is senior vice president and office manager for Wells Fargo Commercial Real Estate. She has booked over $1.1 billion in new commitments for the bank between 2005 and 2011. She underwrites all major commercial asset types, builds financial models and sensitivity analysis, obtains credit approvals and negotiates legal documents with clients. Souza is a member of the policy advisory board of the Burnham Moores Center for Real Estate at USD, an undergraduate mentor at USD and a member of Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW) and the National Association of Office and Industrial Properties. She is the recipient of the prestigious Wells Fargo “Golden Spike” award for excellence in sales and service.
M E L I S S A STAY N E R Melissa Stayner is a licensed geologist and the director of marketing for LGC Valley Inc., a geotechnical engineering consulting firm. She also is a board member of the Building Industry Association’s Young Generation of Leaders — or yGEN — which has become politically active in informing government decision makers of the big impact that housing development fees, for example, are having on potential new home buyers. Stayner also is using her expertise as a member of the North Park Planning Committee, which currently is advising the city on its update of the Greater North Park Community Plan. One test before Stayner in her new role is working with community opposition to achieve an agreeable solution regarding the Community Plan update, specifically the neighborhood’s climate action strategy.
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M E G STOR E R Meg Storer is vice president of government and community relations for 2-1-1 San Diego. The mission of 2-1-1 is to serve as a nexus to bring community organizations together to help people get appropriate services efficiently, and to provide vital data and trend information for proactive community planning. Storer is a graduate of the North County Leadership Class as well as an alumnus of Fieldstone Foundation Emerging Leaders Class. She has served as a long-time board member of the Alliance of Information and Referral Systems. She has served as a founding member of the San Diego Veterans Coalition. Her ability for consensus organizing and solution focused approach has been instrumental in bringing people together. Storer holds a master’s degree in nonprofit leadership and management from the University of San Diego.
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BRAD TERMINI When Zephyr opened its doors in 2008 at the height of the residential real estate slump, the company hit the ground running, acquiring property for multifamily and single home development throughout San Diego County. Now, the company, led by Co-CEO Brad Termini, is one of the most active private builders in San Diego. Since Zephyr’s inception, Termini has overseen more than $750 million in development — focusing on opportunistic investments in urban and suburban areas, alike, with previous projects successfully executed in La Jolla, La Mesa and Oceanside. Termini is involved in all aspects of the business, and communicates regularly with architects, designers and subcontractors.
TOM AS U RTASU N Tomas Urtasun is a vice president of Focuscom Inc., a public relations and marketing agency. He is the board treasurer for the San Ysidro Health Center Board and this year joined the board of the San Diego Taxpayers Association. He serves as the main point of contact for many of Focuscom’s wide client base while also serving as a business development and daily strategic operations manager. His approach to his work and volunteering exemplify a dedication to a wide range of specialties. Urtasun’s personable, compassionate nature has led him to volunteer for Big Brothers, Big Sisters of San Diego County. Urtasun, who is bilingual, holds a bachelor of arts degree from Gonzaga University and a master’s in business administration from the University of San Diego.
A L B E RTO “B E TO” VAS QU E Z Alberto “Beto” Vasquez, who was raised in Logan Heights, one of San Diego’s most impoverished neighborhoods, rose out of that environment to attain a bachelor’s degree at UCSD and to find challenging work at San Diego City College and with San Diego Councilman David Alvarez. Vasquez is currently employed with the city of San Diego and the San Diego Community College District and serves as community representative for Councilman Alvarez. As an outreach specialist for San Diego City College, Vasquez works directly with underrepresented groups and helps to develop programs serving disenfranchised populations. He constantly strives to strengthen relationships between communities, students and his campus. One example is the Big Clean Up, a community beautification project he founded that annually brings together about 200 volunteers, businesses, and donors.
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JA M E S W R IG H T James Wright is chief executive officer of the Classroom of the Future Foundation. Classroom of the Future was founded in San Diego in 1997 and has grown to be a trusted resource for school districts throughout the county. As the newly appointed CEO, Wright leads the development and execution of the organization’s strategic plans and objectives. He has positioned the organization as a critical resource for schools seeking contemporary teaching methods and technology. He also serves on the board for Resounding Joy, a local nonprofit that provides therapeutic and recreational music therapy to children, veterans and the elderly. Wright holds a bachelor of arts degree from George Washington Universiy and a master’s degree in nonprofit leadership and management from the University of San Diego.
L AU R A G ODF R E Y Z AG A R Attorney Laura Godfrey Zagar is a trend-setting partner in Perkins Cole’s national environmental and energy practice group. She is an authority on energy and infrastructure development, and has been an integral player in innovative and critical projects devoted to assisting California’s battle to combat climate change and meet renewable energy goals, including transmission lines, wind farms, solar farms, and water projects. Zagar is fully involved in the San Diego community, giving hundreds of hours to important causes. She is on the executive committee for Equality California, the state’s premiere LGBT civil rights organization, and serves on the organization’s Governance Committee.
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W I L L IA M Z A K R AJ SH E K William Zakrajshek is co-founder and owner of Hillcrest Social, a social media app that promotes LGBT and gay-friendly businesses throughout San Diego County. Hillcrest Social features events, photo feeds, venues, DJs, local talent and a live chat for people to connect. In its short two years, it has garnered 7,000 loyal subscribers and secured sponsorships such as the Del Mar Fairgrounds, House of Blues and Porto Vista Hotel. He also launched an application called “DJ WillZ-Mobile,” making him the first DJ in the region with his own application available in all major markets. He has spearheaded the annual “Ugly Sweater Party” as a fundraiser for the Warm Smile Project, benefitting children and the elderly in Tijuana. He also partnered with the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club for an LGBT day at the races, which is now known as “Out at the Races.”
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T HA N K YOU TO T H E 4 0 U N DE R 4 0 J U D G E S
CYNTHIA MORGAN-REED
CRYSTAL SARGENT
TERESA WARREN
ILEANA ENGEl
DEBRA ROSEN
Morgan-Reed Law
Invested Traveler
TW2 Marketing
North San Diego Business Council
Congratulations to all of the 2016 40 under 40 honorees. Mission Fed is happy to support the local community and today's leaders.
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NOW OPEN FOR LUNCH!
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TECHNOLOGY
Flexible Wearable Electronic Skin Patch Offers New Way to Monitor Alcohol Levels spiration that happens before it’s perceived as moisture on the skin. But this measurement can be up to two hours behind the actual blood alcohol reading. On the other hand, the alcohol level in sensible sweat—the sweat that’s typically seen—is a better realtime indicator of the blood alcohol concentration, but so far the systems that can measure this are neither portable nor fit for wearing on the body. Now, UC San Diego researchers have developed an alcohol sensor that’s wearable, portable and could accurately monitor alcohol level in sweat within 15 minutes. “What’s also innovative about this technology is that the wearer doesn’t need to be exercising or sweating already. The user can put on the patch and within a few minutes get a reading that’s well correlated to his or her blood alcohol concentration. Such a device hasn’t been available until now,” Mercier said.
By Liezel Labios | UC San Diego
Engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed a flexible wearable sensor that can accurately measure a person’s blood alcohol level from sweat and transmit the data wirelessly to a laptop, smartphone or other mobile device. The device can be worn on the skin and could be used by doctors and police officers for continuous, non-invasive and real-time monitoring of blood alcohol content. The device consists of a temporary tattoo—which sticks to the skin, induces sweat and electrochemically detects the alcohol level—and a portable flexible electronic circuit board, which is connected to the tattoo by a magnet and can communicate the information to a mobile device via Bluetooth. The work, led by nanoengineering professor Joseph Wang and electrical engineering professor Patrick Mercier, both at UC San Diego, was published recently in the journal ACS Sensors. “Lots of accidents on the road are caused by drunk driving. This technology provides an accurate, convenient and quick way to monitor alcohol consumption to help prevent people from driving while intoxicated,” Wang said. The device could be integrated with a car’s alcohol ignition interlocks, or friends could use it to check up on each other before handing over the car keys, he added. “When you’re out at a party or at a bar, this sensor could send alerts to your phone to let you know how much you’ve been drinking,” said Jayoung Kim, a materials science and engineering PhD student in Wang’s group and one of the paper’s co-first authors. Blood alcohol concentration is the most accurate indicator of a person’s alcohol level, but measuring it requires pricking a finger. Breathalyzers, which are the most commonly used devices to indirectly estimate blood alcohol concentration, are non-invasive, but they can give false readouts. For example, the alcohol level detected in a person’s breath right after taking a drink would typically appear higher than that person’s actual blood alFlexible wearable cohol concentration. A person could also fool sensor for detecta breathalyzer into detecting a lower alcohol ing alcohol level level by using mouthwash. can be worn on Recent research has shown that blood the arm. (UCSD Jacobs School of Enalcohol concentration can also be estigineering) mated by measuring alcohol levels in what’s called insensible sweat—per-
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How It Works Wang and Mercier, the director and co-director, respectively, of the UC San Diego Center for Wearable Sensors, collaborated to develop the device. Wang’s group fabricated the tattoo, equipped with screen-printed electrodes and a small hydrogel patch containing pilocarpine, a drug that passes through the skin and induces sweat. Mercier’s group developed the printed flexible electronic circuit board that powers the tattoo and can communicate wirelessly with a mobile device. His team also developed the magnetic connector that attaches the electronic circuit board to the tattoo, as well as the device’s phone app. “This device can use a Bluetooth connection, which is something a breathalyzer can’t do. We’ve found a way to make the electronics portable and wireless, which are important for practical, real-life use,” said Somayeh Imani, an electrical engineering PhD student in Mercier’s lab and a co-first author on the paper. The tattoo works first by releasing pilocarpine to induce sweat. Then, the sweat comes into contact with an electrode coated with alcohol oxidase, an enzyme that selectively reacts with alcohol to generate hydrogen peroxide, which is electrochemically detected. That information is sent to the electronic circuit board as electrical signals. The
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TECHNOLOGY data are communicated wirelessly to a mobile device. Putting the Tattoo to the Test Researchers tested the alcohol sensor on 9 healthy volunteers who wore the tattoo on their arms before and after consuming an alcoholic beverage (either a bottle of beer or glass of red wine). The readouts accurately reflected the wearers’ blood alcohol concentrations. The device also gave accurate readouts even after repeated bending and shaking. This shows that the sensor won’t be affected by the wearer’s movements, researchers said. As a next step, the team is developing a device that could continuously monitor alcohol levels for 24 hours.
The alcohol sensor consists of a temporary tattoo (left) developed by the Wang lab and a flexible printed electronic circuit board (right) developed by the Mercier lab. (UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering)
Flexible wearable sensor for detecting alcohol level can be worn on the arm. (UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering)
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C O M M E R C I A L R E A L E S TAT E
INNOVATIVE WORKSPACE STAYING ONE STEP AHEAD iboss Cybersecurity’s headquarters is an old SAIC building converted into a 43,000-square-foot creative office.
By April Harter Enriquez
School’s back in session. For adults, it’s been years since you congregated with friends during recess or zipped down a slide on the playground. Why? Because you’re an adult and you must report to your cubicle. This workspace trend may have held true for most of your adult life, but some of the leading commercial real estate firms are helping facilitate what the city of San Diego calls the “innovation economy” with fresh approaches to workspace environments. Owner/operators like Kilroy Realty Corporation and Westcore Properties, general contractors like Pacific Building Group, future-minded public officials and more are all doing their part to make sure commercial real estate not only keeps up with but also inspires San Diego’s companies. “The innovation economy is a high output economy based on creativity and ingenuity,” said Kristin Tillquist, director of
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state government affairs and innovation policy for the city of San Diego. “Our responsibility as a city is to partner with businesses, commercial real estate professionals, public private partners, community members, youth and all elements of the city to create the ecosystem — that somewhat intangible but extremely important environment — that encourages innovation to thrive.” Nelson Ackerly, senior vice president at Kilroy, is also chairman of the board of NAIOP San Diego, the commercial real estate development association. He says that NAIOP and other professional associations play an important part in this equation. “The built environment in which we work is a significant contributor to an individual’s and an organization’s creativity and productivity. Our industry has a unique opportunity to help foster innovation through the way we design, develop, reposition and lease space to our customers,” he said. Capturing the intangible that encourages innovation and enhances employee re-
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cruitment and retention was San Diegobased iboss Cybersecurity’s intent for their new office space. The growing company converted an old SAIC building into a 43,000-square-foot creative office. Jim Roherty, whose firm Pacific Building Group served as general contractor for the office, said that collaboration drove the design. “Rather than constructing isolated work environments, iBoss asked us to construct a space that would promote collaboration,” said Roherty, president of Pacific Building Group. “That meant removing walls, exposing ceilings and floors and adding space for gathering and leisure.” Other improvements completed by Pacific Building Group, architecture firm Gensler, and project management firm B&G Consultants, included a red slide connecting the first and second floors, an oversized wood swing, common open space and the use of glass to let in natural light. Located within blocks of UC San Diego, Iboss knew they’d be able to attract and retain top talent if they were able to create the right environment for their workforce. Since then, the company has re-
C O M M E R C I A L R E A L E S TAT E
Don Ankeny, president and CEO of Westcore Properties
Jim Roherty, president of Pacific Building Group
Nelson Ackerly, senior vice president at Kilroy and chairman of the board of NAIOP San Diego
ceived nearly 300 percent more inbound job applicants. The iboss project also checks the box for one of the city’s goals. “We are focused on ensuring that grads are increasingly choosing to stay in San Diego and invest their talents in our start-up companies, midsized and large companies,” said Tillquist. Ackerly said his firm has collaborated with many of the world’s most innovative companies, including Intuit, salesforce.com, LinkedIn and Viacom. The lessons learned at projects in other innovation economy markets such as Hollywood, San Francisco and Seattle, are then applied to projects here in San Diego. “People are becoming more savvy as consumers of the environment where they work,” said Ackerly. “As consumers, they are less interested in the typical office model. They are looking for a workspace that fosters their culture and encourages teamwork and productivity. In addition to the layout of their space, they want to see sustainable design features, and prefer locations with amenities like dining, shopping and living options within close proximity.” Don Ankeny, president and CEO of Westcore Properties, a firm that focuses on renovating and repurposing industrial and office properties, pointed out another recent development in workspace evolution. “E-commerce is huge and used to require large warehouse spaces in outlying areas,” he said. “When firms like Amazon started offering one-day and same-day delivery, it drove demand for smaller, infill in-
dustrial buildings closer to population centers, where land is more expensive and there’s more competition for buildings – even from users that aren’t traditional industrial users.” He points to this change as a great example of how the commercial real estate community has to be able to anticipate and react to paradigm shifts in space usage by employers. When asked about the unique needs of San Diego’s workforce, Ackerly said that the local economy is wide-ranging. “San Diego has a diverse economy with life science, medical device, defense, financial services, law, tech and other industries,” he said. “Many other markets are more focused on one sector, like Los Angeles being focus on entertainment and San Francisco and Seattle being focused on tech. All humans, though, want a focus on sustainability, outdoor access and natural light.” Roherty agreed, noting that indoor-outdoor spaces are becoming more important. “What used to be a rarely-used picnic table and cement slab is now a creative outdoor space accessed by a roll-up garage door,” Roherty said. “Employers can go outside and hold a meeting if they want to. They can triple the size of a room when they open it to outdoor space.” Other in-demand features include adequate parking. “Despite the use of public transit, Uber, and other alternatives, there is continued demand for parking. We’ll see what happens with driverless cars,” said Ackerly. Ankeny added, “Driverless cars are com-
ing, which might mean that municipalities and developers will be less concerned about parking. When we have driverless cars, we’ll be able to summon them and share them. The cars won’t necessarily need to sit idle in a parking lot while people work.” Today’s list of in-demand features is long. The features that truly drive innovation are continuously evolving, requiring real estate and public sector professionals to think conceptually and progressively. “We ask ourselves questions like, ‘what will people use?’ A nice pond isn’t always a good way to activate a space,” said Ankeny. For iboss, cybersecurity innovation combined with a bright red slide and a location near UCSD and Interstate 5, is just the ticket. “San Diego’s innovation economy is experiencing a renaissance thanks to our world-renowned life science companies, growing high tech sector and unique binational relationship with Mexico that is encouraging advanced manufacturing in our region,” Mayor Kevin Faulconer said. Thanks to the efforts of San Diego’s commercial real estate professionals and the creativity of San Diego companies old and new, the innovation economy seems to be building.
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April Harter Enriquez is a local public relations professional and consultant with TW2 Marketing.
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