City of Champions
El Segundo 2017 Champion of Business Patrick Soon Shiong congratulates 2018 Champion of Business Jeanie Buss. Photo
El Segundo honors Lakers President Jeanie Buss in its annual Champions of Business ceremony
At the City of El Segundo’s 2017 Champions of Business Celebration, Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong made a slight error during his acceptance speech of the evening’s title award. Soon-Shiong, who rose to prominence as a biotech entrepreneur, gave a compelling address on new ways of fighting cancer. [See related story page 20]. But Soon-Shiong, a polymath who one friend said averages about “an hour and a half of sleep per day,” ended his comments by mistakenly thanking the City of Los Angeles, not his El Segundo hosts.
So at this year’s awards on the evening of Wednesday, Sept. 12, in remarks introducing Jeanie Buss as this year’s Champion of Business, Soon-Shiong revealed how he had served his penance in the intervening year.
“The only way I could make it up was to bring the L.A. Times to El Segundo,” joked Soon-Shiong, who acquired the paper earlier this year from Tronc, and moved the company from its historic offices in downtown Los Angeles to El Segundo in July. “I tried, but they wouldn’t let me call it the ‘El Segundo Times.’”
Buss, the controlling owner, and president of the Los Angeles Lakers, accepted the honor and embraced Soon-Shiong, who is also a part-owner of Lakers. The moment paired two of the key developments in El Segundo’s business climate in the past year: along with the relocation of the Times, the Lakers opened their UCLA Health Training Center on Mariposa Avenue. The center provides a practice facility for the Lakers and takes advantage of a partnership with UCLA to focus on enhancing sports performance for Lakers players while also exploring public health topics like injury prevention. It also hosts the South Bay Lakers, the team’s minor league affiliate, and can seat up to 750 spectators — or, as was the case at the Champions of Business Dinner, hundreds of invited guests. (In a recorded video played at ceremony, Lakers shooting guard Josh Hart said of the new facility, “You can definitely get lost in there.”)
Los Angeles Times editor Norman Pearlstine delivers the evening’s keynote address.
The ceremony, hosted by the El Segundo Economic Development Advisory Council, has since 2014 highlighted contributions to the city. Along with Soon-Shiong, past honorees include the Los Angeles Kings, Point developers Federal Realty Investments, and Continental Development CEO, Richard Lundquist. Buss, who finalized control of the Lakers after a brief court battle with siblings last year, is now considered one of the most powerful women in professional sports. She has moved quickly to restore the Lakers to the glory they knew under her father, legendary Lakers owner Dr. Jerry Buss, who died in 2013. She brought on NBA Hall of Famer Magic Johnson as president of basketball operations and, on July 1, helped land All-Star LeBron James, arguably the best player of his generation.
Since winning their 16th NBA Championship in 2010, second only to the Boston Celtics, the team has struggled to regain its glory days form, enduring a playoff drought and an unprecedented five consecutive losing seasons. But with Buss finalizing control of the in the last third of the 2016-17 season, and the addition of high-profile free agents like James, expectations are high once more. Soon-Shiong even jokingly egged on Buss to promise a championship.
As she looked out at the Lakers new facility, Buss thanked the city for the award and did her best to set expectations for the coming season.
“Patrick, about that championship: I can’t make any promises, but I believe in Magic,” Buss said.
The Lakers have a long relationship with El Segundo. They previously shared the Toyota Center, just up the street from their new facility, with the Los Angeles Kings. When they decided on a new facility of their own and were considering where to go next, the South Bay city was always at the top of their list.
In an interview, Buss said the team was drawn to some of the city’s widely cited “business friendly” attributes, including the ease with which they could secure entitlements for a new facility, as well as its location near freeways, a Metro Green station and Los Angeles International Airport. (“Coach [Luke] Walton can fit in a practice in before we fly out on a road trip,” she said.) But she also said that more intangible factors helped seal the deal.
“The Lakers fit into this community. It’s part of what makes El Segundo so special: that family, close-knit feel,” Buss said.
Barbara Voss, El Segundo’s economic development manager and a member of the advisory council, said that the city was honored that the Lakers chose to stay in the city. Although the city has seen an influx of new businesses in the past year, including plans for several office developments in the Smoky Hollow neighborhood, one of the city’s priorities is helping existing businesses grow.
“We really like seeing companies that are here expand here,” Voss said.
The Lakers weren’t the evening’s only example of a business growing within the confines of El Segundo. Beyond Meat, an El Segundo-based company that has won raves for its hamburgers, sausages and other “animal” proteins made entirely of plants, received the evening’s Big Idea Award. The company was founded in 2009, and its products can now be found — in the meat section — of major grocers like Ralphs, Vons, and Whole Foods. It began with a small research and development facility on Main Street but recently opened a new headquarters with seven times the space.
Mayor Drew Boyles said that companies like Beyond Meat were emblematic of the way of doing business that is driving El Segundo. Boyles, who has lived in the city for 24 years, said when he first arrived, the city’s business-friendly reputation was built on traditional bases of aerospace and heavy industry, particularly the Chevron Refinery. In recent years, however, new companies moved in, while standbys have adapted. He pointed to the recent acquisition by Boeing, a longtime presence in the city, of Millenium Space Systems, a homegrown startup focused on small satellites.
(Chevron demonstrated its continued involvement in the city during the evening by presenting a check to the city for $125,000).
“We still have all the usual industries, but even aerospace is being reinvented,” Boyles said.
Few industries feel a greater need to “reinvent” than journalism, as Norman Pearlstine, the evening’s keynote speaker, pointed out. Soon-Shiong tapped Pearlstine as the executive editor of the Los Angeles Times shortly after the sale of the paper was finalized. He noted that the day after the paper moved into its El Segundo offices, Tronc, the Times’ previous owner, laid off half the staff at the New York Daily News, one of many papers in Tronc’sportfolio to face punishing cuts.
Pearlstine previously served as a reporter for newspapers and magazines, including Fortune and the Wall Street Journal. Previous to taking the job in Los Angeles, he served as vice chairman of Time Inc. Reflecting on his move from New York City to Southern California, he brought up that newspaper editors in different parts of the country have different deadlines because of time differences — a difference that he implied was symbolic of the way social, economic and demographic trends are putting region at the forefront of sports, arts, food, and business innovation.
“When I lived in New York, we were looking at California thinking, ‘What are they doing to us?’ Now, I look at New York and think, ‘What are we doing to them?’” Pearlstine said.