David Bonrouhi joined Calabasas Capital as managing director. The boutique financial advisory firm primarily serves lower middle-market privately-held companies, business owners and entrepreneurs. Services include mergers and acquisitions and private equity/debt capital raising. The firm is a newly formed affiliate of Fallbrook Capital Securities Corp., which is a registered broker dealer and member FINRA/SIPC. Bonrouhi is a CPA, graduate of the Anderson School of Management at UCLA, and has more than 15 years of experience in private equity, investment banking and financial consulting. How did you land the position at Calabasas Capital? I have known the founders of Fallbrook Capital Securities Corp. for a number of years. I was doing consulting and advisory work for lower middle market companies, and they asked me to help build a mergers and acquisition and private equity business for them. I have worked with a lot of larger companies, and this was an opportunity to bring that large company investment banking experience to lower middle market companies. Why is Calabasas Capital operating in the San Fernando Valley? We are focusing our efforts on Southern California with a particular interest on the 101 Corridor from Burbank to Santa Barbara. This is a high-growth region for companies with between $5 million and $75 million in revenues. Many are privately or family held businesses that generally don’t have as much access to sophisticated advisors with respect to M&A, private equity and other capital raising. Are you anticipating an up-tick in the latter markets? The markets were quiet from mid 2008 to mid 2009, but over the past three or four months we’ve seen a dramatic up-tick in M&A and private equity activity. And the principals of the company have experience in a broad range of industries. Banking Wells Fargo named Shaun Sarkissian district manager for its North Valley retail banking market in the San Fernando Valley. Sarkissian oversees eight banking stores and 200 financial professionals in the communities of Granada Hills, Northridge, Pacoima, Panorama City, San Fernando and Van Nuys. Prior, he served as business area manager for the San Fernando Valley. He is a 17-year Wells Fargo veteran who has grown his career through various positions within the company’s retail bank. Before serving the San Fernando Valley as business area manager, he was a business area manager in the Pacific Coast region serving Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. Sarkissian has spent the greater part of his banking career serving San Fernando Valley customers as the store manager in the communities of Warner Ranch, Canoga Park and North Hollywood. John F. Woods assumed the duties of chief financial officer at UnionBanCal Corp. and its primary subsidiary, Union Bank, N.A. Prior to joining Union Bank, he served as CFO of JP Morgan Chase’s Home Lending business, an enterprise with approximately $300 billion in assets and more than $100 billion in mortgage originations annually. Woods began his financial career in 1986 as a staff accountant with Arthur Andersen. Over a 16-year period he rose to partner and was instrumental in building the firm’s Mid-Atlantic practice by providing risk management-related services to a variety of financial institutions. From 2002 to 2005, he was a senior vice president with the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation and corporate controller. He joined Washington Mutual, Inc. in 2005 as corporate controller and was appointed CFO of its home loan division in 2007. Entertainment Heather O’Connor will assume the position of chief accounting officer at DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. in February 2010 once confirmed by the company’s board of directors. O’Connor replaces Phil Cross who stepped down in December and will remain as a consultant. O’Connor joined DreamWorks Animation in January 2006 and has held a variety of positions in the accounting and financial planning and analysis departments. She is currently the director of SEC reporting for the company. Financial Brett Davis has been promoted to the role of practice leader in the new San Fernando Valley | Ventura County Practice of accounting and financial consulting firm Etonien, LLC. The Warner Center office will serve clients in the San Fernando Valley and Ventura County, including Burbank, Glendale, Pasadena and Santa Clarita. Davis joined the firm in January 2009 as director of client services for the corporate office in El Segundo. Prior, he was a senior financial analyst/investment associate at Marcus & Millichap in Encino and played professional soccer in New York. Etonien also brought-on Linda Moore as principal consultant. She joins the firm with more than 15 years of experience including working as audit supervisor with Farmers Insurance Group and working for 10 years with PwC’s Los Angeles office. Liquidation Howard Weitzman has been appointed as senior vice president and chief accounting officer of Great American Group. He has worked as a consultant to the company since April 2009, in connection with its transaction with Alternative Asset Management Acquisition Corp. From November 2008 to April 2009, Weitzman consulted clients on financial reporting, internal controls and compliance with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. From December 2006 to October 2008, he was senior manager in the SEC Services Group in the audit practice of Moss Adams LLP and managed audits of public and private companies in the retail, manufacturing, high technology and financial services industries. Weitzman also spent 12 years in public accounting at two “Big 4” accounting firms, most recently from 2003 to 2005 as a senior manager in the financial services audit practice of Deloitte & Touche LLP. Marketing Zachary McVicker has been hired as project manager at Mustang Marketing. He will provide the firm with copywriting and public relations assistance, fulfilling a growing need in those departments as Mustang takes on more accounts and projects. The company recently began working with its 750th client. Prior to Mustang, McVicker wrote for the Ventura County Star as a sports correspondent and acted as a product development assistant for Evolutions Footwear. Media Leo Wolinsky has been named editor of Daily Variety, a Hollywood business publication. He will oversee the print versions of Daily Variety and its sibling New York publication, Daily Variety Gotham. Prior to Variety, Wolinsky worked at the Los Angeles Times for 31 years in various senior positions, including executive editor and managing editor. He was part of Pulitzer Prize-winning teams that covered the Los Angeles riots in 1992 and the Northridge earthquake in 1994. In 2008 he served as associate editor in charge of features and entertainment for seven months, his only previous experience covering show-business. Non-profit Westlake Village resident Javier LaFianza, president and chief executive officer of Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership has been appointed to the board of directors of Albert Schweitzer’s Leadership for Life, a youth leadership program committed to developing and presenting youth leadership and mentorship programs to 15- to 17-year-olds in the U.S. and internationally. Annually, HOBY programs provide nearly 10,000 local and international high school students with the opportunity to participate in leadership training, service learning and motivation-building experiences. The organization also provides adults the opportunity to make an impact on the lives of youth through volunteerism. Real Estate Chris Maling was promoted to first vice president investments at Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services. This achievement is one of the highest levels of recognition the firm awards to its investment specialists. It represents excellence in the development and servicing of long-term client relationships. After joining the firm in 1989, Maling became an associate in 1993. He was promoted to senior associate in 1995 and senior investment associate in August 1998. Early last year, he was promoted to vice president investments. He specializes in the sale of retail and net-leased properties. Maling is also a senior director of the firm’s National Retail Group and a member of the firm’s Net Leased Properties Group. Laura D’Andrea Tyson will join the board of directors of CB Richard Ellis Group, Inc., effective March 4, 2010. Tyson, one of the nation’s leading economists, is the S.K. and Angela Chan Professor of Global Management, Walter A. Haas School of Business, University of California at Berkeley. She previously served as National Economic Adviser to the President of the United States from 1995 to 1996, and was the first woman to chair the White House Council of Economic Advisers, serving from 1993 to 1995. Tyson was previously Dean of the Haas School of Business and the London Business School. She has published books and articles on industrial competitiveness and trade and international economics. Technology Germaine Gioia was appointed as senior vice president, licensing and merchandising for video game publisher THQ Inc.. She rejoins THQ after serving as senior vice president, licensing for Capcom Entertainment in the US and European territories for the past three years. Dr. Robert D. Clark was appointed as director, Life Sciences at Simulations Plus, Inc., provider of simulation and modeling software to the pharmaceutical industry. He has more than 25 years of experience in discovery chemistry as well as managing the development of software tools for pharmaceutical and chemical research. He held the position of vice president of science and research at a well-known formerly public company that provides software used in early discovery chemistry. Supply chain solutions provider DEX made some promotions in its executive ranks. Paul Gettings is now president, DEX Solutions, and Jerry Kohnke is president, DEX Supply Chain Services. In his new position, Gettings will be responsible for driving the supply chain solutions design and consulting services business in addition to revenue growth globally for the corporation. Kohnke will have responsibility for DEX facilities worldwide while leading the DEX Supply Chain Services business. The company also announced that Mike Shelor is now VP and general manager of DEX Supply Chain Services Northeast. Shelor was president and COO of Patton Consultants Inc. Transportation David Solow stepped down as chief executive of Metrolink and named Eric Haley as the interim CEO. For the balance of the fiscal year Solow will remain with the agency working on interagency collaborations necessary for Metrolink to implement safety enhancements. The board appointed him to the new position of “Advisor: Interagency Initiatives,” which reports to the CEO. He will work pursuant to an at will contract through this fiscal year at his current salary. Haley will work under an at will contract as CEO until the position is filled, but for not more than six months. One of Haley’s priorities will be to direct the board’s search for a new CEO.
