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25his list of O.C. nota-bles dates back 24 years, and although

OC Register Metro has a new masthead, some of our favorite celebrations remain the same. Every year since the inception of OC Metropolitan in 1990, our editorial staff has combed the county for the people making headlines, shatter-ing expectations and building and leading in never-before-seen ways. Whether you’re a rookie phenom race-car driver withstanding the same G-forces as a rocket launch or a physician who wrote 12,000 pages of a four-volume series in Farsi to educate his homeland about the Holocaust, our list this year – as always – crosses generations and industries, and aspires to hold a mirror to the exceptional work being done here in Orange County. A teenage designer, an Ethiopian refugee elected to high office in a key Washington, D.C. agency, a legally blind photogra-pher who has survived AIDS for 20 years, and a medical-device engineer who is the CEO of a sec-ond company in her “spare” time … They are among the influential people we’ve found who call this county their home and have used it as a solid foundation from which to shoot for their dreams.

– SUSAN BELKNAPP

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BY AMY BENTLEY, RICHARD CHANG, PAUL HODGINS, HEIDI KULICKE, LISA LIDDANE, LINDA MELONE AND KELLY ST. JOHN

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Lynsi Snyder Torres sits at the helm of one of the largest burger chains in the country, In-N-Out Burger. She is also rumored by Bloomberg News to be America’s youngest female billionaire, at 31 years old, and leads a very private life. As president of In-N-Out, Torres oversees the success of the restaurants by staying true to its core values – quality, cleanliness and customer service – started by her grandparents, Harry and Esther Snyder, the founders of In-N-Out. Expansion has been intentionally slow, ensuring that these values remain constant. “We aren’t interested in gimmicks, novelties or new deals. What you see is what you get. We set the bar high and work every day to keep it there,” Torres says. “Having a very focused goal and keeping it simple is how we stay true to ourselves and our customers.” The Snyders opened In-N-Out Burger in 1948 with a single location in Baldwin Park. The company is now headquartered in Irvine and has grown to 290 locations with more than 16,000 employees. The chain has expanded to four other states in recent years: Nevada, Arizona, Utah and Texas. Torres says her grandfather worked hard to create a family atmosphere for employees, noting that he once loaned an employee the money to buy his first car. “That inspires me to keep a family atmosphere and to have genuine love and

QUIET LEADER

Lynsi Snyder TorresOwner, In-N-Out Burger

concern for everyone here,” Torres says. “[Employees] dedicate themselves to this company, so we look after them and they in turn look after our most important asset, the customer.” Torres became president of the company in 2011 while still in her 20s; she started behind the counter as a teen-ager and later worked her way up to human resources and merchandising. “I want people to know I’m not someone who just fell into this job, living off the empire her grandparents created,” she says. “Earning respect as a leader of In-N-Out was challenging at first, especially as a ‘petite young blonde who has an unconven-tional and adventurous life

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outside the office.’” Like her father, Torres is an avid drag racer and competes in amateur events sanctioned by the National Hot Rod Association. She has twins from her second marriage and had another child with her third husband, Val Torres Jr. Torres believes a good leader needs passion, transparency and strength, in addition to vision and commitment to purpose. “A good leader needs to set goals that serve the vision, to communicate clearly and to follow through,” she says. “I pour my heart, soul and life into this company, and the best interests of not only our customers, but our amazing family.”

– HEIDI KULICKE

Gary Jabara is the founder and chief executive of cellphone-tower-manage-ment company Mobilitie, based in Newport Beach. Mobilitie works with cellphone carriers to fund, build and operate their wireless networks, which allows them to benefit from operational control without the financial con-straints of ownership. Last February, SBA Communications agreed to pay Mobilitie $1.1 billion to acquire more than 2,300 cellphone towers in the U.S. and Central America, as well as certain antenna systems in Chicago, Las Vegas and New York City. Jabara got his start in the telecommunications industry in 1986 as a real estate representative for Los Angeles Cellular Telephone Co., the first wireless company in L.A. Jabara went on to become a partner at Deloitte & Touche and oversaw the firm’s wireless real estate and infrastructure division, including a $10 billion negotiation between major wireless carriers related to infrastructure assets. Jabara says his parents are the greatest influence on his career; they taught him and his five siblings the value of hard work. “Dad was an extremely honest businessman and helped us understand the importance of deep trust and relationships in the business world, while Mom taught us to be gra-cious and kind to people, regardless of who they were or what they did. That combination helped me get lucky in business.” Jabara is married and has a son and daughter, ages 16 and 18. The family is very involved with sports. His wife, Lisa, was a collegiate softball player, their daughter is a com-petitive soccer player and their son is being recruited

to play baseball in college. Although Jabara isn’t an athlete himself, he gave $1 million to renovate Sage Hill’s School’s Ramer Field, and made a bid to buy the San Diego Padres last summer. Jabara considers himself a “serial entrepre-neur.” In high school and college, he made a living buying and selling old Volkswagen bugs. “I’d buy the Sunday paper as soon

as it arrived and be the first to read it, scouring the ‘for sale’ columns until I found the cheapest bug for sale. I’d fix it up and sell it for more than I bought it,” he says. “I guess I learned at an early age that there’s value to be found just about anywhere. Sometimes you just have to look past the dirt, rust and old tires to see what’s possible.”

– HEIDI KULICKE

TOWERING SUCCESS

GARY JABARA Founder/CEO, Mobilitie LLC

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He’s got a Grammy Award for the 2012 Album of the Year and a beautiful actress wife, and he spearheads one of the most important movements in rock ’n’ roll today. He’s still only 26. Anaheim-born Brit Marcus Mumford is lead singer of the platinum-selling band Mumford & Sons. The London-based quartet – none of them is actually related – is one of the pioneers of the wildly popular folk-rock revival, which includes the Lumineers, Of Monsters and Men, and Bon Iver. Marcus Oliver Johnstone Mumford sings and plays guitar, drums and man-dolin. He was born to English parents in Anaheim in 1987; the family moved back to England when he was 6 months old. He retains American and British citizenship. Mumford attended King’s College School in Wimbledon, where he met future bandmate Ben Lovett. The musician was a childhood pen pal of actress Carey Mulligan (“The Great Gatsby,” “An Education,” “Never Let Me Go”). As adults, the two reconnected and eventually married in Somerset in April 2012. When Mumford & Sons’ second album, “Babel,” was released in September 2012, it sold 600,000 cop-ies during its debut week – the biggest first-week seller of the year to that point and the best by any rock band since 2008. “I think there’s more subject matter on this album, and I think we’ve grown up a little bit,” Mumford said in a statement in 2012. “I feel like it’s more exposed, more naked. [Bandmate] Ted [Dwane] always talked about wanting to make an album like a story. ... I think that’s what we’ve done.” As of September, Mumford & Sons is taking an extended hiatus from the music business. They’re still very popular with fans and critics. Plus, how many acts can say they shared a stage with the legend himself, Bob Dylan? In the meantime, Mumford will be on the soundtrack of the next film by brothers Joel and Ethan Coen, sched-uled for release in December.

– RICHARD CHANG

FOLK-ROCK REVIVALIST

MARCUS MUMFORD Founder, Mumford & Sons

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OC REGISTER METRO I SS UE 2 3 .1 238 PHOTOS DAVID HALL / OC REGISTER (MUMFORD); LEONARD ORTIZ / OC REGISTER (GRAY)

Eight years ago, Marie Gray and her daughter, Kelly, assumed that their days of working together were behind them. They had departed St. John, the com-pany Marie and her husband, Robert, founded in 1963 and nurtured into a $100 million fashion business. Kelly gave in to her inner rocker and partnered with Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx in 2006 to launch a ready-to-wear line called Royal Underground. Marie put down her sketchpad and took to the golf links. And then two things changed their lives last year: Robert passed away after a long illness, and a knee injury sidelined Marie. “I was out of commission, and I was a bit bored because I couldn’t play golf,” Marie says. “I used to play six days a week, twice a day if I could.” Marie started visiting Kelly at the Royal Underground offices in Irvine. “I would come in there and tinker,” Marie says. Before either fully realized what was happening, Kelly left Royal Underground and partnered with Marie to launch Grayse, an upscale contempo-rary line of day-into-evening separates. “We noticed that the collection did not fit the rock ‘n’ roll box, and it didn’t necessarily look like St. John,” Kelly says. “It had a unique look, something we didn’t really see in the marketplace.” The line included laser-cut leather items, drapey tops embellished with tiny stones, and vivid colors and prints. They called it Grayse, a play on their last name and also a reference to the clothing line’s mission statement: what to wear “to live your life with grace and style.” “One of our strengths at St. John was we were unique,” Kelly says. “We were different from our peers. Grayse has a look that’s also unique, elegant, sexy and glamorous. We were excited about the collection but it hadn’t left the office for three months. We didn’t know if it was a mother-daughter

DESIGNING WOMEN

Marie & Kelly Gray Founders/Designers, Grayse

thing, or where to go with it. So we called up some friends and asked their thoughts.” They were on to something good, because the line debuted at Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus earlier this year and was picked up a few months ago by Bloomingdale’s. For Marie, Grayse is an oppor-tunity to stay busy and be creative again during her life’s second act. For Kelly, growing a fashion line from scratch is another step in her growth as a businesswoman. Looking back at the St. John years, she says, “Of course, you think of yourself as an adult when you’re in your 20s. But the knowledge that I possessed then is not nearly what I have today. The respect and admiration I have now for my mom, and Marie Gray the designer, is tremendous. I now understand simply how great she was, and I just couldn’t turn down the opportunity to work with her again.”

– LISA LIDDANE

Ryan Steelberg was a 22-year-old pre-med student at UCLA when he and his brother Chad launched their first company, AdForce. It became the world’s largest centralized independent ad-serving and -management firm. That was in the mid ’90s, when the Internet was exploding. Steelberg was one of those smart college kids who figured out early how to develop advertising technology for the Web. So much for pre-med. Steelberg left college to launch other successful Internet advertising companies. The 39-year-old Irvine resident has gone on to become a CEO several times over. “I guess, fortunately, I never had to go back to college, because I always had another successful business,” says Steelberg. “It’s just been business after business. Interesting opportunities just presented themselves.” Steelberg is now considered a leading expert in business development, as well as digital and online advertising, and has once again landed with a winner as co-founder and CEO of Brand Affinity Technologies, an Irvine-based celebrity-driven marketing company that connects advertisers with celebrities, sports teams and entertainers for endorsement programs. Last spring, Brand Affinity began a yearlong partnership with AEG, one of the world’s leading sports- and entertainment-promotion companies. Brand Affinity also launched its FanPhotos programs at sport-ing, entertainment-venue and corporate-hosted events. Its fan photography division reaches 10 million consumers and captures more than 15 million photos each year. Brother Chad is a Brand Affinity board member and investor. “In business, it’s nice to have one trusted partner in your company. There are so many pitfalls and problems, and having one person you can completely trust can make all the difference in the world.” – AMY

BENTLEY

SERIAL ENTREPRENEUR

RYAN STEELBERGCEO, Brand Affinity Technologies

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If it’s three points, it must be Klay Thompson. The 23-year-old guard for the Golden State Warriors has impressed many in and around the NBA during his young career. Blogger Tom Ziller of online sports media brand SB Nation calls Thompson the “purest scorer” in the league. Mark Jackson, the Golden State Warriors coach, said he and point guard Stephen Curry comprise the best shooting duo in NBA history. Thompson grew up in Ladera Ranch and attended Santa Margarita Catholic School, in Rancho Santa Margarita. In his senior year, Thompson led Santa Margarita to a 30-5 record and a Division III State Championship appearance. In the finals, he set a record with seven three-pointers in the game. Thompson was named Division III State Player of the Year, league MVP and First Team Best in the West. He graduated in 2008. Thompson attended Washington State University and won numerous honors there. He led the Pac-10 in scoring during his junior year. In the 2011 Pac-10 tournament, he set tournament records with 43 points, including eight shots made from beyond the arc. He finished the season by setting WSU’s single-season scoring record, with 733 points. Thompson entered the NBA draft as a junior and was selected 11th overall by the Warriors. At the end of his first season, he was voted to the NBA All-Rookie First Team. Klay’s father – Mychal Thompson, an accomplished NBA player and the first over-all pick in the 1978 draft – won two champi-onships with the Los Angeles Lakers. He now provides color commentary alongside John Ireland for Lakers games on 710 AM (KSPN) radio. Thompson wowed folks earlier this year when he and Curry combined to connect on 483 three-pointers last season, an NBA record for a guard duo. Thompson scored 34 points and eight out of nine three-point-ers during Game 2 of the Western Conference Semifinals against the San Antonio Spurs – nearly a record. He also grabbed 14 rebounds. So when you need a three-pointer, pass the ball to Klay. – RICHARD CHANG

THREE-POINT WARRIOR

KLAY THOMPSONGuard, Golden State Warriors

Defying death is nothing new for legally blind photographer Kurt Weston. From his initial AIDS diagnosis in 1991 to three bouts of pneumonia and a rare form of abdominal cancer, Weston’s doctors told him more than once to get his affairs in order. Each time he not only proved them wrong, he thrived. In 2005, during one of those prog-noses, Weston moved to Orange County from Chicago at the request of his brother. “He thought I’d do better here, since doctors predicted I wouldn’t survive six months,” Weston says. The move worked for him in more ways than one, since major developments in AIDS treatments had become available. “New [drug] cocktails turned my life around,” Weston says. “Here is where I learned to live. It’s a place where I could regenerate and reinvent myself in consid-eration of what has happened to me.” Initially on the fast track as a fashion photographer, Weston lived in Chicago and frequently flew to Europe to work with fashion models. A case of pneu-mocystis pneumonia, a common AIDS infection, ended all that in 1991. “A chunk of my life was focused on surviving the disease,” Weston says. “At that time, anger kept me going. I felt hor-ribly cheated out of the life I could’ve had in the fashion world.” Then in 1993 another complication, cytomegalovirus retinitis, began to take away his vision. The anger subsided as Weston found ways to continue to use

COURAGEOUS VISIONARY

KURT WESTONPhotographer

his talent. While he’s changed the focus of his subject matter from black-and-white self-portraits to nature themes, his photography continues to inspire. His work is currently at the Southern California College of Optometry, in Fullerton, as part of an exhibit called “Shared Vision,” which features the work of visually impaired artists. His images have also been featured at the Kennedy Center of the Arts in Washington, D.C., the California Museum of Photography, and the Orange County Center of Contemporary Arts, among other locales. Weston strives to help others through a support group called SWAN, or Surviving With AIDS Network. – LINDA MELONE

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When Marla Rausch couldn’t decide whether to go into law, finance or communications, she found a way to combine them all. She is CEO and founder of Animation Vertigo, and her background comes in handy when dealing with the technical and creative sides of the company. An outsource management com-pany, Animation Vertigo provides quality solutions for motion-capture (the process of recording actions of human actors and using the information in computer ani-mation) and other animation needs for the entertainment industry. “What I do is a culmination of everything I’ve done before, from the two years I spent in law school to financial planning, even my degree in communications. It involves all of the skills I use to apply to my third baby,” says Rausch, referring to her “other” two real children at home. Founded in 2004, Rausch saw the need for a company such as hers as a way to eliminate the need to hire and fire artists for each project. She also hopes to turn around the perception of women in the male-dominated field. For example, at key decision-making meetings, Rausch is often mistaken for a sales or marketing person. “I’d love to see more women involved in the industry,” she says. Rausch believes games such as “Halo” and “Call of Duty,” with their graphic violence, lend themselves to a male audience and, thus, attract men to the industry. However, for women who enjoy the technological and math side of things, the field is wide open. “Every single movie has visual effects,” she says. Rausch plans to eventually make her own feature film. “There’s a level of quality and a speed to meet the entertainers’ market. It’s all about getting it as fast as you can and as perfect and beautiful as you can make it.”

– LINDA MELONE

TECHNICAL CREATIVE

Marla RauschCEO, Animation Vertigo

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The question before Tefere Gebre is this: Can he replicate his success on a national level that he enjoyed as execu-tive director of the Orange County Labor Federation? In September, delegates at the AFL-CIO convention elected the native of Ethiopia, who fled his war-torn country at 14, as the agency’s new executive vice president. Gebre, 45, just moved to Washington, D.C., and expects to travel a lot, especially to the American South, to spread the union’s message. Gebre realizes that the ways he helped to grow the labor movement in Orange County may or may not work elsewhere in the nation. “For the past five or six years, we have been performing a bit of a miracle in Orange County, fighting for working people,” he says. “This county has not been historically a good place for people like that. We have been turning the corner. My job is going to be trying to spread this across the country and engaging in the broader community and working families. “We realize one size doesn’t fit all. We’re going to get our unions together and figure out what works out in differ-ent localities,” he adds. The OCLF represents more than 90 local unions with more than 200,000 members. During Gebre’s tenure, the federation grew by 15,000 members. Much of Gebre’s passion comes from experience. After he fled Ethiopia, he walked across the desert to the Sudan, where he lived in a refugee camp before immigrating to the U.S. Gebre worked full-time and earned an athletic scholarship to Cal Poly Pomona. While in college, he had his first union job at UPS, as a member of Teamsters Local 396. While Gebre continues to advocate for unions and working folks nation-wide, it’s unlikely O.C. has seen the last of him. “My heart will still remain in Orange County. We have a lot of unfinished business here.”

– AMY BENTLEY

LABOR FORCE

TEFERE GEBREExecutive Vice President, AFL-CIO

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If you create a company and build it into a leader in its field, chances are you don’t have much time left over for hobbies. If you do, you’re not likely to reserve a cherished spot for them in your corporate headquarters. But Andrew Edwards isn’t your typical captain of industry. He is the man behind Extron, one of the largest manufacturers of components for the audio-visual industry. When Edwards built a new head-quarters for his 30-year-old company in Anaheim, he had a golden opportu-nity to indulge in his passion for food, wine and country dancing. That’s how THE RANCH Restaurant & Saloon was born. As soon as the high-end eatery and adjoining dance club opened in early 2012, fans of good food and good times took note. “It’s a passion project,” Edwards says. “I love country music, dancing the two-step, enjoying the best in food and wine. For many years, I used to dance at the Old Crazy Horse off Dyer Road. It’s where I met my wife, Morgan.” Critics have raved about THE RANCH’s locally sourced, high-quality cuisine, eye-popping wine list and 14,000-bottle wine cellar. The 20,000-square-foot restaurant is on the first floor of Extron’s new six-story corporate offices. Edwards indulged his taste for Old West culture, design-ing the restaurant and adjoining club in a rustic country style. Guests wait for their tables in overstuffed chairs and sofas. Edwards approached Kelly Mullarney, a restaurant consultant whose clients include Prime Cut Café & Wine Bar in Orange, and hired a top-tier team to create a menu that would reflect his tastes for red meat and big-bodied wines: well-known sommelier Michael Jordan and execu-tive chef Michael Rossi, both of whom had worked at the Disneyland Resort’s Napa Rose restaurant. Edwards and his staff are deter-mined to keep things local; a farm in the Santa Ana Mountains is the source of much of the kitchen’s produce.

HIGH-TECH FOODIE

Andrew EdwardsOwner, THE RANCH Restaurant & SaloonCEO, Extron

“In the summer, we focus on our 400-plus heirloom tomato vines that provide more than 90 different variet-ies,” Edwards says. “We also have heir-loom cucumbers, peppers, squash and Valencia oranges that are used in our beet salad and ahi tuna crudo appetizer.” Edwards brought the same approach to the club and booked big-name music acts. For indus-try conferences, he has hired Dwight Yoakam; John Fogerty, of Creedence Clearwater Revival fame; and Darius Rucker, of Hootie and the Blowfish. “I’m a Country Western music fan, and I started two-stepping with my daughter, Ashton, when she was 12 years old,” Edwards told the Orange County Register when plans for the complex were announced in 2010. “There just isn’t a place in Orange County for us to go with the right combination of good food and good music.” Thanks to Edwards’ passion, there is now.

– PAUL HODGINS

Life is sweet for Jackie Sorkin, owner of her own decadent retail empire, Hollywood Candy Girls, and star of the reality show “Candy Queen,” which airs on TLC. Sorkin specializes in candy creations and edible art for events, weddings and more, and has worked with celebrities such as Oprah, Katy Perry and the Kardashians, to name a few. “Candy is super magical and makes everyone happy, whether they’re eating it, playing with it or creating with it,” she says. “It’s a fantastic artistic medium with thousands of colors, textures and types.” Sorkin discovered her talent for working with candy as a child and cites “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory” as her influence. “It struck me that candy makes people very happy, super excited and sometimes even a little crazy.” Sorkin began to decorate her parents’ house with candy during every holiday and made candy gifts for friends and family. An entrepreneur at heart, she decided to cre-ate a business to showcase her talent. She grew the company while landing a TV show and having two children, now 1 and 3. “I seriously don’t know how I did it,” she says. “I was tired and I cried some days. And though some people looked at me like I was nuts, giving up was never an option.” Now, in addition to the business, Sorkin is writing a book, developing a franchise model, creating candy sculptures to tour in global art exhibits and giving back to the community. “I teach girl-empowerment workshops for the Girl Scouts and am very moved by it,” she says. “I love doing anything that makes girls feel like they can kick butt and be awesome.” Open about the fears she’d had as a child, Sorkin teaches girls that they can overcome those same feelings. “There’s something relatable about hav-ing a role model like you. I believe in total transparency as a teacher, coach, mentor and person, and I never hide my shortcom-ings or flaws.”

– HEIDI KULICKE

CELEBRITY CONFECTIONER

JACKIE SORKINOwner, Hollywood Candy Girls

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At 300 miles per hour, she’s a force to be reckoned with. Courtney Force of Yorba Linda comes from a celebrated racing family. Her father, John Force, is a 15-time funny car champion and one of the most dominant drag racers ever. Courtney, 25, has won her own share of races and awards. Last year, the National Hot Rod Association gave her the Auto Club of Southern California Rookie of the Year Award. She also appeared – nude – on the cover of ESPN’s Body Issue in July. The photos, shot on the sand flats of the Mojave Desert, hit newsstands across the country and have turned more than a few heads. “It was scary for me, baring it all on the magazine. I was very nervous,” Force says. “But I’ve gotten such great support from all my fans. Everybody was supportive. And the drivers – I think they were surprised. They say, ‘That was courageous.’ They appreciate that I’m bringing attention to our sport.” The fresh-faced blond-haired racer does a lot of cardio and strength training to develop the upper-body conditioning to control her funny car. “We go 300 miles per hour in just four seconds. [When the parachute deploys] that’s negative-four G’s. It puts a lot of strain on your body. When we launch at plus-four G’s, that’s like when a rocket launches. You

RACING REBEL

Courtney ForceRace-car driver

can compare it to an astronaut launching.” Force grew up in Yorba Linda and attended Esperanza High School in Anaheim and Cal State Fullerton, where she majored in communica-tions. She was a cheerleader in high school, and gravitated toward car racing because of her legendary dad and family involvement in the sport. Some may recognize Force from the reality TV show “Driving Force,” which aired on A&E between 2006 and 2007. Force says she’s work-ing on a new TV program but can’t release details just yet. “I never give up and keep pushing forward,” she says. “I’m always pushing myself further. I’m trying to be the best driver in my sport, not just the best female in my sport.” What else makes her hot? Guys, she’s a hot commodity – and single. But probably not for long.

– RICHARD CHANG

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Feargus Urquhart wanted to make the kind of throwback computer game that he loves, even if it’s the kind that big publishers shy away from. So last year, he and his colleagues at Obsidian Entertainment launched a crowd-funding campaign to finance a role-playing game they dubbed “Project Eternity.” Just 24 hours after the campaign began, they had already raised $1 million. In the end, Obsidian raised more than $4 million with Kickstarter and PayPal. It was, at the time, a record for the most money raised for a crowd-sourced video game. Now the company is working to deliver what its avid fans have paid for – a game in the tradition of role-playing greats like “Baldur’s Gate” and “Planescape: Torment.” For Obsidian, the infusion of Kickstarter cash means developers can build a game triple the size of what they had originally envisioned. And after 10 years in business making games with existing intellectual properties – like “Star Wars,” “South Park” and “Fallout” – Obsidian can build its own future franchise with “Project Eternity.” “Everybody here is just ecstatic about making ‘Project Eternity,’” Urquhart says. “We have fans who have been talking with us for 15 years. They’ve trusted us with the money before they’ve seen a game, and we need to make sure we

ROLE-PLAYING TITAN

FEARGUS URQUHARTCEO, Obsidian Entertainment

deliver.” Urquhart – who, despite his exotic-sounding name, grew up in Tustin – fell into the computer-games industry almost by accident. After graduating from UC San Diego with a bioengineer-ing degree, he heard about a job opening for game testers at Interplay, the maker of one of his favorite video games, “The Bard’s Tale.” Within three years, he was an associate producer and was heading a division within five. “Overall, being in the games indus-try is pretty awe-some,” he says. “I can go to Best Buy with my mom and point to something on the shelf and say, ‘I made that.’”

– KELLY ST. JOHN

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As a new college grad, Andy Fathollahi noticed something about the prospective employers he met during job interviews: They were all click-ing away on Palm Pilots. One day, the future entrepreneur walked away not with a job, but with the idea for a new business. Working with $500 in seed money from his parents, he bought neoprene from a wet suit company and sewed a prototype case for the Palm Pilot. He was 25. Early on, Fathollahi drove to Mexico to have his products assembled, 100 at a time. Fast-forward 15 years. When Apple launched the iPhone 5s last month, his company, Incipio, shipped nearly a million units in one week. “That’s a big difference,” says Fathollahi, Incipio’s founder and sole owner. Fathollahi oversees a line of mobile acces-sories sold in 40,000 stores nationwide. He recently acquired edgy clothing retailer Tavik to introduce designer phone and iPad cases to its line of swimwear and clothes, and picked up Braven, renowned for its high-quality portable speakers. “It would’ve taken us 18 months to even build [an audio brand], and it wouldn’t be as good as Braven. So we took 18 days to buy it.” Fathollahi plans to hire 60 new employ-ees over the next six months to join the 110 employees already working in the company’s 160,000-square-foot facility in Irvine. There he has forged a company culture that exudes youthfulness and creativity, with perks that include everything from a gym to an on-site chef who cooks organic meals for breakfast and lunch every day. A car aficionado, Fathollahi says his two favorites – a 1997 Land Rover and 1996 Porsche 911 – typify his preference for lasting quality over flash. That’s the sentiment he has infused into Incipio: Build products with staying power. Fathollahi promises that, beyond the hir-ing binge, there is more to come for the hip mobile-accessories maker: new acquisitions and product lines. “I’ve got pretty big ideas and goals,” he says. “This is nice, but I’m definitely not done.”

– KELLY ST. JOHN

THREEFOLD SUCCESS

ANDY FATHOLLAHICEO, Incipio; Braven; and Tavik

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The contest challenge from Nordstrom and footwear maker TOMS was simple: create a design using a blank TOMS shoe as the canvas. For Brooke Foy, the answer was equally simple. “Why not use the company’s mis-sion statement on this?” she says. The 17-year-old Fullerton student went straight to the heart of what TOMS was all about: For every pair sold, the Los Angeles footwear maker gives one pair of shoes to a child in need in select countries. Foy painstakingly painted a mosaic of flags representing 25 nations on the shoe’s upper and wrote the names of the countries inside. Her winning design, called “Flag,” bested hun-dreds of other entries and is available exclusively at the department store. Retailing for $53.95, the colorful slip-on initially sold out but is now available again in limited sizes. Before the shoes landed in stores, Foy got a glimpse of what it takes to run a shoe business. She arrived at school one day to find a van waiting to take her and two friends to the TOMS headquarters. There, she got a tour of the offices and was able to see her design on the shoes for the first time. “The shoes looked exactly like what I put on paper,” Foy says. However, Foy isn’t looking to launch a career in fashion. “I’d like to study kinesiology and business, with a minor in design or art,” she says. “I’ve always had a business mindset.” She’s still years away from a career, but the TOMS experience left a few indelible big picture/little picture impressions to take with her. The philanthropic model, for example, deeply resonates with Foy. “It’s important to help others,” she says. “I’ve worked on humanitarian missions. That’s how I’ve been raised.” On a more personal level, she was struck by how people at the company treated each other. “The biggest lesson I got from TOMS was to be kind to everyone,” Foy says. “You never know who you will come across.”

– LISA LIDDANE

TEEN HUMANITARIAN

Brooke FoyA ‘shoe-in’ for success

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Charles “Charlie” Dunlop is the chair-man and CEO of Ambry Genetics, a genetic research company he started in 1999 with ties to the world’s most respected scientists, academic institutions and pharmaceutical companies. Prior to starting Ambry, Dunlop worked as a molecular biologist at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla. He also managed the Molecular Biology and Pharmacology group at Biophysica, a pharmaceutical-development company. Dunlop says that as a kid he was very interested in physics, and it wasn’t until college at UC San Diego that he became interested in genetics. In college, Dunlop was cut off financially by his parents and needed a job. “There were a bunch of biology labs in San Diego but not many physics labs, so I started working at a molecular genet-ics lab,” he says. “I found I was a natural at it, so I decided to focus on genetics.” Ambry is committed to helping patients who suffer from genetic diseases. As such, Dunlop says he combined his three interests – surfing, giving back and having fun – by supporting the Mauli Ola Foundation, a nonprofit that promotes surfing to children with cystic fibrosis, autism and other genetic diseases. His involvement with the foundation has allowed him to meet several families affected by cystic fibrosis. “Some of them are the happiest and most optimistic families I’ve known,” Dunlop says. “I know my own struggles have made me a better person; frankly, now I don’t trust people who haven’t faced adversity or who come off too perfect.” Things haven’t gone perfectly for Dunlop, but what’s saved him is his ability to keep reinventing himself. “When surfing didn’t work out because of injuries, I faded out of the scene,” he says. “Then when academics didn’t work out, I started my own company. The ability to adapt is the advantage of animal behavior, straight from Darwin.” Beyond his career, Dunlop and his wife are expecting their first child this month. He’s also a telescope enthusiast. “I’ve got several telescopes in my backyard,” he says.

– HEIDI KULICKE

ENTERPRISING ALTRUIST

Charlie DunlopChairman/CEO, Ambry Genetics

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Two major developments this year put consulting firm Senn Delaney onto the radar screens of Orange County readers. First, the firm, which helps Fortune 1000 companies transform their cultures to improve their bottom lines, relocated its headquarters to Huntington Beach. And in December, Senn Delaney was acquired for $53.5 million by Heidrick & Struggles, one of the nation’s top execu-tive search firms. The deal created an ideal marriage, since Heidrick & Struggles helps to fill top firms’ CEO posts, and then Senn Delaney works with these leaders to make their agendas into reality, says president and CEO Jim Hart. Hart has been busier than ever, log-ging nearly 300,000 frequent-flier miles. Senn Delaney’s client list reads like a Who’s Who of Fortune 500 firms, and many of its clients are challenged by the aftermath of growth through acquisition. Creating a singular company culture helps global customers to enjoy a seamless experience without hiccups, says Hart. Companies are also finding that, in today’s fast-moving marketplace, they need agility to survive. “The world is moving so fast that the only real competitive strategy is to have a culture that is more agile than their competitor’s,” Hart says. Hart, who once founded a leading business software publishing firm and later led real estate development firm Western National Group, says the move to Orange County has been a boon to his

AGILITY TRAINER

JIM HARTPresident and CEO, Senn Delaney Leadership Consulting Group

employees, as well. “It allowed us to start from scratch and build a creative environment that’s reflective of our culture,” he says, about the space in the Towers at Bella Terra, where open meeting rooms overlook the expansive Santa Ana Mountains. And promot-ing a positive culture within Senn Delaney is obvi-ously a priority for a firm charged with improving the cultures in others. “We need to be what we bring to our clients,” Hart says, adding that nobody would hire a personal trainer who drinks, smokes and eats unhealthy foods. “That’s the one thing I insist on here. As much as possible, be who that message is – otherwise there’s no authenticity.”

– KELLY ST. JOHN

Video game developer and industry icon David Perry knows digital games. The CEO and co-founder of Gaikai began his career in the 1980s by writing computer game programming books and making simple video games as a teenager. Thirty years later, the Ireland native has worked on more than 100 video games for the likes of Disney, McDonald’s, Warner Bros. and oth-ers. His most popular titles include “Earthworm Jim,” “Disney’s Aladdin,” “The Terminator,” “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” and “Enter the Matrix.” Perry founded Shiny Entertainment in 1993, a video game-development com-pany that was later acquired by Atari for $47 million. He then co-founded cloud-based gaming service Gaikai in 2008, which was acquired by Sony Computer Entertainment for $380 million last July. Perry’s success didn’t come without setbacks. He turned down the chance to make a video game for the first install-ment of “The Matrix” film series. “When I saw the movie, it blew me away,” Perry says, and he realized he had made a “terrible mistake.” Fortunately, the director gave him a second chance with the sequel. “Enter the Matrix” was an instant success. “Our joint enemy is boredom,” Perry says. “There’s not a single human being who wouldn’t enjoy a video game versus being bored, so we just have to help them discover a game they love.” And with the growing number of options available to consumers through the use of tablets, smartphones and the like, Perry says everyone will have the chance to discover “just how entertain-ing a video game can be.” Perry is a nice guy. “I often get told that I’m not mean enough,” he says. His antidote to avoid getting nasty? “Just hire great people.”

– HEIDI KULICKE

$380 MILLION–DOLLAR MAN

DAVID PERRYCEO and Co-founder, Gaikai Inc.

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When the Diocese of Orange’s newest leader, Bishop Kevin W. Vann, was installed last December at the Bren Center at UC Irvine, he welcomed the crowd in four languages: English, Spanish, Vietnamese and Korean. Native American and Vietnamese dancers opened the ceremony, and parts of the service were translated into Chinese, Tagalog, Polish and Tongan. The event marked a new beginning for Orange County’s Catholics, and a new beginning for Vann, who had spent the previous seven years leading the Catholic community in Forth Worth, Texas. Now that Vann has been in Orange County for nearly a year, he said he’s discovered that, like Fort Worth, Orange County has a large ethnic community, something to which he’s accustomed and embraces. (Of course, his current diocese is much bigger, with 1.3 million Catholics. It’s the 10th-largest in the nation.) Vann has enjoyed meeting people here from many cultures – Latinos, Vietnamese, Koreans and Chinese – as well as building relationships with people of other faiths. “It continues to expand my horizons as a human, a priest and a shepherd,” says Vann, 62. Most Sundays, he can be found at Holy Family Cathedral in Orange. But he also gets around a lot, attending weddings, funerals, auctions, parish socials and fundraisers. In addition, he’s discovered some favorite local places, including the antique stores in Orange and local gardens. “You have so much beauty here. I’ve walked the piers at the ocean and watched the Pacific sunset,” he says.

SOUL SHEPHERD

The Most Reverend Kevin Vann Bishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange

It’s no surprise that Vann, a native of Springfield, Ill., has been brought to the larger diocese to expand his leadership. Vann was a leader in the Texas Conference of Bishops, spearheading various initiatives at the national level, among several other efforts. Through the U.S. Conference of Bishops, Vann works with bishops across the United States, as well as throughout the world. He is the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith’s Ecclesiastical Delegate for the Pastoral Provision in the U.S. Years ago, when Vann first became a priest, he wanted to stay in Springfield – but perhaps God had other plans: He has moved seven times in 32 years as a Catholic leader. “I’m feeling at home here,” Vann says about Orange County. “I thank all the people for their welcome and their faith, and for praying with me.”

– AMY BENTLEY

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As a senior in high school, Alan Fuerstman, CEO of Montage Hotels & Resorts, had no idea his first job would ultimately establish him as a leader in the luxury hotel industry. That year, he worked as a doorman part time at a Marriott Hotel. “I never planned on making the hotel business my career,” Fuerstman says. “But by the time I graduated college, I loved the hospitality industry and decided to pursue a career in it.” The attraction? “It’s a dynamic, energetic business,” he says. “It’s very diverse and requires multiple skill sets and challenges that I find very exciting.” Fuerstman finds motivating his staff very rewarding and enjoys “exceeding guest expectations.” Surprisingly, social networking enables him and his staff to achieve this goal. For example, a guest recently tweeted he was at the hotel’s pool and didn’t have a particular magazine. To his surprise, one of the hotel’s associates tracked him down and provided him with the magazine. “It gave an opportunity to delight and surprise,” Fuerstman says. “I like the transparency and the speed at which we can provide feedback through social networking.” Founded in 2002, the Montage operates the 250-room Montage Laguna Beach, the brand’s flagship resort. Ranked among the top resorts in the world, the luxury hotel earned the distinction of having the first-ever Forbes 5-star-rated spa. In 2008, Fuerstman opened the brand’s second hotel, in Beverly Hills, and a third resort, Montage Deer Valley, in Park City, Utah, in December 2010. Both locales have been extremely successful, despite the recession. Fuerstman never grows tired of the business and enjoys the resorts he runs. “I love being immersed in the hotel environ-ment. Plus, we have an opportunity to serve the community.”

– LINDA MELONE

HOSPITALITY DYNAMO

ALAN FUERSTMANCEO, Montage Hotels & Resorts

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There seems to be no stopping Marinela Gombosev. A tech executive and electrical engi-neer who is always ready for a new business challenge, Gombosev has var-ied experiences ranging from designing flight controls for executive business jets, to developing global strategy and marketing plans for VIZIO, to helping with the initial marketing-launch strat-egy for luxury hybrid carmaker Fisker. And she just turned 30. Currently, as a program manager of New Product Development at BIT Group in Irvine, an international medical device company that develops diagnostic health-care equipment, Gombosev and her team now have two patents pending for a new allergy and autoimmune-system analyzer set to launch in Europe. Simultaneously, she’s taken on a new entrepreneurial challenge: She’s the CEO of a small business that developed a reusable, self-clinging tape product called Hugo’s Amazing Tape. Gombosev plans to expand its use from arts and crafts into new markets such as the automotive and industrial worlds. She’ll tap into her MBA knowledge and experience in product development, marketing and leader-ship to get there. “I’m balancing both, and I’m loving the excitement,” Gombosev says. “I love growing things. This was an opportunity where I could take something that exists but is small and make it so much bigger. “I’m doing a lot. I love it,” she adds. “I want to continue to grow myself. I love learning and developing my skills as a leader. I want to make businesses bigger. I want to do a great job and then go on to the next opportunity. For me, it’s always what’s next.” Gombosev has faced big challenges before and emerged on top. A native of war-torn Bosnia and Herzegovina, her family fled to Germany when Gombosev was 9 and moved to

BUSINESS-SAVVY ENGINEER

Marinela GombosevCEO, Amazing TapeProgram Manager, Analytical Instruments

Orange County five years later, sponsored by a local aunt. (English is Gombosev’s third language, and she speaks it flawlessly.) While an electri-cal engineering undergraduate at UC Irvine, she was president of the campus Society of Women Engineers and was named Engineer of the Year at the Henry Samueli School of Engineering at UCI. After graduating, she mentored young women engineers as a col-legiate advisor and earned her MBA from Pepperdine University’s Irvine campus. She was recognized by the Committee of 200 (an organiza-tion composed of many of the most influential women business leaders in the world) and awarded a scholar-ship. She continues to serve as both a mentor and mentee. Gombosev’s goal for the future: to be successful enough in business and become a full-fledged C200 member. This will surely happen, given her drive and success.

– AMY BENTLEY

During the recent financial crisis, estab-lished banks faced closure and acquisi-tion left and right. However, Opus Bank’s founder and mastermind, Stephen Gordon, saw an opportunity for a new bank to emerge with a clean balance sheet and a fresh perspective. He took a chance and acquired a strug-gling bank in the South Bay, rebranding it Opus Bank in September 2010. From the bank’s inception until now, it has grown its assets from $275 million to more than $3.2 billion, and expanded from five offices to 58 in the same time period, earning the title of the largest bank headquartered in Orange County. Opus Bank’s strategy is to acquire other banks and grow organically into a regional bank with locations throughout the West Coast and surrounding states. Gordon founded Irvine-based Commercial Capital Bancorp and oversaw its growth from “virtually nothing” to $6 billion in assets over six years, selling it to Washington Mutual in 2006 for $1 billion. He has a deep sense of pride for Opus Bank and the positive effects it has had. “I believe that we are having a major impact on entrepreneurs, businesses and real estate investors in the region, enabling them to expand and grow,” he says. Gordon started his career as an invest-ment banker in New York, working for many years on the 104th floor of 2 World Trade Center. When the building collapsed dur-ing the terrorist attacks of 9/11, he lost 68 friends and colleagues. The experience had a profound effect on him. “It taught me that life is short and you have to enjoy what you’re doing,” he says. Gordon cites his family as his greatest personal achievement. “My wife and I have raised two incredible daughters,” he says. “They are both good people; normal, driven and grounded.”

– HEIDI KULICKE

FINANCIAL PHOENIX

STEPHEN GORDONChairman, CEO and President, Opus Bank

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Last year, Vinny Smith sold Orange County–based Quest Software to Dell, in a $2.4 billion deal. Since then, he’s wasted little time before using his fortune to underwrite a new generation of software up-and-comers. Smith used his proceeds from the Dell transaction to create Irvine venture capital firm Toba Capital. In less than a year, it has already grown to become Orange County’s largest venture capital firm. Toba Capital has invested in more than a dozen enterprise-software startups, including local firms like Alteryx, a predictive analytics company in Irvine that received a $12 million cash infusion. Toba also led an effort to raise $8 million for Cirro, a San Juan Capistrano software maker. He is also investing heavily in Silicon Valley firms such as Palo Alto software firm WSO2; Codenvy, in San Francisco; and Quorum, a San Jose company that makes data-recovery software. Earlier this year, Smith – who rarely gives press interviews – told the San Jose Mercury News that he expects to put as much as $150 million into venture deals this year. After Smith sold his first startup company in 1994, he began investing through Insight Capital Partners. Quest was the first invest-ment he made with Insight, back when it had just 25 employees. By the time Quest was acquired, Smith had grown it into a firm with 4,000 employ-ees and $857 million in annual revenue. The Orange County Register reported that he netted about $850 million from the deal. Smith has said he is interested in backing data-mining and personal-health-care firms. “There’s going to be a lot of really good applications to come out for how to use a mobile device to do data sample collection on your body,” Smith told the Orange County Register’s Ian Hamilton earlier this year. “I think your doctor is going to give you a set of applications to run, and you’re going to test yourself; he’s going to look at the data once a week. Then, if anything gets out of whack, he’s going to know before you do.”

– KELLY ST. JOHN

VENTURE-CAPITAL VICTOR

VINNY SMITHFounder, Toba Capital

UCI law professor Katherine Porter is a crusader of mortgage justice. Last March, California Attorney General Kamala D. Harris appointed her as the state’s independent monitor of banks. Since then, Porter has worked to hold banks accountable for their commitments to the state, ensuring that homeowners get their financial benefits in full and on time. Porter founded the Consumer Protection Clinic at UCI to involve her stu-dents in the work she does. “I have years of experience explaining laws,” she says. Her students now include a much wider audience: homeowners, members of the media, advocates and policymak-ers. Porter says her job is largely the same as it was before: know the law, think creatively about it and explain it clearly. Porter says her job with the state is “to make sure banks hold up their promises to change troubling practices,” so that families and communities across California can see the benefits of the settlement. “Part of repairing the damage of the mortgage crisis is restoring public confidence that our largest financial institutions will treat consumers fairly and follow the law,” she says. Another part of her job is to iden-tify areas where banks could improve: Sending letters that are easier to under-stand is one example. “The law has limits, but it’s my role to push at those limits and think creatively

LEGAL CRUSADER

KATHERINE PORTERProfessor of Law, UC IrvineCalifornia Monitor, U.S. Department of Justice

about solutions,” Porter says. Since becom-ing state monitor last year, the office has heard from more than 4,000 homeowners. “Many families simply want answers they can trust and to know their options,” she says. The mother of three children – ages 7, 5 and 2 – Porter says, “Negotiating with large financial institutions is often easier than getting everyone out the door on time in the morning.” Porter grew up in rural Iowa and spent nine years in the 4-H program, where she says she first learned the benefits of set-ting goals. “Very rarely in life will others push you as far or in the right direction as you can do for yourself.”

– HEIDI KULICKE

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Dr. Ari Babaknia’s 20-year project, which he began in March 1993, got its start with one burning question: Where was the world during the Holocaust? “The Holocaust did not happen on another planet,” says Babaknia, a Newport Beach OB/GYN. “So where were those so-called ‘powerful’ Jews that Hitler was so afraid of that he had to kill them? How could it be possible to kill 11 million people who had nothing to do with war – and nobody knew anything?” In his search for answers, Babaknia read 400 books on the subject, taking a year-long sabbatical from his success-ful fertility practice and subsequently writing a 12,000-page, four-volume work in Farsi titled “Holocaust.” The individual volumes are: “Man’s Inhumanity to Man,” “America’s Response to the Holocaust,” “The World’s Response to the Holocaust,” and “End of the Holocaust; Liberation of the Nazi Camps and the Genocides of the Last 100 Years.” “The Holocaust was unknown in Iran,” says Babaknia, who recalls a friend’s son who came to visit shortly after 9/11. The young man noticed the entire wall in Babaknia’s library containing books on the Holocaust. “He’d never heard of the Holocaust and asked me if it was a disease, says Babaknia. “I told him, ‘Yes, it’s a psychosocial disease called hate.’ That was the impetus that pushed me into studying this.” Babaknia initially worked a few hours a day and on weekends, and then took a year off to complete the research (along with his two broth-ers). It was an arduous journey, often depressing and disappointing in its discoveries. However, Babaknia felt privileged to have the ability to do it. “I feel chosen, because this opened my eyes to the humanity of others,” he says. “The reaction to the Holocaust should not just be anger; it should make us aware of others’ sufferings. I always wanted to be a person who was above prejudice and see others in me and me in others, and writing this made me reach that pinnacle.”

– LINDA MELONE

COMPASSIONATE MESSENGER

Dr. Ari BabakniaAuthor

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