Ventura County CEO Robinson to retire
Ventura County CEO Marty Robinson has announced plans to retire in March after three years as the top executive in the region’s largest government agency. Robinson, 60, replaced Johnny Johnston as CEO in 2008, the culmination of a career with the county that has now lasted more than 35 years. She was the first woman Read More →
Editorial: Sneaky attack subverts property rights in SLO
In a spread that garnered national publicity in Parade Magazine on Oct. 3, San Luis Obispo was crowned “Happy Town, USA,” where, among other things, author Dan Buettner found it to be the No. 1 place in America for emotional health. But just a few days later, California’s Fair Political Practices Commission tore the cover Read More →
Guitar man: High-end instruments, made in Oxnard
The first things you notice when you meet Jean Larrivée, the founder of high-end guitar maker Jean Larrivée Guitars, aren’t the test instruments leaning against the wall of his office, the tool chest in the corner or the small bottles of wood stain that dot the windowsill. It’s the giant red banners bearing Cyrillic script, Read More →
Nonprofit seizes opportunity to turn hassle into new facility
Question: The city wants to extend a road through your property, right through a corner where several key buildings are located. What do you do? (a) Put up a fight. (b) Sell the city the land, and use the proceeds as seed money to build a new facility on your remaining property. Santa Maria-based VTC Read More →
Lopker tells her story at CSUCI
Today, Pamela Lopker is the founder, president and chairman of the board of Santa Barbara-based QAD, a $220-million-a-year manufacturing software company with 1,300 employees. But back in the in the 1970s, Lopker, the daughter of a U.S. Navy engineer, was coding software at a defense subcontractor when she realized she had brighter career prospects. “As Read More →
