oforan ge count

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THE
5
HOTTEST
PEOPLE
OF
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I S S U E 2 3 .1 2
ORAN
5
T
GE COUNTY
BY AMY BENTLEY, RICHARD CHANG, PAUL HODGINS, HEIDI KULICKE,
LISA LIDDANE, LINDA MELONE AND KELLY ST. JOHN
his list of O.C. notables 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, shattering 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 photographer who has survived AIDS for
20 years, and a medical-device
engineer who is the CEO of a second 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.
I S S U E 2 3 .1 2
– SUSAN BELKNAPP
OC REGISTER METRO
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THE HOT
25
QUIET LEADER
Lynsi Snyder Torres
Owner, In-N-Out Burger
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
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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 teenager 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 unconventional and adventurous life
TOWERING SUCCESS
GARY JABARA
Founder/CEO, Mobilitie LLC
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
PHOTO CHALLENGE RODDIE (JABARA)
Gary Jabara is the founder
and chief executive of
cellphone-tower-management 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 constraints 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 gracious 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 competitive 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 entrepreneur.” 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.”
I S S U E 2 3 .1 2
– HEIDI KULICKE
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THE HOT
25
FOLK-ROCK REVIVALIST
MARCUS MUMFORD
Founder, Mumford & Sons
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 Londonbased 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 mandolin. 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 copies 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, scheduled for release in December.
– RICHARD CHANG
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PHOTOS DAVID HALL / OC REGISTER (MUMFORD); LEONARD ORTIZ / OC REGISTER (GRAY)
SERIAL ENTREPRENEUR
DESIGNING WOMEN
Marie &
Kelly Gray
Founders/Designers, Grayse
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 company 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 contemporary 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
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 opportunity 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.”
RYAN STEELBERG
CEO, Brand Affinity Technologies
Ryan Steelberg was a 22-year-old premed 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 entertainmentpromotion companies. Brand Affinity also
launched its FanPhotos programs at sporting, entertainment-venue and corporatehosted 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
– LISA LIDDANE
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THE HOT
25
THREE-POINT WARRIOR
KLAY THOMPSON
Guard, Golden State Warriors
COURAGEOUS VISIONARY
KURT WESTON
Photographer
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 prognoses, 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 consideration 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 pneumocystis 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 horribly 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
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his talent. While he’s
changed the focus
of his subject matter
from black-andwhite 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
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 singleseason 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 overall pick in the 1978 draft – won two championships 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-pointers 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
PHOTO JEFF ANTENORE / OC REGISTER (THOMPSON)
TECHNICAL CREATIVE
Marla
Rausch
CEO, Animation Vertigo
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 company, Animation Vertigo provides
quality solutions for motioncapture (the process of recording
actions of human actors and using
the information in computer animation) 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
PHOTO CHALLENGE RODDIE
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LABOR FORCE
TEFERE GEBRE
Executive Vice President, AFL-CIO
The question before Tefere Gebre is
this: Can he replicate his success on a
national level that he enjoyed as executive director of the Orange County
Labor Federation?
In September, delegates at the AFLCIO 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 different 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 nationwide, 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
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PHOTO CHALLENGE RODDIE (EDWARDS)
HIGH-TECH FOODIE
Andrew Edwards
Owner, THE RANCH Restaurant & Saloon
CEO, Extron
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 headquarters for his 30-year-old company
in Anaheim, he had a golden opportunity 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, highquality 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, designing 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 executive chef Michael Rossi, both of whom
had worked at the Disneyland Resort’s
Napa Rose restaurant.
Edwards and his staff are determined to keep things local; a farm in
the Santa Ana Mountains is the source
of much of the kitchen’s produce.
“In the summer,
we focus on our
400-plus heirloom
tomato vines that
provide more than
90 different varieties,” Edwards says.
“We also have heirloom 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 industry 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.
CELEBRITY CONFECTIONER
JACKIE SORKIN
Owner, Hollywood Candy Girls
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 create 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 having a role model like you. I believe in total
transparency as a teacher, coach, mentor
and person, and I never hide my shortcomings or flaws.”
– HEIDI KULICKE
– PAUL HODGINS
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THE HOT
25
RACING REBEL
Courtney Force
Race-car driver
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
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I S S U E 2 3 .1 2
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 communications. 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 working 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
feature
THE HOT
25
THREEFOLD SUCCESS
ANDY FATHOLLAHI
CEO, Incipio; Braven; and Tavik
As a new college grad, Andy Fathollahi noticed
something about the prospective employers he
met during job interviews: They were all clicking 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 accessories 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 employees 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 hiring 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
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ROLE-PLAYING TITAN
FEARGUS URQUHART
CEO, Obsidian Entertainment
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 crowdfunding 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 roleplaying 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
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 bioengineering 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 industry is pretty awesome,” 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
TEEN HUMANITARIAN
Brooke
Foy
A ‘shoe-in’ for success
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 mission 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 hundreds 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
PHOTO CHALLENGE RODDIE
I S S U E 2 3 .1 2
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ENTERPRISING ALTRUIST
Charlie
Dunlop
Chairman/CEO, Ambry Genetics
Charles “Charlie” Dunlop is the chairman 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 genetics 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
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PHOTO CHALLENGE RODDIE
feature
THE HOT
25
AGILITY TRAINER
JIM HART
President and CEO, Senn Delaney
Leadership Consulting Group
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 executive 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, logging 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
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 promoting a positive
culture within Senn
Delaney is obviously 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
$380 MILLION–DOLLAR MAN
DAVID PERRY
CEO and Co-founder, Gaikai Inc.
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 others. 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 company that was later acquired by Atari for
$47 million. He then co-founded cloudbased 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 installment 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 entertaining 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
PHOTO ROBERT ZALESKI (HART)
I S S U E 2 3 .1 2
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THE HOT
25
SOUL SHEPHERD
The Most Reverend Kevin Vann
Bishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange
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 10thlargest 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.
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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
PHOTO EUGENE GARCIA / OC REGISTER
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THE HOT
25
HOSPITALITY DYNAMO
ALAN FUERSTMAN
CEO, Montage Hotels & Resorts
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
environment. Plus,
we have an
opportunity
to serve the
community.”
– LINDA MELONE
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PHOTO CHALLENGE RODDIE (GOMBOSEV)
BUSINESS-SAVVY ENGINEER
Marinela
Gombosev
CEO, Amazing Tape
Program Manager, Analytical Instruments
There seems to be no stopping
Marinela Gombosev.
A tech executive and electrical engineer who is always ready for a new
business challenge, Gombosev has varied 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 strategy 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 leadership 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
PHOTO CHALLENGE RODDIE
Orange County
five years later,
sponsored by a
local aunt. (English
is Gombosev’s
third language,
and she speaks it
flawlessly.)
While an electrical 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 collegiate advisor and
earned her MBA
from Pepperdine
University’s Irvine
campus. She was
recognized by the
Committee of
200 (an organization composed of
many of the most
influential women
business leaders
in the world) and
awarded a scholarship. 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.
FINANCIAL PHOENIX
STEPHEN GORDON
Chairman, CEO and President,
Opus Bank
During the recent financial crisis, established banks faced closure and acquisition 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 struggling 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 investment banker in New York, working for many
years on the 104th floor of 2 World Trade
Center. When the building collapsed during 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.”
– AMY BENTLEY
– HEIDI KULICKE
I S S U E 2 3 .1 2
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25
VENTURE-CAPITAL VICTOR
VINNY SMITH
Founder, Toba Capital
LEGAL CRUSADER
KATHERINE PORTER
Professor of Law, UC Irvine
California Monitor, U.S. Department of Justice
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 students 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 policymakers. 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 identify areas where banks could improve:
Sending letters that are easier to understand is one example.
“The law has limits, but it’s my role to
push at those limits and think creatively
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about solutions,”
Porter says.
Since becoming 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 setting goals.
“Very rarely in life
will others push you
as far or in the right
direction as you can
do for yourself.”
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 investment 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 employees 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
– HEIDI KULICKE
PHOTOS CHALLENGE RODDIE (PORTER); PAUL E RODRIGUEZ / OC REGISTER (SMITH)
COMPASSIONATE MESSENGER
Dr. Ari
Babaknia
Author
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 successful 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 brothers). 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
PHOTO ROBERT ZALESKI
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