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Friday, Mar 29, 2024

VICA Names Board, Fetes Members

The Valley Industry & Commerce Association elected its 2008 Board of Directors and Officers at its 58th annual Meeting Dec. 13. Greg Lippe, who has served as VICA’s vice chair and head of its Government Affairs Committee, was named board chair during the event, held at the Airtel Plaza Hotel in Van Nuys. “I’m very grateful for the opportunity to serve as VICA chair, and I’m really excited about the coming year,” said Lippe, who has been a VICA member since 2001and is managing partner of Lippe, Hellie, Hoffer & Allison LLP in Woodland Hills. Lippe promised to work hard for business. “We’re not going to lay down,” he said. He also discussed changes VICA will make under his tenure, including increasing membership because “advocacy is more effective with more members,” he said. Advocacy will also come into play at new events VICA has scheduled for the upcoming year, such as the Business Advocacy Conference. Scheduled for Oct. 30, the conference will take the place of the forecast conference. “We want to turn it into what we really are, which is advocacy,” Lippe explained of the change. To honor key players in the Valley business world, VICA will add a Business Hall of Fame Dinner as well. Joining Lippe on the 2008 executive committee will be First Vice Chair Lynn Rinker, Coldwell Banker Quality Properties; Second Vice Chair Carolyn Casavan, West Coast Environmental & Engineering; Treasurer Jerald Otchis, Bobrick Washroom Equipment Inc.; and Immediate Past Chair Bob Scott, CivicCenter Group. Scott, for one, received a round of applause for his contributions as chairman. Past chairs of VICA were also honored during the conference. Others spotlighted during the event included VICA members and award recipients Pete Satuloff of Anderson, Satuloff, Machado & Mendelsohn and Business Journal Publisher Pegi Matsuda. Satuloff received the 14th annual Harmon Ballin Community Service Award. “I’m honored to receive this award, and I thank VICA for this recognition,” he said. He added that it was a privilege to be thought of in the same breath as past honorees. A Valley native, Satuloff said, “VICA and other organizations like it are necessary to keep us moving in the right direction.” Matsuda received the second annual President’s Award. VICA head Brendan Huffman said of Matsuda, “Pegi was always willing to take on endless tasks. Pegi’s always taken the time to help me and the VICA staff with a smile and a positive attitude.” Huffman even joked that he’d like to clone Matsuda, who was a woman of brevity upon accepting her award. She joked that she wasn’t nervous being in front of the audience because she is so accustomed to presenting awards to others. Being an actual honoree was a new experience for her, she said. Cheryl Fair, news director of Glendale-based ABC7, served as keynote speaker of the luncheon. She discussed localism and the perception that news agencies owned by large corporations aren’t keyed in locally. “We have many employees that have deep ties to this community,” she said. During the annual meeting, sponsored by the Walt Disney Company and cosponsored by Comerica Bank, Chevron, Wells Fargo and Woodbury University, VICA also welcomed new member companies. Northrop Grumman Corp., Citibank, Cedars-Sinai Health System, Merrill Lynch and the famed Buckley School are among the 48 newest businesses to join VICA.

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