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SAN DIEGO BUSINESS JOURNAL
Vol. 43, No. 46
November 14 – 20, 2022 • $10.00
THE COMMUNITY OF BUSINESS™
Viejas Tribe Get $31M CEC Grant UTILITIES: Ensuring a
Bright Future
By KAREN PEARLMAN
San Diego’s Most Influential Business Leaders Newcomers Join Mainstays and Icons on 2022 List By GEORGE LURIE It’s been another eventful year for America’s Finest City – and the business leaders that power it. The local business landscape, dominated for two years by concerns about COVID, had a new challenge in 2022 – inflation, which rocketed from 2 to 8% seemingly overnight. With prices for everything from food to gas suddenly surging, the Federal Reserve unleashed a string of aggressive rate hikes just as San Diego and the rest of the nation was emerging from the pandemic. Fed rate hikes haven’t been this year’s only economic headwind. Many businesses also continue to be challenged by supply chain bottlenecks and a historically tight labor market. Higher interest rates have also put a damper on real estate’s record-breaking rise and forced many businesses to cut capex and pivot to a more conservative mode of operation. Some of the area’s biggest companies, including Qualcomm, are instituting hiring freezes while companies including Heron Therapeutics, Intuit and Bristol Myers Squibb have announced their first layoffs since the Great Recession.
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WDC 2024 Efforts Gearing Up As the economic pendulum swings, San Diego and Tijuana civic and business leaders continue to prepare to host the year-long World Design Capital 2024 international event, which will put a global spotlight on the region – and the growing cross-border collaboration happening between the two cities. The new Burnham Center for Community Advancement, located at UCSD’s Park & Market Center in downtown San Diego, has been at the forefront of the bi-national efforts to stage the World Design Capital 2024. The Burnham Center was created by local icon Malin Burnham, who refers to his new organization as a “thinkand-do tank.” Like Burnham, the Center’s CEO Tad Parzen is profiled in the SD 500 section that follows. And so is longtime UCSD administrator Mary Walshok, who oversaw the opening of the new Park & Market building. And speaking of amazing achievements, the San Diego Padres have been one of the year’s biggest local success stories: The team’s stunning run deep into the MLB playoffs electrified the city in October – and at
EDUCATION: BioLegend CEO Honors Mentor With Gift to UC San Diego
FEATURE CATEGORIES • ASSOCIATIONS
page 12
• NONPROFITS
page 17
• EDUCATION
page 29
• FINANCE
page 33
• HEALTH & LIFE SCIENCE page 46 • OTHER INDUSTRIES
page 60
• LIFESTYLE
page 64
• PROFESSIONAL SERVICES page 66 • REAL ESTATE
page 80
• TECHNOLOGY
page 92
• ICONS
page 97
¨SD500 page 115
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The Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians has secured a $31 million California Energy Commission grant. At a news conference earlier this month at its casino in Alpine, the Tribe’s chairman said the funds will be used to build a cutting-edge, long-duration battery storage facility for renewable energy to be used by tribal members as well as at the John Christman Tribal Chairman Tribe’s casino, hoViejas Band of tel and outlet mall Kumeyaay Indians in East County.
¨Tribe page 114
MedCrypt Nets $25M Series B CYBERSECURITY:
Protecting Med Devices By JEFF CLEMETSON MedCrypt CEO Mike Kijewski wants patients who reply on connected medical devices to know that the benefits of those devices “almost certainly” outweigh any risk of a potential cyber hack of the device. However, just because the odds of a cybercrimiMike Kijewski nal plotting a vilCEO lainous attack on MedCrypt
¨MedCrypt page 111
NONPROFITS: Ag in the Classroom Inspires Future Farmers
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HOSPITALITY: Bird Rock's Piano Building Retuned as an Eatery
TUESDAY, JANUARY 31, 2023 8:30 AM to 10:30 AM
2023
One Paseo - Deloitte 12830 El Camino Real #600, San Diego
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