Okay, say you’re a scientist with this great new idea that will change the world. Perhaps it’s a treatment for a deadly disease or a new way to test for medical conditions. The complicated research is finished; the hours and hours in a lab have paid off. Well, then what? Then follows is what any inventor faces turning the idea into a product that in turn finds success in the marketplace and brings in a profit. In the biotech industry it can take years for the process to travel a path of licensing deals; building a team for the commercialization; finding investors with both patience and deep pockets; choosing a corporate partner; taking the technology from a lab setting to mass production; and maybe even devising an exit strategy. That lengthy development time has both its advantages and disadvantages. “Once you are ahead it can be difficult to catch you,” said Richard Hamilton, president and CEO of energy crop developer Ceres Inc. in Thousand Oaks. Unique perhaps to biotech is the origins of new research. Rarely have ideas for new drugs or treatments come from self-funded startups. More likely the ideas spring from university labs, or from research paid for by the government conducted by not for profits or small labs. Taking those ideas to the marketplace begins with the licensing agreement. There are two routes to follow the quick one is for, say, a university to go to an established pharmaceutical company and get a lot of money in return. Setting up that licensing deal with a small start up opens up a whole other set of decisions that an experienced law firm needs to get involved. For instance, how will the license be structured and the intellectual property defined. From the start up’s perspective the broader the license the better; while the university wants to narrow down the uses of its research. “If they screw that up the company can be dead on arrival,” said Joel Balbien, the managing partner with a Calabasas consulting firm. After a licensing deal is finalized is typically when a start up contacts a company like Designed Polymers Inc. of Newbury Park for testing of the material, a protein for example, they now possess. Outsourcing the tests can save on time and money as building and staffing an on-site laboratory is expensive. The test results are needed later when applying to regulatory agencies for permission to test on humans or sell to the public, said Greg Cauchon, a former Amgen scientist who founded Designed Polymers three years ago. “Once they (a start up) license a product what they are typically aiming at is to get to the point as quickly as possible to license out their drug to a large pharmaceutical company,” Cauchon said. Next up is having the right mix of academics and business experience. The right management That’s where the right management team comes in. With scientists lacking that experience, it is important to have management in place with a proven track record in taking products into the marketplace. For one thing, investors may disappear without that experience. “They will not invest in a company led by someone with a pure academic background,” Balbien said. Responding to the absence of scientists with business skills, California State University Channel Islands in 2007 started a dual degree program of biology and an MBA. The program is among a small number in the nation and the only one on the West Coast, said Ching Hua Wang, chair of the biology and nursing programs and director of the master’s biotech program at the Camarillo school. The program draws from senior scientists, managers and attorneys practicing within the biotech industry. “They bring fresh perspectives into the classroom,” Wang said. The business expertise in the management team at Kreido Biofuels eased that company’s transition from concept to commercialization. CEO Ben Binninger easily rattles off the career histories of those working for him charged with operations, finances and technology. “All of us have been involved with start ups to world class companies,” Binninger said. Kreido, based in Camarillo, developed an innovative processing system with applications in multiple industries, among them alternative fuels and pharmaceuticals. Kreido will first apply its system to biodiesel production, a use that wasn’t considered when the company was founded more than a decade ago. Holding up placing a modular facility in Wilmington, N.C. to begin making fuel is money. “The plant is built and the site ready to go yet we still have to raise $20 million to finish it out,” Binninger said. Ah, yes, the funding. Raising capital takes an additional set of skills that a scientist may not have, showing once again the importance of having the right team in place for the commercialization stage. Hitting certain milestones in product development can make a start up attractive to a corporate partner who can provide additional funding. But it is important that the start up not give away the store to its larger partner. “It is a balancing act requiring sophistication,” Balbien said.

This is a regular feature on philanthropic activities by Valley-area businesspeople and companies. Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne participated in the Simi Valley Neighborhood Council’s sixth annual Simi Valley Arroyo Cleanup April 26. The event was sponsored by Keep America Beautiful, the nation’s largest yearly community improvement program. Last year more than 200 volunteers removed more than 11 tons of trash from the Arroyo Simi, which is 12 miles long and runs east to west from Corriganville Park on the east side of town to Moorpark on the west side. The Arroyo Simi cleanup is one of several activities Pratt & Whiteny Rocketdyne participates in to observe Earth Day. Golf Tournament Set The California Lutheran University Community Leaders Association will host its eighth annual golf tournament June 19 at Moorpark Country Club. Proceeds from the tournament will go towards scholarships for CLU students. The tournament fee is $185. The price includes golfing, carts, putting range balls, tee package, lunch and post-tournament hors d’oeuvres. Golf sponsorships and packages are available for groups, foursomes and individual players. The tournament will begin with registration at 9 a.m. Putting range areas will be open until 10:30 a.m., with a shotgun start at 11 a.m. An awards reception and auction will follow the tournament at 4 p.m. Several prizes will be awarded for outstanding performances, including a $10,000 hole-in-one chance. Information: (805) 493-3931 or http://www.callutheran.edu/CLA. Fitness Walk Held to Benefit Seniors The City of Palmdale’s Parks and Recreation Department and the High Desert Medical Group hosted a one-mile fitness walk and breakfast April 26 at the Palmdale Senior Center. Proceeds benefited the Palmdale Senior Center Advisory Board. Palmdale Aquatics Division to Provide Scholarships The Aquatics Division of the Palmdale Parks and Recreation Department in conjunction with the LA84 Foundation is offering aquatics program scholarships to Palmdale residents no older than 17 years of age. Full and partial scholarships will be awarded based on family size income level. Scholarships are limited to one per season, per child. Individuals must submit an application two weeks prior to the course start date. “These scholarships can be used for swim lessons, swim team, water polo, synchronized swimming and adaptive aquatics,” said Aquatics Supervisor Joe Goss. “It’s an exciting program that allows kids the opportunity to participate in programs that would otherwise be unavailable to them.” Application forms may be downloaded from the City’s Web site at cityofpalmdale.org or picked up at the Parks and Recreation Department office at 38260 10th St. E. To receive an application by mail, call (661) 267-5611. Partial Proceeds to Benefit Angels Flight This May, luxury skin and hair care provider Kiehl’s will open a retail store at The Americana at Brand, 720 Americana Way, Glendale. Kiehl’s recently announced its partnership with Angel Flight West for the opening of the Glendale store. Angel Flight helps children through airplane programs. Aviation is a favorite pastime of Kiehl’s, according to the company. Compiled by Nadra Kareem

By FRANK NELSON Contributing Reporter A cluster of companies around Santa Clarita is putting northern Los Angeles County on the map in the cutting-edge world of biotechnology and its close cousins biomedical, biopharmaceutical and medical devices. The City of Santa Clarita’s economic development unit has a list of almost 20 such ventures and administrative analyst Ryan Drake is confident the numbers will grow. “We’re looking to attract more to the area,” he said. “The City of Santa Clarita’s business climate is conducive to the industry. Adding to the business friendly environment is our recent designation as an Enterprise Zone which provides even more incentives for businesses to locate to the city.” Perhaps the highest profile player in this area is Nasdaq-traded MannKind Corp., a biopharmaceutical developer with more than 100 of its 600-plus employees based in Valencia. MannKind has been traveling the long and expensive road to market with its signature product Technosphere Insulin, a unique inhaler-delivered diabetes treatment. It’s been a demanding journey, but company CFO, Dick Anderson, believes the end is in sight. He said final clinical trials are now underway in the U. S., Europe and Latin America, and the company expects to file for Food and Drug Administration approval at the end of this year. Anderson said the FDA typically takes at least a year to investigate and approve such applications and he’s hopeful Technosphere will get the green light “in the first quarter of 2010”. MannKind has developed a method of formulating insulin as a powder which can be delivered through an inhaler; on contact with moisture deep in the lungs the compound instantly changes to liquid and is rapidly absorbed into the bloodstream. Among other things, this would eliminate the need for diabetics to self-administer insulin injections. But Anderson said the benefits of Technosphere go far beyond just its convenience since it also offers much safer, more reliable and more efficacious insulin control and delivery. MannKind is also engaged in early clinical trials for a cancer vaccine that Anderson said is intended to treat solid tumors, such as those found in colorectal and ovarian cancers, and also melanoma. MannKind takes its name from billionaire Al Mann, the nationally and internationally acclaimed biotech pioneer, described by Anderson as “one of the catalysts” for so many biotech-related companies around Valencia. Foundation’s outreach Mann’s influence is widely felt through the Alfred Mann Foundation, a center for medical research founded in 1985 and located in Santa Clarita. Today the foundation’s futuristic focus is on battery-powered micro-stimulators and micro-sensors that can be implanted in the body and controlled wirelessly, helping restore damaged vital functions. The foundation envisions this biotechnology helping people with such debilitating conditions as paralyzed limbs perhaps because of a stroke or accident migraines, epilepsy, urinary incontinence and obesity. Bioness, a Valencia biotech under the foundation’s umbrella, is using micro-stimulation to help victims of strokes, multiple sclerosis (MS), brain injury and other neurological disorders regain the use and control of their hands and feet. In 1993 Mann founded Advanced Bionics. Today he remains chairman and co-CEO of the Valencia company which is producing implants enabling deaf adults and children to hear a device popularly known as the “bionic ear”. These cochlear implants are placed surgically in the inner ear, bypassing damaged or missing cochlear which normally contain tiny hair cells whose vibrations enable the brain to interpret sound. The implant, connected to an external microphone and sound processor, mimics the cochlear, stimulating the hearing nerve fibers by converting sounds into an electrical pattern which is sent to the brain and “converted” back into sound. Another local company, TriMed, is also helping to get people back on their feet often literally,with a range of titanium and stainless steel pins, screws, wires and plates used to reconstruct and fix fractured small bones, such as those in the wrist, fingers and feet. Growing company David Medoff, one of three owners of the company which employs 20 people, about a dozen of them in Valencia, said the business is growing at between 20 percent and 25 percent annually. “We’ve never had a down year,” he said. Medoff said these unique products are designed for specific types of fracture patterns. The benefits for patients and surgeons from this degree of customization have led to sales at hospitals and surgery centers all over the world. At least two overseas companies, Netherlands-based diagnostics firm Qiagen and Isotope Products Laboratories, owned by Germany’s Eckert & Ziegler, have set up shop in Valencia. Also in Valencia, Speciality Laboratories offers a full suite of assays and diagnostic testing. From its 200,000 square foot facility, the company is enhancing patient care through testing in areas such as cancer, infectious diseases, allergies, genetics, rheumatism and child healthcare.

Up until recently, individual supervisors could be personally liable for “retaliation” that is, taking adverse action against an employee for engaging in “protected activity,” such as firing an employee who opposed discrimination in the workplace. This prior rule was at odds with other court rulings which held individual supervisors could not be personally liable for “discrimination” taking adverse action against an employee based on the employee’s membership in a protected class (e.g., race, sex, religion). Our California Supreme Court recently had the opportunity to review and resolve these conflicting rulings. The court ruled that discrimination under the Fair Employment and Housing Act arises “out of the performance of necessary personnel management duties” that are “an inherent and unavoidable part of the supervisory function.” The Court noted that, like discrimination, retaliation requires an “adverse action” that arises out of supervisory functions. Thus, in a recent 4-3 decision, the California Supreme Court in Jones v. The Lodge at Torry Pines Partnership aligned the holdings and held that nonemployer individuals (e.g., supervisors) may not be personally liable for claims of retaliation brought under FEHA. Facts of Jones v. The Lodge at Torry Pines Partnership Plaintiff Scott Jones worked for The Lodge at Torrey Pines Partnership as an “outlet manager,” responsible for the hotel’s restaurant, bar, catering, banquet events and the beverage cart service for the golf course. Jones claimed his supervisor, Jean Weiss, and another manager created a hostile work environment and discriminated against him by telling “gay-bashing” jokes and making sexually charged comments around him. After Jones complained, Weiss threatened to fire him, gave him negative performance reviews, excluded him from weekly management meetings and issued him repeated written performance warnings. Jones attempted to resign, but eventually was told his services were no longer needed. Jones sued, claiming that Lodge wrongfully terminated him in violation of public policy, harassed and discriminated against him because of his sexual orientation, retaliated against him for complaining about the harassment and discrimination and intentionally inflicted emotional distress. Jones also sued Weiss individually, claiming he sexually harassed him, retaliated against him and intentionally inflicted emotional distress. After several claims were dismissed, Jones’ sexual orientation discrimination and retaliation claims against the Lodge and his retaliation claim against Weiss were tried before a jury. The jury returned a verdict for Jones against both Lodge and Weiss. The trial court overturned the verdict, ruling, in part, that as an individual, Weiss could not be liable for retaliation. On appeal, the court disagreed and reinstated the jury verdict, finding an individual may be held liable for retaliation under FEHA. The California Supreme Court agreed to review the issue of individual liability for supervisors based on allegations of retaliation in violation of FEHA. Supreme Court’s Decision The Supreme Court reversed the judgment of the court of appeal, holding that, although the employer may be liable for retaliation under FEHA, nonemployer individuals may not. The Court’s analysis focused first on the language in the statute itself. The four-member majority determined the language was ambiguous, thus opening the door to the Court’s interpretation. The statutory language states it is unlawful “[f]or any employer, labor organization, employment agency, or person to discharge, expel, or otherwise discriminate against any person because the person has opposed any practices forbidden under this part or because the person has filed a complaint, testified, or assisted in any proceeding under this part.” Jones argued the plain language of the statute compels the conclusion that individuals may be held personally liable for retaliation. The Court disagreed, holding “the term person as used in the statute had no plain meaning because the Legislature may have used the word ‘person’ for reasons unrelated to a desire to make individuals personally liable for retaliation.” The Court further noted the term “person” is used elsewhere in FEHA without implicating personal liability. The Court reasoned liability for retaliation is more similar to liability for discrimination than harassment claims (for which there is personal liability). Following the reasoning set forth in a prior Supreme Court decision, the Court ruled the statute does not permit individual liability because retaliation, like discrimination, requires adverse employment actions which arise out of the performance of necessary personnel management duties. The Court then discussed policy reasons for limiting liability for retaliation to employers, noting: – Imposing liability on individual supervisory employees would do little to enhance the ability of victims of discrimination to recover monetary damages given that the employer is generally the “primary target”; – Individual liability can reasonably be expected to “severely impair the exercise of supervisory judgment” and cause supervisors to make decisions that are least likely to lead to discrimination claims; – Corporate decisions are often made collectively by a number of persons and it would be difficult to apportion individual blame if individual liability were permitted; and – FEHA only imposes liability on employers with at least 5 employees, and “[n]o reason appears” why the Legislature would exempt such small employers, but not individuals. The Court found these reasons for not imposing individual liability for discrimination apply equally – or, in some cases, “more forcefully” – to retaliation claims. In sum, the Court held nonemployer individuals may not be held personally liable for retaliation under FEHA. Unanswered Questions The Court in Jones explicitly declined to address whether an individual who is personally liable for harassment might also be personally liable for retaliating against someone who opposes or reports the same harassment. The Court stated the facts in Jones did not present that situation because a lower court had ruled in an earlier decision that there was no actionable harassment on the part of Jones’ supervisor. The Jones court also did not entirely close the door on individual liability where the adverse action of a retaliation claim is in the form of harassment. Accordingly, the issue of individual liability for some retaliation claims remains unfinished. Practical Effect All in all, this case is a victory for individual employees, as well as employers. It offers guidance as to the extent of liability for supervisors for FEHA claims. Retaliation cases can often be the most difficult to defend. Jones limits the potential liability for such claims.

It’s been widely reported that a number of enterprises are leaving the Valley. Despite this trend, some companies, such as hospitality and residential interior design firm Creative Resource Associates, have strategically settled here. In November, the firm, which counts international hotel brands Marriott, Hilton and Host among its clients, moved into an 8,000-sq.-foot facility on Erwin Street in Woodland Hills. The move came after about an 18-month search for a Valley property. CRA still uses a 6,000 sq. feet facility in Culver City, but the Woodland Hills operation will now be the firm’s base. So, what brought the firm to Woodland Hills? “Me and my partners we all live in the Valley, for one thing,” explained CRA head Michael Lindelaub. “We recognize there’s a lot of great talent over the hill. We thought it was a good purchase opportunity, and, so, with that, we’ve found we’ve been able to recruit a lot of talented people who otherwise would drive over the hill.” Because the firm moved to Woodland Hills rather than trying to locate real estate in West Los Angeles, CRA has been able to invest more of its money in technology as well as in a facility that Lindelaub described as “state-of-the-art.” “We’re in a better building,” he said. “It’s a good size, built well, very attractive to our clients. All of those things help attract great employees.” Now that CRA has a Valley office, it has increased its personnel from 27 to 35 staffers. The Woodland Hills office serves as an outreach for international and luxury hotel work, while the smaller Culver City office is now known as “Studio CRA.” “It’s a think tank,” Lindelaub said. “No business is done in Culver City. It’s all creative talent, and here in Woodlands Hills, we’ve got tremendous technology, great presentation rooms. This is really the hub of our operation, with Culver City being more of a creative studio and outlet.” More efficiency Lindelaub believes that moving the office to Woodland Hills has allowed CRA to operate more efficiently and, thus, become a greater talent. So far, clients haven’t minded the change, he said. “A lot of our clients are flying into Burbank, which is just as convenient as flying into LAX. It hasn’t really hurt us. It’s been terrific,” he said. Branching out to the Valley has inspired CRA to re-brand itself, not to mention energized staffers, Lindelaub continued. Most importantly, the new Valley facility allows the firm to more effectively communicate with clients overseas, he feels. CRA has engaged in international work throughout the Middle East, including in Dubai and Saudi Arabia. “We are about to announce the completion of a 280,000-sq.-feet palace in Saudi Arabia,” Lindelaub said. CRA has also worked on projects in Asia. The firm recently opened a new office in Hong Kong. On the local front, CRA is working on a number of projects in West Los Angeles, Sherman Oaks, Studio City, Hollywood and Beverly Hills, including a brand of upscale apartments that are sustainable under the firm’s development plan. All in all, “This looks to be a terrific year for us,” Lindelaub said.

When Sonya Dakar started whipping up skin care products in her kitchen three decades ago, her children and husband, Israel, never imagined that one day the product line would attract a celebrity clientele, be featured in the swankiest of spas and in the pages of People magazine. But, today, that’s just how esteemed the Dakar brand of skin care is. Long gone are the days when the Dakars used a blender to mix the content of products, sorted items on the dining room table and made daily deliveries to the post office because the company was too small to warrant a UPS pickup. Now, the company employs 40 staffers, grosses more than $10 million in revenues yearly and sits in a 64,000-square-foot facility in an industrial complex in San Fernando. That’s quite a jump up from the 3,500-square-feet garage in which the company was originally housed. “It’s a little bit bigger, but we’ll grow into it,” said Nate Dakar, president of MINDYS Cosmetics, the maker of Sonya Dakar Skin Care. MINDYS is an acronym that stands for the initials of the first names of the company’s principals. Mimi Dakar, daughter of Sonya and Israel, serves as vice president of Marketing and Public Relations. Israel oversees Research and Development, while, as mentioned, his son, Nate, oversees the entire company. Remaining children Donna and Yigal Dakar serve as vice president of Education and Spa Sales and vice president of Sales and Marketing, respectively. Founder Sonya Dakar is the face of the product line. Israel and Sonya Dakar’s decision to allow their children to take a central role in company operations, while they take a backseat, has proven beneficial to the company and family, alike, according to Nate Dakar. “It is an extremely unique situation to have a company like ours completely operated by a close-knit family,” he stated. “I think our success is deeply rooted in our ability to work together on the business end and be just a regular close, loving family at the same time.” And typical of a close-knit family, the Dakars are protective of their recipes, and how the contents of their products are prepared. While they experimented with outsourcing three years ago, the Dakars ultimately decided to develop, produce, fill and batch all goods from the corporate offices in San Fernando. Nate Dakar likened MINDYS’ experience with outsourcing to giving someone a recipe only to have a meal prepared that just doesn’t taste right. “The products came back, and they were inferior,” Mimi Dakar said. “We’re the best cooks.” Thus, the Dakars continue to manufacture the Sonya Dakar line. Doing so has paid off, for the company has even garnered a few big name imitators, according to Israel Dakar. Mimi Dakar takes it all in stride. “It’s flattering we’re on their radar,” she said of imitators. But just what steps did the company take to become so successful that it now has copycats? The Business Journal spoke with Nate, Mimi and Israel Dakar about the company’s strategic plan and more. Question: Why did you decide to base the company in San Fernando? And, before that, you had a smaller office in North Hollywood. Is the family from the Valley? ND: No, we’re from the city. We ended up here because the Valley was less expensive. In the Valley, we’re going against the flow of traffic. We also thought about safety if we had to stay late, and the Valley was good a fit. Also, labor is less expensive here. Q: The company’s origins date back decades, but when did things really begin to take off? ND: In 1999, we began to take the products more seriously. I built our Web site. Mimi was doing publicity. Two products came on line. Q: What were things like before? ND: We started out in a garage in Beverly Hills, which is kind of an oxymoron. It was a very exciting time. After a year, we looked for a facility to put the business in and moved to North Hollywood. Q: Discuss the roles family members played in the company’s launch. MD: Everyone had their own piece. Nate was running the operations side. My father was coming out with great products. Donna was pounding the pavement in New York. Yigal, too. We’re a family. We work well together. ND: I totally agree. All of us were pieces to the puzzle. It helped us to develop the brand further. Q: Is it ever difficult to work with family members? MD: No, because we’re spread out. We have a brother in Manhattan, a sister in Long Island. Our mother is in Beverly Hills. ND: In any family business, it’s important to separate family from business. It’s not always easy. It’s challenging, but each of us does what we do best. Q: What did it take to get the company off the ground? ND: We asked ourselves, “What are we going to specialize in?” We focused on acne treatment and discoloration. We called ourselves the ‘problem skin specialists.’ That’s what set us apart from all the rest of them. We got people to become results-oriented. Then, we morphed into total-body specialists, so the whole body is in shape. MD: Corrective skin products used to be something you went to a dermatologist for or called an infomercial hotline for at 2 a.m. ID: I developed the products for my daughter. She would say, ‘Do something about my skin.’ It was for her benefit. We got very expensive raw materials. We wanted to be the best. Q: To what in particular do you attribute your success? ND: A large part of our success comes from my parents. They’ll say, ‘Let’s develop new products.’ My parents are big innovators. A lot of children (in family businesses) say their parents are old school, but not in our case. They’re pushing us. We give credit to God for really blessing us. We’re really helping people get rid of acne, making people feel good about themselves. People need to feel good about themselves, even in an economy that’s a little bit stuck. Q: What are some of your new products? MD: We launched a line of post-laser recovery products. We hear about the need for this from consumers. We test everything. It takes us about 18 to 24 months to launch a product. ND: We’re always developing new products that address clients’ needs. We have acne products, products for discoloration. ID: We read scientific journals to help us come up with ideas for products. We rely on that research. MD: We have new body care products and skin care products in FAA-approved sizes, so our clients can travel easily. Q: What’s in the works for the future? ND: Expanding to different spas and hotels, possibly expanding internationally to Asia and Europe. We see a lot of growth on a broader scale. It’s very exciting. MD: We grow on a monthly basis, so we’ve been in growth mode for quite some time.

Lingering effects of the Hollywood writers strike resulted in a 23 percent drop in on-location filming for the first quarter of 2008 when compared to a year ago. Hardest hit was television drama and comedy production, according to FilmLA, the not- for-profit agency coordinating permits for on-location filming in the city and county of Los Angeles. The work stoppage by Writers Guild of America members resulted in only 166 on-location permits issued for comedies and 534 permits for dramas. In the first quarter of 2007, the agency issued 602 permits for comedies and 1,661 permits for dramas. Television and film writers began their walkout Nov. 5 after talks with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers failed to result in a new contract. Talks between the two sides sputtered until after the start of the new year when studio heads Peter Chernin and Robert Iger stepped in to work out a deal with the Guild negotiators. The writers returned to work in February, but television production still lagged. For the seven-week period after the strike ended, permit volume for television dramas was 35 percent below 2007 levels. Permits for comedies were down 51 percent. “We predicted it would take some time for television production to get back on its feet after the strike,” said Todd Lindgren, vice president of communications for FilmLA. “Unfortunately we were right. By the end of March permit volumes had not returned to normal.” On-location feature film production was up while permits issued for commercials dropped. The FilmLA numbers are for on-location shoots only and do not include filming taking place on studio soundstages.

The Business Journal’s Valley, LA Econo Watch is provided in a Adobe Reader .pdf print-friendly file. CLICK HERE to download ECONO WATCH

At the Limousine Connection, Chris Hundley owns more sedans than he does stretch limos. He doesn’t hire drivers but instead what he calls mobile concierges someone willing to go out of their way to do that extra something for the passenger. Here’s a real-life example that comes up in training sessions: a driver taking around a businessman to a series of important meetings straightens the man’s tie so he looks more presentable. “They are empowered to do what they need to do to complete the customer experience,” Hundley said. All this adds up to how Hundley wants clients and potential clients to view the Limousine Connection brand as professional chauffeured transportation that becomes a business tool. Now in its 30th year, Hundley has made a success of his company by knowing the costs and adopting a service-oriented model. In that regard the Limousine Connection is not too different from the private charter aircraft firms to which it brings and picks up passengers. When multiple companies have the same types of planes, the service offered sets one apart from another. Concierges help with passenger requests; high-class executive chefs prepare meals for the flights. The same is true with ground transportation. There are multiple companies in the Los Angeles region offering sedans and limos so the service offered from the time a reservation is made until the passenger steps out of the car becomes the differentiating factor. Hundley also finds strong parallels between what he does and the hospitality industry, so much so that waiters were his first hires as chauffeurs for their understanding of the service concept. The main North Hollywood office of the Limousine Connection, or LC as it has been shortened for a new logo, is not much. It’s primarily for dispatch and Hundley’s office. No vehicles are kept there. A second office in Santa Clarita serves as a call center and parking area for about 10 vehicles when not ferrying customers. In recent years, Hundley has replaced the stretch limos with sports utility vehicles. Those limos he does have are black; he has not owned a white limo in about five years. The vehicle types reflect the bulk of his clientele, the high-end corporate passenger from Fortune 500 companies. They want to project a professional image of the sedan and not the ostentatiousness of a limo. Hiring these vehicles, after all, is a business expense and not a luxury or extravagance. “They are not the limo party-time type crowd,” Hundley said. Credits mother The business ethic that had Hundley getting into the limo business as a teenager he credits his mother, who he described as “a doer.” As a child growing up in the San Fernando Valley. Hundley dabbled in acting, selling seeds door to door, working on the gardens of a half dozen neighbors; later he worked behind the camera in the entertainment industry. At 19, Hundley was ready to purchase a coin-operated Laundromat when the business broker he worked with mentioned a limo company for sale. Hundley went with that instead. His first car was used, and later he bought a new model. The 1984 Olympics proved a boom for the fledgling Limousine Connection. IBM and ABC Television became regular clients. Hundley also used his connections within the entertainment industry to drum up business. As the business grew and more vehicles were added to the fleet Hundley remained mindful how much it all cost. That was a mistake that those entering the transportation business routinely make, Hundley said; they do not take into consideration the cost of vehicles, gas, maintenance and other expenses. They are under-capitalized and under-informed and don’t know what it takes to succeed, Hundley said. For his success, Hundley never veered away from a business model to serve a limited geographical area with a limited number of cars. He was never interested in having a 100-vehicle fleet with multiple offices. The Limousine Connection gets a share of business through affiliations with out-of-state transportation brokerage firms and other limo providers. One out-of-state brokerage using the Limousine Connection as a Los Angeles affiliate said the firm lands in the top five in terms of its service record of being on time, never making mistakes, and not upsetting the passengers. “They exude competence,” said a representative, who requested the brokerage not be named for confidentiality reasons. Keeping quiet about passengers and their destinations is a point of pride with Hundley. All chauffeurs sign a multi-page confidentiality agreement that gets used as part of the sales pitch to potential clients. “It adds professionalism in the package that Limousine Connection offers,” Hundley said. The gas factor While Hundley and his staff of dispatchers and chauffeurs go all out for the needs of their passengers there are some factors beyond their control. Take the price of gas, for instance. The Limousine Connection places a $.50 fuel surcharge on its customers, an amount that will increase if gas hits $4 per gallon. Efficiency with the vehicles on the road, say, having a car dropping off a passenger at an airport picking another one up rather than sending another car, helps reduce fuel costs. Labor problems are another factor that Hundley has no say in and which can take a bite out of revenues. The company lost business back in January due to the cancellation of the Golden Globes Awards show because of the Writers Guild of America strike. Business for the Academy Awards was down by 60 percent, and for the Screen Actors Guild Awards show by 10 percent. Even with that hit, Hundley still expects a 6 percent growth in revenues for the year. Hundley never slows down in finding ways to make improvements to the company. When traveling around the country he drops in on other limo services to find out how they do things and if their methods can apply to the Limousine Connection. He also keeps abreast of what the customers want. “It is a continual learning process,” Hundley said. As an example, Hundley cited that when purchasing a new vehicle he asked customers if they preferred riding in a Mercedes or presenting an environmentally-conscious image in a Prius hybrid? The customers he spoke with preferred the Mercedes and that is what Hundley bought. But he does foresee a time in the not-too-distant future when his fleet will include alternative fuel vehicles. SPOTLIGHT – The Limousine Connection Year Founded: 1978 Revenues in 2005: $4.4 million Revenues in 2007: $5.4 million Employees in 2006: 51 Employees in 2006: 54

A cure for dependence on foreign oil grows in a greenhouse in Thousand Oaks. For there in small pots are found rice and sorghum and switchgrass, all part of the efforts by Ceres Inc. to create plants that become alternative fuel. Those efforts start in the labs with DNA sequencers and isolating genes for the desirable traits in the plants. When company President and CEO Richard Hamilton takes from a freezer a dish containing 134 tiny compartments containing DNA it is a scene that a generation or two ago would have existed only in science fiction but today is commonplace. Around the corner from the freezer other box-like containers expose the seeds to conditions of extreme cold and heat. Tinkering with plant genes delays the flowering time that results in larger, taller plants with thicker stems and bushier leaves with the ability to survive in a variety of soil conditions. When eventually grown and harvested in fields in the Midwest and the South, the sorghum and switchgrass will end up in refineries to become biofuel. “We are not harvesting seeds,” Hamilton said. “We are harvesting biomass.” In the life sciences, it takes a lengthy lead time to bring product out of the lab and into practical everyday uses. Ceres is closer to that stage than most other biotech firms found in the 101 Corridor; sprouting as it were from an incubator at UCLA to the development stage to the commercialization stage. The company expects to have switchgrass seeds ready for planting in 2009 with sorghum seeds to follow in 2010. Processing facility The plants coming from those seeds carry little value if no refinery exists to make them into biofuels. So Ceres joined with ICM Inc., a Kansas company building a 1.5 million gallon processing facility near St. Joseph, Mo. with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy. The processing stage shows the importance of high yield plants such as the ones developed in the labs at Ceres. Larger plants produce more biomass. And more biomass easily satisfies the demands of a processing facility. A 100 million gallon refinery, for instance, needs 5,000 tons of biomass a day, Hamilton said. In addition, growing larger plants nearby to the refinery cuts transportation costs. The most familiar of biofuels is ethanol made from corn starch. Ceres engages in cellulosic biofuels that come from the cell wall of switchgrass, sorghum and miscanthus. Starting with the test plant arabiposis, Ceres tests its genetic material. More tests are conducted on rice plants before the material gets inserted into the energy crops. As switchgrass is a wild crop, a weed, Ceres makes the plant commercially relevant, said Scott Kohl, the technical director for ICM. Just as breeding improves the yield of corn, the same can be done with energy crops, Kohl said. “The potential to improve is quite logical,” Kohl said. UCLA startup Ceres named for the Roman goddess of agriculture and growing plants got its start in 1997 at a UCLA incubator, later moving to Malibu before settling in Thousand Oaks four years ago. In those early years biomass and biofuels were not the intended path. Instead, the company’s founders were more interested in taking the technology used in the Human Genome Project and apply it to plants. “I think early on there wasn’t more of a vision than that,” Hamilton said. When the opportunity to create energy crops presented itself, the company ran with it. Strategic collaborations then followed with world-class universities, Monsanto and the Samuel R. Noble Foundation. ICM looked at every part of Ceres before taking the company on for its pilot refinery project. The firm has good technology, an extremely good set of skills to develop row crops that can apply to switchgrass and was further along in its seed development. “There are a lot of things that go into a successful partnership,” Kohl said. “Technology is only part of it.” At South Dakota State University, Ceres funds research into developing switchgrass adapted to northern latitudes. The research combines Ceres’s biotech industry expertise with the university’s germplasm base for genetics and breeding, said Kevin Kephart, vice president for research and dean of the graduate school. Funded through venture capital firms and private investors, the latest round of money brought $75 million for capital expenditures and general corporate purposes. Warburg Pincus led the late-stage financing. In January, the Los Angeles Venture Association named Ceres as its best venture financing in clean technology.