YouBet.com Inc. has completed an acquisition of a privately held broadcast production firm to create marketing and educational content, the online horse racing wager company announced Monday. YouBet paid $162,000 for Bruen Productions International, Inc. Woodland Hills-based YouBet also assumed $174,000 in Bruen debt. The acquisition allows for YouBet to save money by not using outside resources to create content for novice and experienced handicappers, company Chairman and CEO Charles F. Champion said in a statement. “Bruen’s leading broadcast commercial production capabilities provides opportunities to effectively promote YouBet and its subsidiaries and we will also offer these services to YouBet content providers and industry constituents looking to promote their products,” Champion said. Colorado-based Bruen was founded in 1983 and serves clients throughout North America with revenues of $1.2 million combined for 2004 and 2005. The company employs six people who will remain with the firm.

Back in 2002, officials in the local office of Merrill Lynch were mulling over what they could do to give to back the community. “We decided as a company that financial literacy and education should be the cornerstone,” said Brian Riley, director of regional offices for MerRill Lynch. “As much as we gain from the community, we feel a responsibility.” They decided to target California, where the company has been a major player in the financial management industry locally for years. It made sense to give back some support, Riley said. “We looked for opportunities where we do a tremendous amount of business,” he said. “We felt this was a good place to give back to the community where we live and work.” After a competitive grant review process, Merrill Lynch eventually decided to partner with Project Graduation Really Achieves Dreams Los Angeles, the North Hollywood branch of a national education program founded in Houston in 1993. So far, the company has given $3 million to the program, which provides youngsters and their families in lower-income areas of the northeastern Valley the tools to help students go to college. It’s done through programs at 15 area schools for various ages, each focusing on different aspects of economics boosting math and reading skills for youngsters; increasing management, algorithm skills and exploring careers for older students. Merrill Lynch also runs the “Investing Pays Off” finance summit and works hand-in-hand with project coordinators to create specific programs on financial planning and budgeting. The company also provides scholarships and runs a two-day finance workshop for students and families. “That’s all part of the curriculum so that we can help people do a better job planning for the future,” he said. The overarching goal, Riley said, is to help the community by helping students get ahead.

It is the night of the opening benefit gala for the redesigned Nordstrom at Westfield Topanga, and the 1,600 guests have descended on the new store, scooping up $300 pairs of shoes, $1,500 handbags and designer labels with mid-four digit price tags. A funny thing has happened here in Canoga Park some 25 years after the first Valley girl rode into popular culture. There is nary a pastel in sight, and the redesigned Nordstrom store, at 200,000 square feet, is one of the biggest the chain has to offer, filled with designer labels that even Nordstrom has not carried before in any of its stores. Elsewhere in the newly remodeled mall too there are the kinds of brand names and products that until now have only been available on the other side of the hill. A population increase, rising affluence and a geography that makes it harder than ever to travel to the Westside to shop has remade the Valley’s demographics, creating a demand for goods of all kinds, but especially luxury brands hardly imagined a decade ago. “We’ve been seeing this change coming for the last 10 years and that’s why we invested so heavily in the Valley,” said Peter Lowy, CEO of the Westfield Group. The company’s research shows that the population has increased 13 percent since 1994 and average household income has risen about 40 percent to $94,000. Westfield bought the Topanga center weeks after the Northridge earthquake in 1994 for $154 million, and when the current expansion is complete, the Australian shopping center owner and operator with assets of more than $42 billion will have spent another $350 million to expand and renovate it, an expense that will likely do more than boost revenues for the company. With it, Westfield will likely have cornered the market for luxury goods in the Valley. “The whole premise of the company as an operating company is to buy malls and spend capital and penetrate the market to a greater extent than it did before,” said Lowy. ” By having the only Neimans and this Nordstrom we expand the market with a much broader reach than it had.” New entries While the remodeled mall, which opened on Oct. 6, houses many of the stores that have long been popular among Valleyites Target, Aeropostale, Coldwater Creek and Nine West among them there will also be a wide assortment of shops with style and prices that have never been part of the Valley’s retail mix, including Furla, Cole Haan, Miss Sixty, Movado and Burberry. Neiman Marcus, which will open in 2008, chose the location after shopping a number of different sites, some with far tonier addresses than Canoga Park. The Topanga store will be the retailer’s only L.A. location outside Beverly Hills. But perhaps nowhere is the recognition of the demand for luxury goods and services more apparent than in the decision by Nordstrom to opt for a flagship Southern California store at the mall. With the opening of its new, three-story store adjacent to the indoor mall, Nordstrom added about 60,000 square feet of selling space and another 200 employees for a total of 800 workers at the new store. In the additional space, the retailer has added boutiques for Chanel, Valentino, Dolce & Gabbana and the store’s first Gucci boutique, along with collections from Chloe, Badgley Mischka, Robert Cavalli, Vera Wang, Doo.ri, Prada Denim and others, a collection the company called “our strongest comprehensive collection of designer merchandise.” There are five shoe departments featuring lines from Christian Louboutin, Jimmy Choo and Manolo Blahnik among others; handbag boutiques featuring Dior, Chanel and Gucci and additional cosmetics lines from Jo Malone, Armani and Shu Uemura. The men’s department carries 3,500 dress shirts in 63 sizes and 2,500 ties. There is a sink in the men’s grooming boutique for trying out shaving lotions, a women’s dressing room appointed in luxurious velvets and natural woods and a day spa. “We’re very confident that the market is really perfect for having the best,” Said Erik Nordstrom, a fourth generation member of the founding family who is president of stores. “Whatever the merchandise category is, I do think that area had been underestimated or maybe not as well understood. As we were negotiating with vendors, people didn’t really know Topanga. They hadn’t been there.” Top performer In the 22 years that Nordstrom has operated at Topanga it has been among the top performing stores in the chain, and the company has collected a wealth of information about its customers, Nordstrom said, instilling confidence in the upgrade. “Usually we’re opening stores in a new market,” Nordstrom said. “You can do some research, but the information isn’t as solid as if you have actual sales results. Having that base, we don’t have a shred of doubt this is the right direction to go into.” The nod of approval from Nordstrom and Neimans also helped to attract the other upscale retailers that have signed on, Lowy said. One such retailer, Sony Style, chose the location as its only other L.A. site in addition to Beverly Center. The store, which is meant to showcase Sony’s most current offerings, features many of the products in room settings which are changed seasonally using the latest color palettes. A concierge greets visitors and helps them to find what they are looking for, and there are classes held on everything from how to download digital music to how to edit video footage. Sony Style picks mall locations to cater to its largely female target audience, but the mix of stores didn’t hurt either. “That mall is going to have a Neimans and a Target,” said Marcy Cohen, a spokeswoman for Sony Style. “Between that and the demographics that mall appeals to, the combination made the decision.”

When EurOrient announced in recent weeks that it was awarded a $1 billion contract to develop one of only a dozen or so Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) terminals planned in China, the deal sounded improbable at best. How could a company, little known even in its own country, go up against some of the largest energy firms in China and win a contract that goes right to the lifeblood of China? The contract, to build a terminal in Rizhao City in the Shandong Province of the People’s Republic of China that will receive LNG shipments, turn them back into their natural state and ship them out to feed China’s massive energy needs, could, when all is said and done, involve several different countries around the world and amount to tens of billions of dollars in international trade. China’s plan to fuel its future with LNG is so massive, there are even some who have wondered if there is enough gas in the world to supply the terminals it hopes to build. So how does a Woodland Hills company end up front and center in such a global scenario? If it has little name recognition in the U.S. it is because EurOrient has, for all intents and purposes, not done any business in the U.S. Founded in 1988 by Ron Nechemia, who serves as president, the company has focused singularly on developing countries, helping to broker deals for highways, energy and the production of the metals that are the basic building blocks of economic infrastructures from power stations to paint. EurOrient has helped to build power plants and manufacturing facilities in China and roads in Southeast Asia, providing advisory services on everything from risk management to financing. More recently, EurOrient has begun putting together investment funds for infrastructure, technology transportation and other projects in China and Cambodia. Nechemia spoke to the Business Journal about the trials and tribulations of pioneering development in these countries. Question: How were you able to establish the kinds of relationships you needed to make this deal in China happen? Answer: What made it happen is sticking to what you believe. I believe life is a circle. You cannot see everything. Many times I would want to quit because I could not see the whole circle. But I thought if I quit right now, maybe I am just around the gate and I will be very disappointed to see, ‘here’s the gate.’ So what makes EurOrient successful is being in hard places for a long time. And being a part of the learning curve. We are part of every wrinkle. In China the opening of reform. The peace accord in Cambodia. The rebel uprising in Nepal. Q: You still had to convince the government to give you this contract. How did you do that? A: Four companies control the (energy) market in China today. They said we can partner. I said I want my own deal. I needed to fight to get my own project going. And one of the key issues is where can you get $24 billion worth of gas. So only the very powerful individuals can get the project to begin with and only very powerful individuals will be able to get the gas. Unless you are one or the other you cannot make it work. Because I have relationships in emerging markets, I can reach the most powerful decision makers in most countries in the world. The former prime minister of Russia and deputy prime minister of Russia is my dear friend so it’s easier to get the gas commitment. Q: What was the negotiation like? A: The deal we are talking about, I did not negotiate the deal. In the last hours of negotiation they had a list of 10 questions that would either make or break the deal. At this level they had to bring the president in. I’m sitting with a high government official, and every one of the 10 questions was easy to solve because I knew the right answer, based on the law of the country, based on the process required by the country, based on life experience that took me 20 years to accumulate. A lot of people would say I’m the best thing since sliced bread. No. I’m successful on this deal because I suffered. Because I made mistakes. Q: How did you first become involved with China? A: I arrived in China in 1986 through another company called Eureka Infrastructure Consortium. I started as an employee and I slowly became a partner. I became a president of a multi-billion-dollar operation at a very young age. I signed a $1.7 billion contract when I was maybe 27, 29 years old. Later, I recognized that they had a story that was unbelievable, but I saw the possibility that they could be EurOrient’s main client. So I quit my job and I opened EurOrient with a unique vision to become the first private sector global development bank. Q: Why did this idea appeal to you? A: All development banks are government owned or owned by member countries. Those institutions are subject to political agendas. The EurOrient agenda is to become a global development financial institution not subject to political agenda. EurOrient took the position to invest in undeveloped countries, only where it’s needed the most. Q: How did you go from this idealistic vision to creating this company and generating revenues and earnings? A: First of all, it was the 1980s. At that time there was no emerging market in infrastructure. There was only trade financing. I was the guy to recognize that global economic reform will take place. I recognized there will be a structural change. The way governments gave assistance to emerging markets cannot go on. Emerging markets resented it and still resent it, so they looked for alternatives. The U.S. would say we will give you money, but all the work has to be given to U.S. companies. When they dealt with me, I had different values. I don’t need to make the maximum profit. I’m not a Fortune 500 company that will travel with Bill Clinton trying to get a deal. And I endorse social responsibility. Whatever we do is supposed to impact the poorest populations of society. So it was being in the right market at the right time and having the right social values. Q: Wasn’t part of the equation also that many others were not willing to take the risk in these countries, which are often very politically unstable? A: I was the first white man to step into a base camp of the Khmer Rouge regime. In the 1980s, after Cambodia signed the peace accord, I was called to meet the prime minister. The idea was to integrate all the small countries of Indonesia and put them on an intercontinental highway. My job was to structure highway one, which would start in Thailand and go to Vietnam. So I said, great. How do we do it? And they tell me you will be flying on the prime minister’s helicopter and you will be going to the jungle. I found out I’m going to the stronghold of the Khmer Rouge. I said no. I decided I cannot do business with people responsible for murdering one third of the population. And then I tried to go to sleep that night. I could not sleep. What is the right thing to do? And then I came up to reality. The decision was I should go. And I have to go. Why? Because if the different groups of Cambodia lay their hands for peace, they’re the ones whose brothers, sisters, fathers got killed. If they agree to put the war behind them and try to make peace, who am I, a foreigner to come into the country and say I will not help you? Q: You still have to get money to execute the project. How do you approach investors about a country with this kind of history and this potential for continued war and turmoil? A: It’s tough. The success stories are very few. But there are agencies that can get political risk insurance against civil war and many things we can do to mitigate the risk. That’s why those special insurance programs were created, to allow players to get into the market and to mitigate the risk. So the price of electricity in a country like Cambodia is significantly higher, maybe four times higher than California because of the risk factors. Q: What other risk factors exist in these countries? A: We know countries like Cambodia or China don’t have a legal system like the U.S. so you have to know how to avoid dealing with local law. And there are issues of sovereignty. (You have to know) what parts of the law you can take and what parts need to be kept out. And you will fail. You are doomed to fail because there is a learning curve. You might be successful on some and you might lose some but are you strong enough spiritually, intellectually, economically to survive the learning curve? In my job I had the honor of meeting many, many successful people from every corner of the world. and usually the story is in three parts. The first part is I was so successful money came out of the sky. And the second part is I lost everything. And the third part is I learned my lesson. I moved on. You will make some good investments and you will make some bad investments. Q: Where will the money for this project come from? A: Many people are very excited to put money on this project. This is a guaranteed income. In EurOrient we have a policy that we want to partner with the local people, individuals, hardworking individuals and give them the opportunity in a limited basis up to $20 million, employees, vendors, people we want to nurture relationships with, who, because of them, we are successful. The rest of it is coming in a fund. We are launching a fund for China, a $1 billion infrastructure fund. We have several funds ourselves, but you might know in the market there are 20 emerging market funds and 50 institutional funds that will be delighted to participate. Q: How do you plan to build the company in the future? A: We are bench-marking against the very best in the world, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, CalPers, Asian Development Bank. The progress we make business wise we get from making mistakes and benchmarking. I’m in the United Nations. I’m in the International Chamber of Commerce. I’m one of only five people in the world that sits at the highest business committee of the U.N. I was part of writing the policy of the U.N. for development. Making one more deal doesn’t mean anything to me. The money is just a byproduct. If you are doing the right thing, you make money eventually. SNAPSHOT Ron Nechemia Title: President/Founder EurOrient Age: 41 Birthplace: Israel, raised in Italy. Most Admired: My father: he managed his time like diamonds. Education: Bachelor’s degree in economics from UCLA; Master’s in economics and finance from Thunderbird, The Garvin School of International Management, Glendale, Ariz. Personal: Married, five children

BEST BUSINESS EDUCATION PROGRAMS Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley The way Kenn Phillips sees it, education is the magic bullet for businesses that want to get ahead. As director of education and workforce investment for the Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley, Phillips helps put together dozens of seminars, workshops and partnerships every year that help businesses and educators both get ahead. “Businesses are hoping to get outstanding individuals from higher learning,” he said. The nonprofit economic development and marketing corporation for years has been working to link businesses in San Fernando, Calabasas, Glendale, Burbank and Los Angeles communities in the Valley with colleges and other education programs. That’s done through events like the Southern California International Trade Conference, designed to give small- to medium-size businesses access to international trade experts and educational summits that bring in community and education leaders to talk about models for successful business-to-education programs. The Alliance is also behind several training programs at Mission, Valley and Pierce community colleges offered to businesses. There are also the grassroots programs, from honoring students, teachers and educational leaders at luncheons to holding seminars on financial learning for 350 parents. Phillips said the idea is to help people through education. It’s the only program of its type in the region. “We’re unique in that experience,” he said. Chris Coates Valley Industrial Association You don’t need a business degree to figure out that most kids don’t have a clue about economics, said Julie Weith, education chair for Valley Industrial Association of Santa Clarita. So in response, for the past few years the Valencia nonprofit has been holding “Connecting to Success,” a summit of 100 local business volunteers who lead high school juniors through myriad exercises and discussion groups on the merits of business, economics and finances. “The idea is to help them enter the workforce in the community,” said Weith, whose day job is head of human resources for Valencia-based Ultra Violet Devices Inc. The mission is to spur young adults to grow into business leaders, she said. “Working local keeps people living local, which keeps them buying local,” Weith explained. “We’re trying to support our community.” The event lasts two days and includes a job fair and internship competition Last year, the focus was three topics: “Communicating Your Value,” “Ethics” and “Working in Teams.” Valley Industrial Association, which covers the Santa Clarita Valley region, also provides employee training through the College of the Canyon Employee Training Institute, said Dena Maloney, dean of the school’s economic development department. It also offers member seminars that link CEOs and business owners and acts as a lobbyist on regulatory and business issues. Chris Coates Junior Achievement Gary Hickman sure has a lot riding on educating our youth about business education. “It’s critical to our enrichment and it’s critical to our economy,” said Hickman, the president and CEO of the Southern California branch of Junior Achievement. Since 1919, Junior Achievement has been the country’s largest business education group for students, which last year totaled 3.1 million. Early on, students were taught how to start their own businesses and run it themselves, said Hickman, who has been involved with the organization for 31 years. These days, Junior Achievement emphasizes technology, free enterprise and the global economy. In the Valley, grade school kids are taught about their roles as workers, consumers and producers. Older students are offered economic courses that relate business principals to real-life situations; seminars on the modern workplace and the important of teamwork; and job shadow days, in which students are paired with a professional to learn what happens in the workplace. Junior Achievement has partnered with schools and other organizations and offered seminars. Hickman, whose office is based near Griffith Park, said it’s a challenge to teach all the diverse communities in the Valley. But telling young people about financial literacy, how to find a job and where to invest is key, he said. It remains the primary goal for the nonprofit. “The need is so bad,” he said. Chris Coates

BEST INTERNSHIP PROGRAMS Aramark Uniform Services Walt Disney Co. Cartoon Network Most internships bring back memories of fetching cups of coffee, making copies and opening cartons of mail for no pay and even less of a hope of being hired once it’s all over. Don’t tell that to anyone at Aramark Uniform Services in Burbank, one of three companies honored by the San Fernando Valley Business Journal with an Education Leadership Award for its ground-breaking internship program. For the past several years, Aramark has run an intense, three-month paid internship seminar that brings engineering students from all over the country to Burbank before sending them out to company locations to tackle real-life problems. The aim: put driven students on a professional obstacle course in hopes of enticing them to apply for a real Aramark job after they graduate. That helps Aramark Uniform Services, a division of Philadelphia-based Aramark Inc. that provides work clothes, caps and shoes and services for 300,000 factories and other businesses, to replenish the company’s rank and file by tapping into the talent pool of highly-trained and technologically-savvy college students even before they graduate, said Juan Palacios, the operations development manager who runs the internship program. “The ultimate goal is to find managers,” he said. “We want to move people, fill those roles. That way, we don’t disrupt service to customers.” Of the 12 students who participated in the program this summer, seven have been hired at Aramark. For students, that promise of a job is tough to beat, said Grace Pranatio, a West Hills resident participating in the program. “That was a great incentive,” said Pranatio, 22, whose internship in the Burbank office ends this month. “They have a really good program and they sold it to me.” Like Pranatio, a recent USC graduate, most participants in the three-month program are undergraduates in high-level engineering programs. The program employs mostly engineering majors mostly because the issues at Aramark revolve around technical issues, management issues and problem solving. Aramark attracts them through a long recruiting process that usually starts in January, when Palacios and other staff participate in college job fairs across the country. That usually nets loads of resumes, which Palacios whittles down to 20 or so for interviews. From that, 12 are given formal offers from the company. Then in June, the students are flown to Burbank to participate in a three-day orientation and training seminar. The meetings offer interns a survey of the company from human resources to production management to operations support tours of facilities and informal meet-and-greets with executives. After training, the students are assigned to an Aramark facility for the three-month internship. This year, students were placed in Sacramento, Chicago, Dallas, Cleveland, Kentucky, Houston, Indiana and East Los Angeles. About three are usually posted in the Burbank headquarters. It’s up to interns to find housing. Real-life challenge Vanessa Bongiorno, a human resources manager at Aramark, said being sent to a different city may sound daunting, but it’s an important and realistic obstacle for a young professional. “It teaches them to grow up,” she said. “You get relocated and oftentimes you have to find a place to live.” At each plant, students are paired with a mentor and given an assignment. The first part usually deals with supervising a portion of the operation and handling management issues. The other half is strictly problem solving taking an issue that the company is grappling with and finding a solution, such as improving energy efficiency or fixing the company’s fleet of laundry carts. Others focus on sales process documentation, supply chain and productivity and establishing satellite locations. Pranatio has been trying to figure out how to get a heat seal Aramark logo on certain products and what it will cost. She said her mentors helped her through the process. “We always have someone to go to if we have any problems or any questions,” Pranatio said. “The people I’ve talked to about my project have been so helpful.” At the end of the summer, students report their findings at a presentation in Chicago. The best ones get job offers, Palacios said. “The goal is to have an offer in their hand before they graduate. That way, they don’t get interviewed by other companies,” he said. Innovative offerings Aramark is not alone in its innovative internship offerings in the Valley. The Business Journal is also honoring two other companies that happen to be located in Burbank as well. Walt Disney Co. offers dozens of undergrad and graduate internships across its divisions, with a heavy emphasis on its theme parks. At its Burbank headquarters, internships range from the creative side (Imagineering, theatrical, television, film, Internet and art) to administrative (human resources and marketing) to technical (engineering and interior design). Most are six months long, and students are considered fill-time employees. Students are given a mentor, who also evaluates them on a regular basis. The importance of mentoring is also emphasized at Cartoon Network. The Burbank cable station offers its interns mentors in the form of big-name network executives such as Ramsey Naito, vice president of Cartoon Network Films. Internships are usually 12 weeks and 20 hours a week and tackle everything from long-form development to casting to legal. Interns also learn the ropes by reading scripts, developing submission logs and writing specs. All three companies being honored stress hands-on learning and communication between interns and supervisors. Pamela Welden, program manager for the Professional Development Center at Glendale Community College, is impressed with Aramark’s program. “It’s effective because they have their system so well tuned,” she said. “They have their interns connected with upper management. The interns really learn what it’s like to do a project when you’re part of a team.” That’s the case for Pranatio, who is looking forward to working for the company for the long-term. “I’m having a great time and learning a lot about the industry,” she said. “I’m talking with a lot of people from across the country, from the workers at the plant to managers. It’s been great.”

Some business and civic leaders came away from a forum featuring area educators with the view that universities and colleges need to do better at getting word out about their programs to area companies. Representatives from four universities Pepperdine University, California Lutheran University, California State University Channel Islands and the University of California at Santa Barbara took part in a panel discussion sponsored by the Gold Coast Business Forum, an organization of business and civic leaders along the 101 Corridor. “It reflects the need for outreach,” said Gary Wartik, manager of economic development for the city of Thousand Oaks, of the discussion. “The panel was beneficial if they sensitized those who were here on the resources available in education.” Jonathan Goldhill, a coach to business executives and entrepreneurs, sensed a gap between the business community and the universities, one that can be bridged by making business aware of their curriculum, teachers and overall philosophy. It was also important that the schools know what the future job skills needs of the area will be and gear their programs toward that,” Goldhill said. “If they can stay on top of that that’s the best thing they can do,” Goldhill said. During the panel discussion, Bruce Gillies of the adult degree evening program at California Lutheran University, agreed that communication was essential between business and universities so that educators know what kind of students companies are looking for. “We need to know what you need,” Gillie said. With its main campus in Thousand Oaks and a facility in Woodland Hills, California Lutheran University provides a consulting program in which the students work with companies, and an international MBA programming drawing students from the Pacific Rim and Europe. The MBA program allows the U.S. students a chance to learn about different business practices and the foreign students to experience first-hand the U.S. educational system, Gillies said. “It’s neat when they talk about ethics,” Gillies said. “The differences in their perspectives are immense.” Linda Livingstone, dean of Pepperdine University’s Graziadio School of Business and Management, said that the school puts an emphasis on global business and entrepreneurs. The school has a Westlake Village campus offering an MBA program. The Education to Business program partners with 70 companies and gives the students an opportunity to apply classroom learning to real world business issues. The school seeks to embed students into the business community, which makes for a more valuable learning experience, Livingstone said. The school maintains an online database of student and alumni for businesses to draw from for employees, Livingstone said. The youngest of the schools taking part in the forum, California State University Channel Islands prepares its students with the skills of critical thinking, communication and cooperation, said William Cordeiro, director of the Martin V. Smith School of Business & Economics. While the six-year-old university in Camarillo does not have a business administration degree it does offer a bachelor’s in business, an interdisciplinary program.

In 1970 he founded Atari and forever changed home entertainment. In 1978 he opened the first Chuck E. Cheese restaurant, and arguably changed kids’ playtime forever. Now Nolan Bushnell is at it again. Can he change the restaurant industry? Bushnell’s new company uWink Media Bistro is a restaurant-entertainment center for grownups that uses Internet-based technology instead of menus and waiters and gives people-watching a whole new meaning. It is set to open in coming days in the Westfield Promenade in Woodland Hills. Think neighborhood bar with a menu that doesn’t need to be washed down with a stiff one and simple computer games instead of pool tables and dart boards. Then add on the ability to play the games at one’s own table or in combination with any neighboring tables or even the entire restaurant and you’ve got uWink. “Most chains are looking for something to get people involved,” said Eric Wold, managing director at Merriman Curhan Ford, an investment company that helped uWink to raise capital last year and has a position in the company. “There are a million and one different environments out there, and everyone’s getting very competitive. What they’ve done is create something that’s a great way to keep customers sitting there longer and get them excited to come back next time.” UWink works this way: Customers are seated at a table with a touch tone screen that includes the menu and bar offerings as well as a selection of games. <!– Site: Promenade in Woodland Hills. –> Site: Promenade in Woodland Hills. Touch the screen to access the menu, and a selection of items such as Crispy Sushi Roll, Southwestern Ceasar Salad, Spicy Thai Shrimp Pizza or Braised Short Ribs comes up. Touch the screen again to modify the order, leaving out some of the ingredients or adding an extra helping of others, or to get nutritional information on any of the dishes. Then decide whether you want all or some of the dishes served right away or held, perhaps after a cocktail. Cocktails too are described on the touch screen where those who are unsure of what they would like can play a whimsical game to get a recommendation. The computerization allows for numerous permutations, so, for instance, if children are hungry they may be served immediately while the adults dawdle, and if some members of the same party want a separate check they can do that too. While they wait, or as they eat, customers can then tap into any one of a number of short games like Sharp Shooter, a basketball game or Trivia, watch a movie trailer, read a horoscope or learn the latest Hollywood gossip. There are no waiters. Instead runners bring the orders that are electronically transferred to the kitchen and bar and entertainment directors make sure patrons are making the most of their experience, or hooking up different tables to the same game for a little competition. “We wanted to reinvent the entertainment experience in a public space, introduce technology in an area we think is technologically sparse and we wanted to be a place that represented an extension of people’s digital life,” said Bushnell of the concept. A typical check will run $12 to $16 per person without alcohol. Meanwhile, the computer-based ordering system shaves labor costs anywhere from 6 percent to 8 percent. And uWink has already sold screen space to advertisers such as Evian and Stockholm Vodka, a revenue-generating opportunity that Bushnell thinks will have long legs. UWink is an incarnation of an earlier effort, E2000, that was aborted by a long, ugly legal battle with Merrill Lynch over debt financing the company extended to Bushnell as he tried to incubate several different technology-based business models. The lawsuit was resolved late in the 1990s, but not before Bushnell lost most of his own personal fortune. He began uWink in 2001 with little fanfare, initially as a company that built games for sale to other restaurants and bars. The company has spent about $10 million to develop the software, and in March raised another $1.5 million through Merriman, Curhan Ford. But when orders dried up in the wake of 9/11, Bushnell decided he needed a model that would provide more income stability and decided to integrate vertically. Largely as a result of the shift in the business model, uWink, which is traded over the counter, reported sales decreased 83 percent to $110,000 for the six months ended June 30, 2006 and the company recorded a net loss of about $1.3 million for the period. Bushnell is hoping that the bistro will fill a void, particularly for women. “Sports bars are done to death for men,” he said. “The casual gamer was squeezed out of the market.” Although computer games are typically thought to be a male domain, Bushnell said that, at Atari, when executives took new games home, their wives became engrossed in them. The uWink games, like the early Atari games, are not long odysseys through violent worlds, but rather, easy to navigate, quick hits that encourage conversation rather than rolling over it. The games are free as long as patrons are eating or drinking. But after about 45 minutes, without a new order placed, the screen will deliver a message: order more or start paying for the games. UWink has already received some interest in franchising, and the company has engaged a law firm to help. But Bushnell wants to get several units up and running before rushing into a chain concept. After a storied career that kept him on the front pages of national media for years, Bushnell seems content to go slowly. “I perceive this as a starting point,” he said. “We will see what people like and make sure that what they get is what they want.”

EDUCATION LEADER Rickey Gelb The Gelb Group Rickey and Robbi Gelb Charitable Foundation Inc. Rickey M. Gelb is opening the day’s mail, which invariably includes about eight or 10 solicitations for donations. “See, this one has no name on it. It’s going in the trash,” he tells his visitor. Gelb’s insistence on knowing at least some of the individuals involved with any charity may seem to say he is no soft touch. But then he begins to talk about education. The Gelb Group, his Encino-based real estate company, donated a building to Jeopardy Foundation to provide a place where at-risk youth can get educational and other after-school services. The Rickey and Robbi Gelb Charitable Foundation Inc. has donated over $1 million since it was formed, much of it going to scholarships. And employees get full tuition reimbursement, whether or not their school courses pertain to their jobs. <!– Gelb: Foundation focuses on education. –> Gelb: Foundation focuses on education. “Rickey is a great person,” said attorney Joel Simon, who, as president of the Encino Chamber of Commerce, has worked with Gelb, currently CFO of the chamber, on several of his pet projects. “He has sponsored for as long as I can remember the Encino Teacher Recognition luncheon we put on. He believes very much in education and teachers, and he has been really upfront providing an ability to help in that area.” Gelb and his wife Robbi, also a partner at The Gelb Group, started the foundation about 10 years ago to simplify their charitable efforts. While the foundation donates to numerous charities, mostly in the Valley (provided Gelb knows those affiliated with the organization) the bulk of efforts are reserved for educational endeavors. “I missed being educated,” he said. “My parents never had the money.” A Valley resident since his family moved to the region from Missouri when he was 3 years old, Gelb took about five years to graduate from Los Angeles Valley College and never had the opportunity to attend a four-year school. “I went day and night but I worked in between,” Gelb recalled. “I used to work in between classes.” As an adolescent entrepreneur Gelb began selling greeting cards door to door. When he realized that a lot of would-be customers were turning him down because they couldn’t read the English-language greetings, the 12-year-old Gelb hitched a ride with his older brother to Mexico and began sourcing Spanish-language greeting cards for his business there. Eventually he went into the retail business selling televisions like his father. But when his dad lost a lease on his store because the property was sold, Gelb decided that it wasn’t enough to own a business. It was essential to own the building where the business was located. “My father had the business for many years, and the landlord sold the building and he had no place to go,” Gelb recalled. The time was the 1970s and vacancies in commercial buildings around the Valley were plentiful. Gelb struck up deals with landlords by persuading them that they would make more money financing the sale of the building to Gelb than by leasing the space. By 1985, Gelb and his father owned 18 stores. Eventually, he sold them and began redeveloping the real estate they had occupied. “TV is a hard business,” said Gelb. “I used to work 7 days a week, 12 hours a day. In real estate you work five days a week and the real estate works for you the other days.” Today, the Gelb Group owns and occupies about 1 million square feet of commercial space, the majority in the San Fernando Valley where Gelb grew up. And Gelb has never lost touch with his alma mater. He is a past president of the Los Angeles Valley College Alumni & Friends Association and a past vice president of the school’s Patron’s Association. He still wonders what he might have done had he had the financial wherewithal to attend a four-year college, and he directs many of his efforts to those with similar financial limitations. He likes to tell you that the first employee at Gelb Group to take advantage of the company’s tuition reimbursement program to attend trade school is now an air conditioning technician at “double his former salary.” And he has uses his civic roles to push educational agendas. “Every time I get involved in an organization I make them get involved in giving money to scholarships,” Gelb said. Take the Armand Arabian Leaders in Public Service Luncheon that the Encino Chamber of Commerce has held for the past seven years. Gelb, who currently serves as CFO of the chamber, devised the event along with Arabian, now retired California Supreme Court Justice and Bert Boeckmann, owner of Galpin Ford. It was Gelb who built the event to a level of profitability and then spearheaded an effort to donate the proceeds to a scholarship fund for high school students. “He has taken that event and made it a premier event,” said Simon, who is an attorney with Alperstein, Simon, Farkas, Gillin & Scott LLP. “He does it entirely on his own. He has developed that and nurtured it and made it fantastic.” Gelb was also one of the creators of the chamber’s Teacher Recognition program, which each year holds a luncheon to honor 12 local teachers, again sponsored by Gelb. Each of 12 recipients receives DVD players, compliments of Gelb, along with a stipend to use in the classroom. “He doesn’t really want to spread the word, but I’m sure everyone recognizes him as a civic leader,” said Kirsten Y. Chong, CEO of the Encino Chamber. Mostly, he says, he’d like to be certain those who want to go to college get the opportunity he never had. “They may not have had the opportunity to go to college without the money,” he said.

The Sherman Oaks Chamber of Commerce holds its board of directors meeting. 5:30 p.m. Sherman Oaks Hospital (conference room) 4929 Van Nuys, Sherman Oaks (818) 906-1951 shermanoakschamber.org