Editorial: Time for UCSB to engineer a new dean
OpinionFor more than a year there’s been a looming gap in the leadership structure of the region’s technology sector. The departure of Matt Tirrell from UC Santa Barbara, after a decade of exemplary performance as dean at the UCSB College of Engineering, created a void that’s yet to be filled. Tirrell’s term was extraordinary for Read More →
High-wireless acts: Row 44, Sonos capitalize on move toward WiFi
UncategorizedThe world is going wireless, and two tri-county firms have raised $62 million as proof. Westlake Village-based Row 44 and Santa Barbara-based Sonos are building businesses around consumers’ burgeoning demand to stay connected to their digital lives wherever they are. Row 44 operates an in-flight wireless Internet service and is installing it on Southwest Airlines’ Read More →
Carpinteria
UncategorizedCarpinteria is home to some of the largest private and public companies on the South Coast, including Clipper Windpower, CKE Restaurants and Lynda.com. But the small seaside city has seen its commercial real estate market stagnate over the past year, jumping up to a 14.6 percent industrial vacancy rate. Online software training firm Lynda.com started Read More →
Solar firms go panel-to-panel in Oxnard
ColumnsA school district in West Ventura County is the last place on Earth where you’d expect to find ground zero in the battle for global supremacy in the solar energy business. But that’s precisely the scenario that’s unfolding in the wake of an Oxnard Union School District board vote earlier this month that gave Read More →
Advertising innovation the hot topic at MIT Forum
UncategorizedIf you thought the advertising business was all smoking, drinking and skinny ties, as it’s portrayed in the AMC series “Mad Men,” think again. The people making the industry tick in the digital age are more likely to be hunkered down behind a computer monitor, perfecting code that serves up an ad to just the Read More →
Climbing through the clouds: Jeep tour business grows in region's wine hotspots
Small BusinessCloud Climber Jeeps was one of the first wine country tour companies in Santa Barbara and the Santa Ynez Valley. Now it’s hoping to blaze the trail in Ojai and Paso Robles, too. The company, founded in 1999 by Dave and Sybil DeMauro, offers back-country and wine tours, taking upwards of 5,000 people a year Read More →
Shades of green: Avocados power Calavo's record earnings
UncategorizedHarvest season is around the corner, and the outlook for the region’s avocados is as healthy as ever. Santa Paula-based Calavo Growers, one of the largest avocado marketers in the world, recently reported record third-quarter profits and said the worldwide avocado industry is growing. The firm’s third-quarter earnings were up 141 percent to $5.9 million, Read More →
