Month: April 2012

Brentwood Associates' Rahul Aggarwal honored by M&A Advisor as '40 Under 40'

Posted on April 26, 2012 by - Client News

Brentwood Associates, the leading consumer-focused private equity firm in the West, recently announced that Managing Director Rahul Aggarwal was named one of M&A Advisor‘s 2012 “40 Under 40” Award Winners in the West Region. The third annual M&A Advisor Awards recognize and promote emerging business leaders in the international mergers and acquisitions and financing industries.
This marks the second consecutive showing for Brentwood as Partner Anthony Choe won the award in 2011.
“Rahul is an exceptional director and our guru when it comes to understanding today’s best concepts in restaurants, franchises and the fast casual movement,” said Bill Barnum, partner and co-founder of Brentwood Associates. “He’s added significant value to our portfolio and has led us to one of our largest investments to date, K-MAC Holdings.”
Aggarwal was instrumental in the firm’s recent investment in Veggie Grill and previous investments including Pacific Island Restaurants, Spectrum Clubs and Zoes Kitchen.

Youth sports social media platform thriving

Posted on April 26, 2012 by - Client News

Weplay CEO Lane Soelberg was brought in by 18 months ago to jumpstart the company’s advertising initiative, and the company is now thriving, reports the Los Angeles Business Journal.
“Most of our relationships are strategic parterships,” Soelberg says in the article. “We spend the majority of our time looking for things that are a win for all parties. A lot of times that requires some creative thinking about how we make the best fit happen.”
Big-name advertisers now include Microsoft, Gatorade, American Family Insurance, Cartoon Network and most recently Benadryl.
Weplay is a social platform for families involved in youth sports. It functions as a way to share videos, photos, and memories as well as organize and share all information about a team’s games.
In a recent interview with socalTECH’s Ben Kuo, Soelberg addressed how Weplay is different from other team sports sites.
“I think we’re more about the fun than about the function,” Soelberg told socalTECH. “We’re there to help capture those magic moments, and let you share them in fun and interesting ways, and let the kids participate.”

Ortho Mattress adds Tempur-Pedic at its 65 stores

Posted on April 26, 2012 by - Client News

Made-in-California mattress chain Ortho Mattress announced today it is expanding its product offering at its 65 stores to include Tempur-Pedic, the high-end foam mattress brand. Ortho Mattress will sell Tempur-Pedic mattresses at its stores and online starting in May.
In addition to Tempur-Pedic, Ortho Mattress stores carry leading national brands, including Simmons, Sealy Posturepedic and Stearns & Foster, as well as its own luxury beds that include Summerhill & Bischop, the Ortho Doctor Preferred collection and the Ortho Avant collection of high-density memory foam mattresses.
“We deliver what our customers want, so when they asked about Tempur-Pedic, we thought it would complement our own luxury line,” said Ortho Mattress CEO Ken Karmin. “We’re proud of the great line of foam beds we make and sell here in California, and now customers can easily compare all of the top brands right in our stores.”

LanguageTrak report shows Somali, Hmong among top requested languages in Minneapolis

Posted on April 26, 2012 by - Client News

The latest LanguageTrak report shows Spanish, Somali, Hmong, Vietnamese and Russian atop the list of over-the-phone interpretation requests in Minneapolis, according to an article in the Minnesota Star Tribune.
The city is home to a distinctive array of immigrant and refugee communities, the article noted. The quarterly report, released by Language Line Services, analyzes over 20 million phone interpreter requests fielded by the company over a year’s time. The report also found that after spanish, the most requested languages for interpretation across the country were Arabic, Vietnamese and Mandarin.

Ernst & Young announces semifinalists for Entrepreneur Of The Year in Pacific Northwest

Posted on April 19, 2012 by - Client News

Ernst & Young LLP just announced the 32 semifinalists for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year 2012 Award in the Pacific Northwest. Ernst & Young‘s awards program recognizes entrepreneurs and leaders who demonstrate excellence and extraordinary success in such areas as innovation, financial performance and personal commitment to their businesses and communities.
This year’s semifinalists are:

  • Chris Ulum, Agilyx (Oregon)
  • Kamyar Moinzadeh, Airbiquity (Washington)
  • Sunny Gupta, Apptio (Washington)
  • Brandon Dawson, Audigy Group, LLC (Washington)
  • Amy Tykeson, BendBroadband (Oregon)
  • Craig Bramscher, Brammo, Inc. (Oregon)
  • Donald Howard, MD, PhD, CellNetix Pathology PLLC (Washington)
  • Jacob Engelstein, Classic Accessories, Inc. (Washington)
  • Geoff Gilmore, Climax Portable Machine Tools, Inc. (Oregon)
  • Jay Haladay, Coaxis, Inc. (Oregon)
  • Marc Barros, Contour, Inc. (Washington)
  • Dave Shaffer, DePaul Industries (Oregon)
  • Greg Enell, Double Down Interactive (Washington)
  • Christina Lethlean, Gesa Credit Union (Washington)
  • Ocean Yuan, Grape Solar, Inc. (Oregon)
  • Josh Neblett, GreenCupboards (Washington)
  • Jeremy Ames and David Nilssen, Guidant Financial (Washington)
  • William Colleran, Impinj, Inc. (Washington)
  • Naveen Jain, Intelius (Washington)
  • Greg Pierson, iovation, Inc. (Oregon)
  • Sandra Green, n-Link Corporation (Oregon)
  • Glen Bertini, Novinium, Inc. (Washington)
  • Robert Harris, Jr., Pacific Market International, LLC (Washington)
  • Clay Siegall, PhD, Seattle Genetics (Washington)
  • Rand Fishkin, SEOmoz, (Washington)
  • Diana Friedman, Sesame Communications (Washington)
  • Stephen Marsh, Smarsh (Oregon)
  • Paul Fichter, Taphandles, LLC (Washington)
  • Darryl Rawlings, Trupanion (Washington)
  • David Madore, US Digital (Washington)
  • Vikram Chalana, Winshuttle, LLC (Washington)

These business leaders were selected from more than 60 nominations by a panel of independent judges and winners will be announced at a special gala at the Hyatt Regency Bellevue. Now in its 26th year, the Entrepreneur Of The Year Program has expanded to recognize business leaders in more than 140 cities in more than 50 countries throughout the world.

New Weplay app helps coaches manage teams, families track schedules

Posted on April 19, 2012 by - Client News

Many families struggle with keeping track of their kids with busy sports schedules and who participate in numerous sports leagues, but as reported by Fanlala.com, the perfect app for parents now exists. Weplay, a social network that allows parents, coaches, and kids to keep track of schedules, manage teams, post photos, and update statuses, just announced the release of a mobile app, available both on Apple and Android platforms.
Weplay’s mobile app now features an allergy alert, making sure athletes are ready for anything that may come their way. The alert is backed by Olympic Gold Medalist Summer Sanders, who suffered from allergies as a child.

OWC honored by Los Angeles Business Journal for 3rd straight year as one of 25 largest PR agencies in LA

Posted on April 17, 2012 by - OWC News

The team at Olmstead Williams Communications


Olmstead Williams Communications has been honored by the Los Angeles Business Journal for the third straight year as one of the 25 largest independent PR agencies in L.A. County. The agency earned the No. 18 spot on the list, which ranked agencies by their 2011 county fee income.
“We’re thankful to be recognized by the Los Angeles Business Journal for doing what we enjoy,” said Tracy Olmstead Williams, CEO of Olmstead Williams Communications, which she founded in 2008 after more than 25 years as a top public relations and crisis communications expert.

OWC honored on list of top PR firms in Los Angeles

Posted on April 17, 2012 by - Client News

The team at Olmstead Williams Communications


Olmstead Williams Communications has been honored by the Los Angeles Business Journal for the third straight year as one of the 25 largest independent PR agencies in L.A. County. The agency earned the No. 18 spot on the list, which ranked agencies by their 2011 county fee income.
“We’re thankful to be recognized by the Los Angeles Business Journal for doing what we enjoy,” said Tracy Olmstead Williams, CEO of Olmstead Williams Communications, which she founded in 2008 after more than 25 years as a top public relations and crisis communications expert.

Interpretation services still trump speech recognition

Posted on April 12, 2012 by - Client News

Speech recognition technology has improved significantly in the past few years and there has been a lot of talk about its applications in contact centers. However, where the technology still fails is in recognizing those with even the slightest of accents. The convergence of a global marketplace and home markets populated with an increasing number of affluent and educated immigrants creates both an opportunity and a potential challenge for businesses, according to an article on NoJitter.
Government agencies, hostpitals, and emergency services are some of the top industries turning to real-time over-the-phone interpretation services provided by companies such as Language Line Services. The company, which provides interpretation services in over 170 languages, believes there is a broader opportunity in all verticals to market to an audence they may not have been adequately serving in the past.

Not all news media is for sale in China

Posted on April 4, 2012 by - Client News

Much of the media coverage in China is apparently for sale, according to an article this week in the New York Times. The practice is pervasive with PR consultants divided on how much to embrace the practice.
How pervasive? Try $20,000 per page in in the Chinese version of Esquire, $4,000 per minute on state-run China Central Television and $1 per character in Workers’ Daily, the Communist Party’s newspaper.
Pay for play is certainly not limited to China. It’s usually much more obvious in the U.S. though and tends to be clearly labeled. Also, not all press in China blends advertising and editorial content so willingly.
At Olmstead Williams Communications, our clients want to be in The Wall Street Journal and on top wires such as Reuters and the Associated Press. There are no shortcuts to penetrate the high bars for their Chinese bureaus — or any other bureau. Only a story that merits the attention will do.