1. COMMENTARY38 LOS ANGELES BUSINESS JOURNAL JUNE 2, 2014
ERIN CONDREN
Founder
Erin Condren Designs
We are so excited for our
family reunion on my parent’s
farm in Kansas. The whole
family will be there, even my
cousins, coming from all
around the country with their
kids over the Fourth of July.
Can’t think of a better way to celebrate our coun-
try and our clan than in the heartland.
TAMAR SIMON
Director
OurCrowd Americas
I’m heading to Israel for a week in June to
spend time at the headquarters of my company,
OurCrowd, in Jerusalem. Though it’s work, being
in Israel always feels like a vacation because of
the country’s historical roots and tourist hot spots.
JAN B. BRZESKI
Managing Director
Arixa Capital Advisors
When I was 8 my family lived in a small village
in Switzerland for a year. The village is on the side
of a mountain and there are no gas cars allowed on
the roads. This summer, my wife and kids and I
will be joining my parents, who are in their late
80s, and my sister, to spend a week in that village.
CHRISTINE KWA
Corporate Services Coordinator
Lincoln Property Co.
I’d stay in the U.S. because of all the won-
derful vacation spots California itself offers
without going too far: Santa Barbara wineries,
Lake Tahoe, Monterey Bay, San Diego’s
Legoland, zoo and Sea World.
JENNA BARNETT
President
Visionary5 Public Relations
My new husband and I recently returned from
a honeymoon in Bali and Japan, so we’re staying
in the states this summer, but we have plenty of
little trips planned.
FARSHAD TEHRANI
Chief Executive
Tego Power
I’m heading out to Minnesota with a few
friends to have an adventure where we’ll drive
tanks, crush cars and fire machine guns. The
facility is called Drive a Tank, and it’s unlike any-
thing I’ve ever done. I can’t wait.
LABJ FORUM
By VICTORIA THOMAS
C
LUTCH the pearls: I read about the planned
closing this month of Harris Shepard
Public Relations in Century City with a
pang. While Harris Shepard adores Doris Day, he
more resembles Mary Poppins: mysterious
beneath the obvious rigor. In the official press
release, Shepard states: “When I started my
agency, I really felt like the stars and the planets –
and lots of hard work – came together to make
my group successful from the beginning – and
now I feel it’s just the right time to leave.”
Harris Shepard ruled the fickle realm of West
Coast beauty PR with an iron (though manicured)
fist for 27 years. He was my mentor and one of
my greatest teachers. The enduring lesson he
imparted, in business and in life: “Put on some
lipstick and get over it.” Harris, in fact, might
have sort of a thing for lipstick. This seems rea-
sonable, since beauty brands were his agency’s
bread and butter, and he traces his family history
tangentially to that of Max Factor.
Harris scooped me up when I was a little down
on my luck as a writer – let’s just call it my Santa
Fe period. I was in the process of finishing my
first book, which, thus far, has turned out to be my
last. The gig was past deadline and unpaid. (Yes, I
did it for the glory, which has yet to materialize.)
I might call that experience thankless, except
that it led me to Harris Shepard.
Of course, Harris knew my publisher. In fact,
he knew everybody. His power-Rolodex – and he
insisted on a typed, hard-copy Rolodex in those
days – was legend. Even mean girls at the beauty
magazines would take his calls. Harris met me
for lunch at the Ivy and told me he needed some-
one fast on the keys. His usual bevy of junior
account executives – Mimi, Fifi, Gigi, Muffy,
Buffy and Shoshanna – had quit, leaving the
Chief, as I came to call him, holding the bag.
“But, dear, dear …” His voice trailed off over
an impossibly high-priced chicken salad. “Dear,
dear, and I say this with love …” He gestured
weakly in a vertical motion, rendered close to
speechless by my road-kill fashion statement:
waist-length hair, heaps of Navajo turquoise,
denim jacket, velvet hippie skirt, well-worn red
cowboy boots, nary a speck of makeup. “You’re a
little light on lips.” He chewed, pensively. “In
fact, dear, and this is said with love, you look like
a Russian folk dancer. I feel like you could throw
me over your saddle and ride off with me!”
Well, he was right. I cut my hair, bought a red
Chanel lipstick, and wore a suit and killer heels
for the next several years as HSPR’s senior
accounts manager. But when the weeks got really
long, I’d revert to my unkempt ways (ponytail,
Birkenstocks). My rationale: Most of our long
days were spent in the office.
Care, effort
“Harris,” I remember saying peevishly,
“clients can’t see us over the phone!” Ever dapper
himself, he gasped, genuinely taken aback. “Oh,
but dear, dear, actually, yes, they can!” he protest-
ed, without a whiff of irony. Of course, what he
meant was that clients can tell if you care and
whether or not you’re making an effort. Harris
always cared and always made the effort.
The other truth from high atop Mount Shepard
is that not only is the customer always right – she
or he is always, always a “T.D.” (T.D. = Total
Doll). This goes double for the high-maintenance
divas, narcissists, prima donnas, steel magnolias,
wannabes, lost souls, attention whores and all of
the other people who want to be rich and famous.
And this largesse spilled over onto us. One morn-
ing, anticipating a client coffee meeting at the office,
he sent a particularly rusticated assistant out into the
shopping mall for pastries. Being a Brooklynite, I
understood that when he asked for “a rugelach
assortment,” he meant plump crescents stuffed with
poppy seeds. The assistant returned with two heads
of salad greens. These were tactfully tucked away,
and never the wiser, the clients happily sucked on the
Mrs. See’s butterscotch lollipops that Harris always
kept in a jar on his massive desk for us, his “beez
and geez” (Bs and Gs = boys and girls).
I left Harris for money. One rain-soaked night
as I languished at my office desk, a sly acquain-
tance phoned me out of the blue (I hadn’t even
been looking) with the proverbial offer I couldn’t
refuse. The new boss turned out to be an infa-
mous bellowing trans-Atlantic harridan who did
not pay the bills or the staff. Both clients and
team soon bolted, and the agency imploded. I
remember thinking of Harris as I stood in the
deserted Venice office space and handed over the
keys to the building manager.
Dear, dear, and I say this with love — you
were right all along.
Victoria Thomas is a freelance writer. She lives
in Pasadena.
Mentoring With Arugula
It’s Time for
Traveling
The first day of summer is just around the
corner as are many people’s seasonal work
breaks. So the Business Journal asks:
What are your summer
vacation plans?
Condren
PUBLISHER & CEO
MATTHEW A. TOLEDO
mtoledo@labusinessjournal.com | ext. 207
EDITOR
CHARLES CRUMPLEY
ccrumpley@labusinessjournal.com | ext. 208
DESIGN DIRECTOR
ROBERT LANDRY
rlandry@labusinessjournal.com | ext. 243
MANAGING EDITORS
JONATHAN DIAMOND
jdiamond@labusinessjournal.com | ext. 200
STEVE SILKIN
ssilkin@labusinessjournal.com | ext. 229
NEWSDESK EDITOR
TOM HICKS
thicks@labusinessjournal.com | ext. 223
REPORTERS
HOWARD FINE
hfine@labusinessjournal.com | ext. 227
BETHANY FIRNHABER
bfirnhaber@labusinessjournal.com | ext. 235
SUBRINA HUDSON
shudson@labusinessjournal.com | ext. 251
JAMES RUFUS KOREN
jrkoren@labusinessjournal.com | ext. 225
ALFRED LEE
alee@labusinessjournal.com | ext. 221
JONATHAN POLAKOFF
jpolakoff@labusinessjournal.com | ext. 239
MATT PRESSBERG
mpressberg@labusinessjournal.com | ext. 230
OMAR SHAMOUT
oshamout@labusinessjournal.com | ext. 263
CHIEF EDITORIAL PHOTOGRAPHER
RINGO H.W. CHIU
photo@ringochiu.com | ext. 256
RESEARCH DIRECTOR
DAVID NUSBAUM
dnusbaum@labusinessjournal.com | ext. 236
ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER
JOSH SCHIMMELS
jschimmels@socalbusinessjournals.com | ext. 218
ASSOCIATE SALES MANAGER,
NATIONAL SALES
DARRIN SENNOTT
dsennott@socalbusinessjournals.com | ext. 220
ASSOCIATE SALES MANAGER,
DIRECTOR OF EVENTS
JAMIE CHIEN
jchien@socalbusinessjournals.com | ext. 248
ADVERTISING ACCOUNT MANAGERS
NAZ BAYAZIT
nbayazit@socalbusinessjournals.com | ext. 253
MARISSA DE LA CRUZ
mdelacruz@socalbusinessjournals.com | ext. 219
EVA JUSE
ejuse@socalbusinessjournals.com | ext. 222
KELSEY MCCOY
kmccoy@socalbusinessjournals.com | ext. 252
JIM SLATER
jslater@socalbusinessjournals.com | ext. 209
KOLLENE MCGINLEY
kmcginley@socalbusinessjournals.com | ext. 264
NATIONAL ADVERTISING SALES MANAGERS
ELLEN MAZEN
emazen@socalbusinessjournals.com l ext. 240
BOB WASHBURN
bwashburn@socalbusinessjournals.com | ext. 201
CLASSIFIED SALES MANAGER
ROSZ MURRAY
rmurray@socalbusinessjournals.com | ext. 215
ADVERTISING COORDINATOR
ERIN MOFFETT
emoffett@socalbusinessjournals.com | ext. 216
EVENTS MANAGERS
BREANNE KAMAI
bkamai@socalbusinessjournals.com | ext. 203
MARY KAMINSKI
mkaminski@socalbusinessjournals.com | ext. 213
EVENTS COORDINATOR
MARIA SANTIZO
msantizo@socalbusinessjournals.com | ext. 214
PRODUCTION ARTISTS
SALLY JONES
sjones@labusinessjournal.com | ext. 212
MARIE SWEENEY
msweeney@labusinessjournal.com | ext. 224
JIM GRIGLAK
jgriglak@labusinessjournal.com | ext. 242
AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR
STEPHANIE CHENG
scheng@labusinessjournal.com | ext. 247
CIRCULATION MANAGER
ZAINABU BRYANT
zbryant@labusinessjournal.com | ext. 244
CONTROLLER
NANCY SCHWARTZ
nschwartz@labusinessjournal.com | ext. 202
ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE SPECIALIST
PATRICIA A. BENSON
pbenson@labusinessjournal.com | ext. 231
ASSISTANT TO THE PUBLISHER
BETH THERIAC
btheriac@labusinessjournal.com | ext. 249
RECEPTIONIST
ASHLEY WINDSOR
awindsor@labusinessjournal.com | ext. 270
LOS ANGELES
BUSINESS JOURNAL®
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LOS ANGELES, CA 90036
(323) 549-5225 FAX 549-5255
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Customer Service: (855) 293-9394
Los Angeles Business Journal Poll
What are your summer vacation plans?
Online results for week ended May 28.
Foreign
trip.
Somewhere
in United
States.
21% 21%
29% 29%
Staycation.
Somewhere
in California.
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