Sim to leave Irvine Co.

Mathis Winkler

NEWPORT BEACH -- Richard G. Sim, the Irvine Co.’s top official in

charge of office, retail and apartment properties, announced his

retirement Thursday.

As chairman of the company’s Investment Properties Group, Sim, 65, has

overseen the development, marketing and management of the company’s real

estate on the Irvine Ranch and in Silicon Valley, San Diego and West Los

Angeles.

The company owns about 28 million square feet of office and retail

property, including the 5,000-acre Irvine Spectrum, and about 24,200

apartments in 74 apartment communities that are either completed or under

construction, according to the company’s Web site.

Clarence Baker, the investment group’s president, will take over Sim’s

job and oversee the retail division, headed by Keith Eyrich; the office

division, headed by Bill Halford; and the apartment division, headed by

Max Gardner.

Company officials credited Sim with playing a leading role in

“transforming Irvine Spectrum into one of the nation’s leading business

centers and regional economic engines,” as noted in a company statement.

During his 20-year career with the company, Sim also was the point man

for other projects, such as the renovation of the Fashion Island retail

center, the development of University Research Park adjacent to UC

Irvine, and the expansion of the company’s office and retail operations

beyond Orange County.

“Dick has forged relationships that have literally created thousands

of jobs for people and established a diverse economic base for the region

that will last for generations to come,” said Donald Bren, the company’s

owner and chairman, in a prepared statement.

Sim’s departure comes after a series of resignations by high-ranking

company officials over the past year.

In September, Carol Hoffman, the company’s vice president for

entitlement and community relations, quit her job, followed by retail

division president Rick Evans and Bob Williams, the president of the

company’s Industrial Group, in January.

In February, Gary Hunt, Bren’s chief advisor and right hand on

governmental affairs, also left the company. A number of public relations

executives, such as Franz Wisner, Paul Kranhold and Mike Stockstill, also

recently handed in their resignations.

Larry Thomas, who resigned as the company’s chief public relations

person in early 2000, will return in a similar capacity in mid-July.

But Sim said Thursday that he feels he’s leaving his duties in good

hands.

“The biggest compliment anyone can say is ‘I won’t miss you when you

leave the Irvine Co.,”’ he said, adding that he and Bren had talked about

his retirement plans five years ago. “That’s what I felt was my main

obligation.”

Apart from spending more time at his five grandchildren’s sport

activities -- on Thursday afternoon, Sim was running out to a baseball

game to watch one of his grandchildren play -- he and his wife, Ann, plan

to travel. A Maui reunion with the couple’s five children and their

families, as well as Sim’s 85-year-old mother, is planned for August, he

said.

Sim also plans to get more involved in community service, he said.

So far, his community activities have included the St. Joseph Ballet,

Human Options and the Irvine Barclay Theatre, where he was the founding

chairman of the board in 1990 and returned to the board again in 2000.

Sim’s involvement with UC Irvine included serving as chairman of the

Chancellor’s Club and the university’s Chief Executive Roundtable, as

well as his role as a member of the board of trustees of the UCI

Foundation. He received the university’s highest honor, the UCI Medal, in

1998.