Biz News: Supervisors pick interim director for JWA

John Wayne Airport has a new acting director. Lawrence Serafini will begin his new role Friday.

The Orange County Board of Supervisors made the interim appointment Tuesday. Airport Director Alan Murphy retired Friday.

“We are fortunate to have experienced and qualified airport staff like Larry Serafini to step into the role of acting airport director,” Supervisor Todd Spitzer said in a news release. “I’m confident that Larry will work to ensure that the communities who are affected by noise and growth know that they will be protected.”

Serafini’s time with JWA dates to 2001, when he was named facilities director. He’s in charge of airport development, engineering, maintenance, information systems, planning and environmental compliance.

Serafini has a master’s degree in civil engineering from Cal State Long Beach and a bachelor’s in civil engineering from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y. He served in the Navy, retiring as a lieutenant commander in the Civil Engineer Corps.

*

Money flows out of Newport’s Pimco

Newport Beach-based Pacific Investment Management Co. said its flagship Total Return Fund saw outflows of an additional $11.6 billion in January as the mutual fund company continues to try to steady itself four months after the abrupt departure of its star fund manager, Bill Gross.

The outflows represented an 8% drop in the size of Total Return, which now has $134.6 billion under management, 54% below its peak levels in April 2013, when it stood at $293 billion. January marked the 21st consecutive month of outflows for Total Return during a strong market for bonds, Pimco’s specialty.

In a statement, the company said the outflows came despite strong performance by the fund, now managed by a triad of managers overseen by Daniel Ivascyn.

Ivascyn succeeded Gross as Pimco’s chief investment officer in the tumultuous days of September, when Gross abruptly left to head a tiny fund at rival Janus Capital. Gross, a Pimco co-founder, later acknowledged that he had been fired.

Pimco said Total Return, which had trailed industry benchmarks for several years under Gross, returned 2.64% in January, beating the benchmark for similar bond funds by more than half a percentage point.

The company said that since September, when Gross left, the fund has returned 3.99%, beating the benchmark by 1.11 percentage point.

— From staff reports