Popular Irvine Co. executive steps down

Mathis Winkler

NEWPORT BEACH--Carol Hoffman, for years the Irvine Co.’s public face

in the city, has resigned as the company’s vice president for entitlement

and community relations to start her own consulting firm.

Hoffman, 56, whose last day at work is Thursday, said she needed a

change after being with the company almost 15 years.

“I just feel like there’s a whole world out there that I’m looking

forward to exploring,” she said. “I had a great time at the Irvine Co.,

but I’m anxious to look forward to new challenges.”

Irvine Co. officials said they greatly appreciated Hoffman’s skills in

representing the firm, citing her role in recently securing California

Coastal Commission approval for a residential development project on the

hillside across from Crystal Cove in Newport Coast as an example.

Hoffman “will be missed by those of us who have worked closely with

her,” Gary Hunt, the company’s executive vice president for corporate

affairs, wrote in a memo to employees. He added that he was pleased that

Hoffman had agreed to take on the company as one of her first clients.

An urban planner by background, Hoffman joined the Irvine Co. in 1979

as manager of government relations. Two years later, she left the company

to open her own consulting firm.

In 1987, Hoffman rejoined the company as senior director of resource

entitlement, planning to return to her own business after a while.

That “while,” she said, “turned into 13 years.”

Hoffman said the healthy state of the economy was a good time to make

a change, “to be able to explore some of the nice opportunities that have

been offered to me in the past and that I didn’t accept because I didn’t

want to leave the company.”

Hoffman plans to open a firm in Newport Beach once she returns from a

pilgrimage to Poland, Germany and Italy, a trip tied to her recent

conversion to Catholicism.

Hoffman is president of Speak Up Newport, which puts on the annual

mayor’s dinner as well as monthly forums on topics of interest to local

residents.

She also is a member of the city’s economic development and

environmental quality affairs committees.

Her civic service activities in the county include board memberships

at Irvine Medical Center, Irvine Health Foundation and the Orange County

Performing Arts Center.

Hoffman is a member of the Urban Land Institute and American Institute

of Certified Planners. She has a bachelor of arts degree from Cal State

Los Angeles.

Hoffman lives in Newport Coast. Her son, Graydon, is a graphic artist

in Portland, Ore.