Center names new chairman

Young Chang

COSTA MESA -- A longtime Orange County Performing Arts Center

contributor and record-breaking donor to South Coast Repertory has been

elected chairman-designate of the Center’s board of directors, Center

officials announced Wednesday.

Paul Folino, president and chief executive of Emulex Corp., was

unanimously voted to fill the vacancy left when past chairman-elect

Thomas T. Tierney declined the position earlier this month.

Tierney’s decision followed a bout of controversy surrounding a

lawsuit between himself and former board members Henry Samueli and Henry

T. Nicholas III, co-founders and executives of Broadcom who resigned from

the board last month after the dispute became public.

Tierney felt the lawsuit, unrelated to the Center, brought undue

attention to its board.

Folino’s election marks new beginnings for the Center’s board, Center

President Jerry Mandel said.

“This says, ‘All right, we’re moving ahead,”’ he said. “And as far as

I’m concerned, [the lawsuit] issue is over with and we’re moving onto new

things for the Center.”

Folino, who will be officially elected into the position in July after

Roger Kirwan completes his three-year term as chairman, said in a

statement:

“It is a wonderfully thrilling time in the history of the Center and

indeed for all of the arts in Orange County. The Center is embarking on a

new era with its expansion, both physically and in terms of its artistic

vision and programming, and I am excited by these prospects and look

forward to being an integral part of them.”

The lead donor’s commitment to the Center includes a $1-million gift

to its capital campaign made last year. Folino and his wife, Daranne, are

also underwriters of the Candlelight Concert.

Folino accepted the position with the Center because his two-term

presidency of South Coast Repertory’s board of directors also ends in

late July.

He has been a trustee at SCR since 1996 and will continue that

commitment for three more years. He is also the chairman of the theater’s

Next Stage fund-raising campaign -- a position he will hold until the

campaign concludes at the end of 2003.

Earlier in the month, SCR officials named the new theater complex the

Folino Theatre Complex, in recognition of his total contribution of $10

million to their capital campaign.

“Paul has just come off one of the most successful campaigns at SCR,

and he’s very effective, very well-liked,” Mandel said. “He’s a natural.”

Kirwan and Folino will be talking closely in coming months about

focusing on the Center’s campaign to build a new concert hall and what

the chairmanship entails.

“Paul is a proven leader and a lover of the arts, and we’re expecting

him to bring all of those talents with him,” Kirwan said.