Increasingly, the corporate world is moving in to reflate the funding ranks left behind as the number of venture capital firms continue to shrink. Companies such as Qualcomm Inc. are helping to fund and nurture the next generation of businesses. So on the evening of April 17 at Qualcomm, in a break from the usual monthly breakfast meetings, the San Diego Venture Group will sponsor a dinner panel discussion on corporate venturing. The panelists scheduled to appear are Nagraj Kashyap, the head of Qualcomm Ventures; John Somorjai, senior vice president of corporate development and strategy of SalesForce.com; and Dave Piacquad, senior vice president of business development of Amgen Inc. Bruce Steel, managing director of BioMed Ventures and a SDVG board member, will serve as moderator. For details and tickets, go to sdvg.org. … Kudos are in order for a small but very influential collegiate business school. A recent issue of Bloomberg Businessweek ranks the University of San Diego’s undergraduate program at No. 41 in its annual list of the top 50 schools in the nation. The school jumped five spots from last year’s ranking. The University of California, Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and the University of Southern California’s school of business were the only other two West Coast campuses to make the rankings. Cal ranked No. 15, while USC’s Marshall School of Business ranked No. 28. … A 2,000-foot piece of the Coastal Rail Trail — a bike path that will eventually cover 44 miles from Oceanside to San Diego — is now accessible to riders in the north part of the county. Local officials including Oceanside Mayor Jim Wood and Oceanside Chamber of Commerce CEO David Nydegger took part in the ribbon cutting April 7 to mark completion of the new $2.45 million link. Regional transportation agency Sandag allotted money for the project; the bike trail is built on land owned by the North County Transit District. … Grammy winning blues artist Keb’ Mo’ will headline Scripps Concert for Cancer on May 19 at popular entertainment site Humphreys on Shelter Island. The program, the fourth presented by Scripps Health, will be an early kickoff to National Cancer Survivors Day, which is in June. Tickets are available at scripps.org/concertforcancer. … Finally: The Old Globe continues its 2013-14 season with the California premiere of Quiara Alegría Hudes’ “Water by the Spoonful,” which won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for drama. The production runs through May 11. The Old Globe’s presentation of J.B. Priestley’s masterpiece “Time and the Conways” continues its run through May 4. More information is at
theoldglobe.org. Till next week.
Contributing Editor Tom York writes the SDBJ Insider, and you can reach him at tom.york@gmail.com or tyork@sdbj.com. Tweet to him @tom2cents.
