construction – MENTOR dna

April 12, 2022April 13, 2022

Jeff Stotland, EVP Hudson Pacific

When I returned to Philly for my graduate work, I was a seasoned executive assistant with deep experience answering phones, sending faxes, and managing schedules for overly-busy Disney and Sony execs. Ok, so maybe I did slightly more than that, but I was at the bottom of the totem pole and had big goals of climbing my way up.

Jeff Stotland was my classmate in business school and was the only other person with Disney experience, albeit much different than mine. We became fast friends. He and I are kindred in our entrepreneurial spirit, both having run start-up like businesses within giant companies.

Jeff has bought and sold several companies, worked at Disney as Vice President, Strategy & Global Development, and is now Executive Vice President of Global Studios and Production Services at Hudson Pacific, a joint venture with Blackstone, the world’s largest industrial real estate owner.

He’s always been a big picture guy, moving to where the puck is headed. At Hudson Pacific, he leads a team buying up content production space which has exploded in the past several years, and we chat about the human resource crunch to produce all this content.

He and I agree that success requires taking risks and being bold, but most of the time, people are optimizing to preserve their own jobs.

Jeff’s always taken risks, yet he’s learned how to be more calculated in his bets. He learned a lot during his stint trying to privatize companies in Eastern Europe and operating a handful of companies he bought or started.

This episode covers a lot of ground…from working at start-ups in eastern Europe in the late 90s, to Disneyphiles, to the extreme competition for industrial real estate worldwide and the macroeconomic impacts of building production studios in cities around the world.

About Jeff Stotland

Jeff Stotland joined Hudson Pacific in 2021 and serves as Executive Vice President, Global Studios. He leads the growth, direction and daily operations of the company’s studio portfolio.

Prior to Hudson Pacific, Stotland served as Vice President of Strategy and Global Development at Disney with a focus on the Parks, Experiences and Products segment. In this role, he worked on a variety of new business initiatives, acquisitions, strategic planning, joint venture management and real estate development, both domestically and internationally.

Before Disney, Stotland acquired and led SEMCO Aerospace, a privately held aviation maintenance company, for more than a decade. His early career included roles at Vulcan Ventures, The Walt Disney Company and J.P. Morgan.

Stotland earned a Master of Business Administration from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Science from Northwestern University.

February 2, 2022February 2, 2022

Gary Addeo – Pastor, Sales Lead, AAA Pitcher

Gary Addeo is a mentor that’s poured into my life in such rich and impactful ways, that I struggle to understand how he does it for so many other people, too. He came into my life as a bible study leader when my husband and I first met and has since been such an incredible friend to our entire family, guiding us in spiritual matters, helping with parenting questions, and acting as a sound board for some of life’s biggest decisions.

Gary truly has a servant’s heart and has touched thousands of lives; church members, clients from his printing days, and homeless people he meets and shepherds. Tune in as he shares stories about his start in the minor leagues as a pitcher, having to walk away from his life’s dream to play in the MLB, to his 4th career buying land for a regional logger and developer in the Pacific North West.

About Gary Addeo

Gary Addeo started his career as a pitcher playing AAA baseball. After tearing his rotator cuff during spring training one year, he had to make a tough decision. He decided to pursue a different avenue and entered into a 36-year career in sales in the printing and typesetting industry.

After nearly four decades commuting from Orange County to all parts of Southern California, Gary’s doctors warned him that the long commutes and stress were significantly impacting his health. Gary volunteered in his local churches through his adult years and felt called to pursue ministry full time. An exciting and lifelong-dream to become a community pastor presented itself and he jumped!

Gary spent much time helping friends, family and strangers in need. He’s an incredible prayer warrior and knows the Word and exactly how to reference the right scriptures. He and his family have hosted countless people and families in their own homes, including professional surfers and skateboarders who moved in and out of the Volcom house in Newport Beach in its earliest days.

He led life groups and recovery ministries for 8 years at Rock Harbor Church in Costa Mesa. As leadership changed at the church, he also saw the writing on the wall. It was evident that that he was being called away from Southern California. To his friends, this seemed impossible. How could a man who grew up surfing and loving the beach so much move away!?

But family duties called. He and his wife made the move to the Pacific Northwest, where he started a new chapter working for his son-in-law in timber sales and land development. Gary’s calm demeanor immediately puts anyone at ease, and his friendly approach has served him well through all of his years in sales.

December 6, 2021February 3, 2022

Mark Bogh, President Bogh Engineering

During my tenure serving on the board at Mariners Christian School, we approved a $20M capital project to redesign our industrial concrete tilt-up building into a state of the art learning facility. Our goal was to provide more learning space, abundant natural light, and increased security.

When I first laid eyes on the plan, it was explained to me that the first step was to build a fire wall and elevator at a price tag that exceeded any amount ever raised in the history of the school. I wondered how we’d ever raise the money to get started, let alone finish this gargantuan project.

By the grace of God and the generosity of our family community, we were able to finish phase 1 of this project, albeit very much delayed, which didn’t significantly impact school operations, but certainly was stressful for the school team behind the scenes.

Then started the search for the right firm to build Phase 2, which was substantially more structurally intensive. And, we needed to complete the work during a single summer if possible.

2 of the 3 firms returned with 12-24 month construction timelines. We weren’t willing to put students in temporary trailers and needed a more creative solution.

Enter Mark Bogh, who came highly recommended by a member of our esteemed all-parent volunteer construction committee. Mark and his team build schools. They’ve built hundreds of schools. Mark’s values are in lock-step with our school’s mission and values. In preparation for our first meeting, he laid out a few options which clearly demonstrated that he’d studied our plans in great detail. He’d even gone so far as to talk to our neighbors about using their land for contingency purposes. One of his options was to complete the project in 6 months.

Now, if you’ve ever been through the bid process, which I have, you know that these types of promises are totally suspect and usually off-base. But there’s something about Mark and his team that immediately set you at ease. He knows his stuff, he’s laid out contingencies, he has his own team, he knows the city.

Covid worked in our favor as our kids went to remote learning on March 13, 2020, and within 2 weeks, it was clear that we weren’t headed back anytime soon. The board agreed and we moved quickly to take advantage of the unexpected windfall of time. Mark’s team went to work, shifting all materials sourcing from China to Mexico and Canada. The teams predicted that China’s shutdown would become a long-term problem; they were right.

Mark led his team through the typical ups and downs of a large construction project and wad undeterred by the Covid impacts. Overall, the project was 3 weeks delayed mainly because the city’s inspectors

About Mark Bogh

Mark Bogh is President of Bogh Engineering, a construction and engineering company focused on public works projects, particularly in educational facilities. He started his career at the City of Redlands, then to IWA Engineers, an firm that worked on a multitude of projects for Universal Studios and Knott’s Berry Farm. He quickly rose the ranks to become President of IWA, but felt a different calling.

Mark decided to go back to his roots and build schools with his dad, so he joined Bogh Engineering, growing the firm from $1M in gross revenues to $60M over 20 years. The firm’s key distinction is most of its key tradespeople are full-time employees. This allows them to quickly shift gears and place people where needed in order to finish school construction projects that are inherently designed around very tight deadlines.

Mark remains very involved with his community church and ministries throughout Southern California.