New California Hall of Fame touted

Today's Stockton Record chimes in with a preview of The New California 100 event and the New California Hall of Fame:

Hall of fame gets 8 Valley leaders: Business moguls honored Tuesday

Stockton developers Fritz Grupe and Alex Spanos will be among eight business leaders inducted into the New California Hall of Fame in recognition for their legacies of business, philanthropic and civic contributions to the Great Central Valley.

Individuals selected for the hall of fame founded and led companies headquartered in the 19-county Valley region of California stretching from Shasta to Kern County.

They will be honored at a Tuesday dinner at the first-ever New California 100 Conference in the Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts at the University of California, Davis. The conference also will name 100 companies that have contributed to regional prosperity by generating revenue and jobs. Sixteen companies in San Joaquin County are on that list.

The others to be inducted are Archie Aldis "Red" Emmerson, founder of Sierra Pacific Industries, Redding; Newton T. Enloe, founder of the Enloe Medical Center, Chico; Ernest and Julio Gallo, co-founders of E&J Gallo, Modesto; Tom Raley, founder of Raley's Stores, West Sacramento; and Fred Ruiz, co-founder of Ruiz Foods, Dinuba.

"These business legends represent what makes California's great Central Valley fertile ground for the next generation of innovation and prosperity, and can serve as continued reminders of how to be successful in business in California and around the world," said Jon Gregory, chief executive officer of Golden Capital Network, a nonprofit networking, training and consulting group that is one of the conference sponsors.

The conference Tuesday will also feature a full slate of speakers and give business leaders the chance to gather to share stories and chart how they can collectively continue to make California golden for business, he said. These companies being honored account for more than $50 billion in annual revenue and support more than 250,000 jobs in the region, he said.

The event will feature industry discussions lead by expert panelists from the finance, venture capital, academic and other sectors. Some top 100 company CEOs will share their stories of challenge, solution and accomplishment, and early-stage entrepreneurs will share their market solutions and paths to success.

Chris Soderquist, general partner with Davis-based Golden Capital Venture Funds, said the conferences will be staged annually to bring together business leaders from top companies, venture capitalists, entrepreneurs in promising new businesses, municipal elected officials and economic development specialists.

The original intent is to celebrate business success in the Central Valley, he said. But bringing together a wide variety of business sector players promises to promote business growth in the region at a time when there's a lot of "rhetoric" ranging from talk about a poor economy to poor air quality, he said.

"Things obviously are growing, but the grounds are a lot more fertile to grow even more so," Soderquist said.

For more information about the conference and the California Hall of Fame dinner, which together will run from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., or to register, visit www.thenewcalifornia100.com. Cost is $325 per person for the conference and $450 for the conference and dinner.

The following 16 companies headquartered in San Joaquin County were named to the New California 100:

AG Spanos; Grupe Co.; Bank of Stockton; Building Material Distributors Inc.; Coastal Pacific Food Distributors; Collins Electrical; Delicato Family Vineyards; Diamond Foods; Duraflame; Interstate International Inc.; Klein Bros Ltd.; Mid Valley Plastering; Musco Family Olive Co.; Pacific Coast Producers; PAQ Inc.; and the Poly Processing Co.

The conference is being sponsored by Golden Capital Network; the Great Valley Center, a nonprofit Central Valley think tank; Hamilton Lane, an independent, private equity asset management service; and UC Davis.