Executives

After struggling for months with wobbly finances and internal dissension, the director of UCLA Medical Center announced Tuesday that he will leave his job to take a top post at the University of Kentucky's medical center. Dr. Michael Karpf, 58, has been with UCLA since 1995 and oversaw the school's three hospitals and 18 primary-care clinics.

Like most kids growing up in Brazil, Roberto Gurgel dreamed of being on the field for a World Cup. That never happened. So this summer, Gurgel is settling for the next-best thing by helping to build five of the fields that will be used for the first World Cup in his native country in 64 years. Gurgel is executive director of research for Sod Solutions, a South Carolina-based company that develops and licenses varieties of grass. One of those varieties, a deep blue-green Bermuda called Celebration, will be used in five of the 12 World Cup venues this summer.

A Superior Court jury in Los Angeles has awarded $2.5 million to a former executive of bankrupt Newport Beach home builder Baldwin Co. after finding that the owners reneged on a promise to make him a partner in the company. The jury found that brothers James and Alfred Baldwin breached their contract with Robert B. Burns, who headed their company's Los Angeles-Ventura division. However, the jury awarded damages only against James Baldwin, who directly supervised Burns' division.

SACRAMENTO -- With every part of California suffering from the drought, Gov. Jerry Brown issued a new executive order on Friday in an attempt to provide some relief from the persistent dry conditions across the state. Brown's actions run the gamut from suspending some environmental regulations to asking restaurants to stop serving diners water unless they ask for it. He also ordered homeowners associations to stop fining residents for failing to water their lawns. During a speech at an environmental sustainability conference in Brentwood, Brown said he was calling on all Californians and municipal water agencies “to do everything humanly possible to conserve.” “Our fire seasons are longer, and the dry season is upon us, so we have to take renewed vigilance,” he said.

The Securities and Exchange Commission said Thursday that it has charged two executives of American Telephone & Telecommunications Corp. with fraud for selling securities in the firm that purportedly was set up to offer long-distance telephone service via the Internet. The company is not related to telecommunications giant AT&T Corp.

Cleanup and confession were the dominant Olympic themes emanating from here Thursday as the Salt Lake Organizing Committee named a new president and an American member of the International Olympic Committee admitted giving a job to the son of an IOC member who resigned last month because of the bribery scandal.

The late Marvel Comics editor Mark Gruenwald got his wish: His ashes were blended with ink and made into a comic book. "This is something that he really wanted because he really loved comics. He wanted to be part of his work in a very real sense," said Mark Harras, Marvel's editor in chief. The ashes of Marvel's senior executive editor were mixed at a printing plant in Canton, Ohio, for use in "Squadron Supreme," a reprint of a limited edition 1985 comic he wrote, Harras said Thursday.

Creative Artists Agency senior executive Sandy Climan was hired Thursday as an executive vice president of MCA Inc., the first high-level departure from the agency since former Chairman Michael S. Ovitz announced in August that he is leaving to join Walt Disney Co. Climan's exit had been expected in the wake of the Ovitz departure, but the destination was a surprise to Hollywood executives.

Exactly who was Jose Menendez? The Hollywood community and police investigators have been furiously pressing that question since Menendez--a relatively little known entertainment executive whose career nonetheless connected with some of the biggest names in show business--was shot dead with his wife, Mary Louise, in their Beverly Hills home last Sunday night.

The recent death of In-N-Out Burger's chairman and chief executive, H. Guy Snyder, was caused by an accidental overdose of a prescription painkiller, according to an autopsy report from the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office. Snyder, who headed the Irvine-based burger chain for six years, died last month at the age of 48. He was the second brother to run In-N-Out Burger to die unexpectedly.

Three Hollywood executives accused of sexually abusing a teenage boy in the late 1990s say the allegations against them are false.  Garth Ancier, David Neuman and Gary Goddard were named in three separate complaints, filed Monday by attorney Jeff Herman in Hawaii, accusing them of sexually abusing Michael F. Egan III. Last week, Egan accused "X-Men" director Bryan Singer in a federal lawsuit of drugging and sexually assaulting him. ...

Sanity prevailed in Oklahoma on Monday. Oklahoma County District Court Judge Patricia Parrish recently ruled that the state's secrecy-shrouded lethal-injection protocol denies condemned prisoners due process. The compelling point: How can prisoners weigh the constitutionality of their executions if they are barred from knowing with what drugs they will be killed? The state, naturally, is appealing that decision. But in a Kafka-esque twist of legal absurdities, one of the men, Clayton Lockett, came awfully close to execution anyway.

Hamish Maxwell Philip Morris Cos. CEO Hamish Maxwell, 87, who steered Philip Morris Cos. in its purchase of General Foods Corp. and takeover of Kraft Inc., milestones in transforming the tobacco company into a consumer products conglomerate in the 1980s, died Saturday at his home in Palm Beach, Fla. He had bladder cancer, said his daughter Graham Russell. Maxwell spent 37 years with Philip Morris, culminating with his tenure as chairman and chief executive officer from 1984 to 1991.

The attorney for the man accusing "X-Men" director Bryan Singer of sexual abuse has filed additional, similar cases against three Hollywood executives. Garth Ancier, David Neuman and Gary Goddard were named in three separate complaints, filed by attorney Jeff Herman in Hawaii, accusing them of sexually abusing Michael F. Egan III. Last week, Singer was accused in a federal lawsuit of drugging and sexually assaulting Egan in the 1990s. Ancier is a prominent television executive who has held senior positions at Fox and NBC. Neuman is a former senior Walt Disney television executive.

John Claerhout, a former Boy Scouts of America executive known for his finesse at fundraising and his promotion of scouting programs for thousands of inner-city Los Angeles teenagers, has died in a Northridge hospital. He was 85. Claerhout underwent quadruple bypass surgery two weeks before his April 4 death from complications of pneumonia, said his son Kevyn Claerhout. Claerhout was a masterful networker who recruited a stream of local and national celebrities for gala dinners benefiting the Scouts.

Jadeveon Clowney is slated as one of the top picks, if not the top pick, in just about every mock NFL draft out there. But at least one NFL executive isn't impressed with the South Carolina defensive end. Or so he says ... anonymously. “He's spoiled, and he's lazy," an NFC personnel director told nj.com. “He's never worked hard a day in his life, now all of a sudden you're going to give him a bunch of money and expect him to work hard. I don't see it. " He added of Clowney: “Oh, he's going to be a high pick.

Timothy D. Cook Title: Chief executive Age: 50 Education: Bachelor's in industrial engineering, Auburn; MBA, Duke Career: Joined Apple in 1998 and became chief operating officer in 2005. Cook acted as interim CEO during Steve Jobs' leaves in 2004, 2009 and 2011. Scott Forstall Title: Senior vice president of iPhone software Age: 42 Education: Bachelor's in symbolic systems, Stanford; master's in computer science, Stanford Career: Joined Apple in 1997.

President Obama's administration began holding private meetings with health industry executives and lobbyists at the White House a few weeks after he took office, a visitor list released Wednesday night by the White House shows. Richard Umbdenstock, president of the American Hospital Assn., was at the White House on Feb. 4 and has been back at least half a dozen times since, most recently May 22.

Fruit flies seem to have a preternatural ability to evade annoyed swatters. Now, laser-wielding scientists have discovered the secret of these winged escape artists: They execute speedy hairpin turns by banking in the same way that fighter jets do. The aerial skills of Drosophila hydei , described this month in the journal Science, could provide insight into the complex neural circuitry that makes such impressive maneuvers possible - and perhaps...

Senior Turner Broadcasting executive Steve Koonin has been named chief executive of the Atlanta Hawks basketball team. He'll be in charge of operations for both the National Basketball Assn. franchise and its home court Philips Arena. Koonin will also have an ownership stake in the team. A well-regarded programming and marketing executive, Koonin has been with Turner for 14 years, rising to the rank of president of Turner Entertainment Networks, whose holdings include TNT, TBS, TruTV and Cartoon Network.