North Bay Business Journal

ROHNERT PARK — Part of a continuing effort to serve as a catalyst for entrepreneurial programs in the North Bay, Sonoma State University’s School of Business and Economics has teamed up with the Keiretsu Forum to help bring the international angel investor group’s entrepreneurship academy to the North Bay for the first time.

ROHNERT PARK — Sonoma State University welcomed the first group of students into its newly revamped part-time MBA program last week, the newest iteration of a 25-year-old program that was developed to include the latest teaching methods and input from the North Bay business community.

May 17, 2012: Sonoma State University’s School of Business and Economics held their First Annual Alumni & Community Celebration with D’Argenzio Winery and Santa Rosa Vintners’ Square who joined SSU in the ceremony

Also: Empire law school graduates 14; SSU undergrad wins full ride from PG&E

NORTH BAY — Brian Sobel is principal consultant for Sobel Communications, based in Petaluma. He has extensive experience in both the public and private sectors. Additionally, he has worked as a news director for two radio stations and in television . Before opening his consulting firm, Mr. Sobel spent several years working for a major corporation as a writer, training consultant and video producer. In the public sector, he has been active as a past candidate for the California Assembly and is a former planning commissioner and vice-mayor of Petaluma.

Venture capital and angel investments are starting to pick up after a lull in the last few years, because of a strengthening economy and the ability to fund a company with a lot less capital than was needed historically.

ROHNERT PARK — A gift of $25,000 to establish an entrepreneurs society at Sonoma State University was announced today at the 2011 Seed Round Business Plan Competition, organized by the North Bay iHub.

The 2010 Spotlight on Leaders in Contracting on pages 6 to 13 illuminates how top general and specialty contractors have remained on top as a number of sectors of the construction industry have contracted significantly in the past four years.

NORTH BAY – The slideshow presentations of speakers at yesterday’s Economic Outlook Conference are available on the Resources page of the Business Journal Web site in PDF format.

The event put on by Sonoma State University’s School of Business and Economics in collaboration with the Business Journal focused on a call to action for the North Bay to create a regional economic development corporation to leverage “cooperative competition” in creating industry clusters that will support and sustain job growth.

NORTH BAY — The Sonoma State University School of Business and Economics’ 17th annual economic outlook conference, “The Time is Now: Developing a regional strategy to attract and retain jobs,” will be Feb. 25 at the Sheraton in Petaluma.

Produced in collaboration with the Business Journal, registration is at 7:30 a.m. and the program from 8 a.m. to noon. Tickets are $49 per person and include continental breakfast. To register, contact Linda Perkins at events@busjrnl.com or 707-521-5264, or register online at www.NorthBayBusinessJournal.com.