By HOWARD FINE
Thursday, January 21, 2016
The Los Angeles County Business Federation, the umbrella group of local business organizations, has installed its new officers for 2016.
The federation, commonly called BizFed, is an alliance of 155 business organizations in Los Angeles County representing 275,000 businesses that employ roughly 3 million people. It formed eight years ago in response to growing union clout in Los Angeles and other communities across the county.
Chairing BizFed this year is Gilbert Ivey, former chief administrative officer of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. The chair-elect for next year is Mike Lewis, a consultant and senior vice president of the Construction Industry Air Quality Coalition.
Over the past year, BizFed worked with the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to create a $15 million County Economic Development Trust Fund. The alliance also mobilized to inform state lawmakers of the harm that a proposed 50 percent reduction in vehicle fuels by 2030 would cause to small businesses and minority communities; that proposal was dropped by lawmakers in the final days of last year’s legislative session.
“This year we will tackle major issues facing the county and the state, including critical water, education, tax, environmental, and jobs related issues,” said new BizFed chair Ivey. “Through our collective voice, we will continue to strengthen the voice of business and take a stand for economic growth in our region.”
BizFed’s co-chairs for this year include John Ahn of Northrop Grumman Corp., Lou Baglietto of the Harbor City/Harbor Gateway Chamber of Commerce, Susan Sifuentes Trigueros of Southern California Gas Co. and Laura Yamanaka of the Los Angeles chapter of the National Organization of Women Business Owners.
These and other officers were sworn in during BizFed’s annual installation ceremony earlier this week, held at the headquarters of the Metropolitan Water District in downtown Los Angeles.
