Buzz Woolley and Scott Himelstein

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See all posts about Scott Himelstein.
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R.B. “Buzz” Woolley Jr., a financial mainstay of the Voice of San Diego ...

I notice that Buzz Woolley is a supporter of SD4GS and he's on the board of directors of Voice of San Diego. What's up with having 4 unelected board members, Buzz? What are you thinking? Here's what Voice of San Diego says about him: "Buzz Woolley
Buzz is a 40-year San Diego resident, a retired venture capitalist and entrepreneur. He is the president of the Girard Foundation which has provided millions of dollars for K-12 programs in San Diego County over the past 18 years." Did some of that money go to Ed Brand's school districts, Buzz? Did you and Ed become pals?


From CMC to Entrepreneurship: Business Opportunities in the 1990s RALPH "BUZZ" WOOLLEY, JR.
Claremont McKenna College
February 12, 1987
Following January visits by Julie Dillon and Al Osborne, the Athenaeum's 1987 series on entrepreneurship continues on Thursday evening, February 12, when "Buzz" Woolley '59, trustee and the father of Michelle Woolley '90, addresses the subject, "From CMC to Entrepreneurship: Business Opportunities in the 1990s." After working for IBM, Mr. Woolley started a series of businesses, ranging from information processing to real estate development. For the past 12 years, he has headed Girard Capital, a San Diego-based venture capital company that provides financing and management assistance to other entrepreneurs. Girard has aided early stage companies in such fields as computer peripherals, artificial intelligence, advertising, banking, ceramic packaging, and electronic components.

In addition to his business activities, "Buzz" Woolley is on the steering committee for the Technology and Entrepreneurship program at the University of California, San Diego, where he also teaches a course, "How to Start a Business." From the Athenaeum's inception, "Buzz" Woolley has been one of its most generous benefactors, and it is consequently a special privilege for us to have him share his insights with us.

San Diego News Shoot-Out
Dirk Smillie
06.08.09
Forbes.com

The Voice was launched in 2005 by a group of investors led by philanthropist Buzz Woolley (father of Forbes Los Angeles bureau chief Scott Woolley) and Neil Morgan, a former San Diego Union-Tribune columnist and editor who had been fired by the paper a year earlier. Its pitches to donors resemble those made by public television during pledgeweek. A $10,000 contribution gains you membership in the "Editor's Circle." That sum might cover the Voice's costs of web hosting and e-mail blasts for a year. Donate $1,000 and buy a journalist a new laptop and software.

The Voice, underwritten by 850 individuals and nonprofit benefactors like the Knight Foundation, focuses on in-depth, investigative coverage of local government, education and housing...

With a $1 million budget, the Voice's 12-member staff work out of a 1,400-square-foot office on the site of a former U.S. Navy base. Chief executive Scott Lewis says the Voice's public policy coverage has no connection to profits or page counts. "We only write about things we know we can report on uniquely and authoritatively." The Voice averages 78,000 unique visitors a month...


Our main founder, Buzz Woolley, was the son of a reporter.



Dec 9, 2010
The Meeting Man Goes Public
By EMILY ALPERT
voiceofsandiego.org

Twenty-two years ago, millionaire William Lynch opened his newspaper and was glued to the tale of a former rocker with a black beard and a briefcase, trying to sway skeptical congressmen to spend more on drug rehabilitation, hoping to do some good with his sociology degree.

As the story told it, what Scott Himelstein was good at was persuasion. He could translate the idea of salvation into dollars-and-cents for lawmakers, could listen and speak bureaucrat with ease. And he cared, saying simply, "We're here to do something about the waste of life."

Lynch himself wasn't keen on drug rehabilitation. But the more Lynch read, the more he was keen on Himelstein. He put down his paper and phoned the reporter, asking to meet the idealist over dinner.

They did. "He looked like a yeti," Lynch said recently. "But he was a very impressive young man."...

Scott Himelstein
Age: 52...
Director of USD’s Center for Education Policy and Law. Organizes San Diegans 4 Great Schools, a new group seeking changes to how San Diego Unified schools are run...

Went from New Wave rocker to social services advocate and consultant. Led the William D. Lynch Foundation for Children. Ran San Diego Reads, a literacy campaign under former Superintendent Alan Bersin. Became acting State Secretary of Education under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.