President of the Irvine Co.’s Newport Coast Unit Resigns

Roland Osgood resigned as president of an Irvine Co. unit that oversees the company’s development on the Orange County coast, the firm said Tuesday.

Osgood said that he has not decided what he will do but that the company has offered to let him build homes in its snazzy Newport Coast project.

Or Osgood may work with his son, who is also a home builder, he said.

Osgood was president and chief executive of home builder Broadmoor Homes before joining the big Newport Beach-based landowner in 1979.

He will be succeeded as head of the Coastal Community Builders unit by Mike Ellis, now a senior vice president. Ellis will not hold the title of president, which will be kept vacant, but will run the unit as vice president and general manager, the company said.

Ellis was Northern California president of Covington Homes before joining the Irvine Co. in 1985 as vice president of land development. He was promoted to senior vice president in 1987 and has been responsible for managing land development, engineering and building permits for the company’s projects near the coast.

Osgood joined the company as president of Irvine Pacific, another unit that oversaw housing construction on the company’s vast landholdings.

In 1986 he was named president of the Land Development Group and oversaw all the company’s land development.

In 1989 the company reorganized its units along geographical lines instead of by activities, and Osgood was named president of Coastal Community Builders. His major project has been the Newport Coast, a project to build hotels and houses on the hills between Newport Beach and Laguna Beach.