4 Minorities Named to Athletic Foundation

Four new minority members have been added to the board of the Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles, the group that distributes the $95-million share of 1984 Olympics surplus for Southern California youth.

The appointments come several weeks after Mayor Tom Bradley, U.S. Circuit Court Judge Stephen Reinhardt and labor leader William Robertson resigned from the board, complaining that old-guard members refused to bring in young minority activists.

But all three leaders said Tuesday that they would not be returning. The apparent reason is that the new minority appointees are drawn from the business community, rather than being the community activists Bradley and the other critics wanted.

With the new appointments, the foundation’s 19-member board will include five blacks, two Latinos and two Asian-Americans. Four of the members are women.

Bradley would not comment Tuesday on the new appointees. Reinhardt said of his old colleagues on the foundation board: “I’m glad they got half the message. . . . I hope that the newly added minority businessmen will help persuade the old-guard business leaders to open the board to further diversification.”

But Reinhardt added: “There is still a need for some young community activists from the trenches. Adding them to the board would do a lot for the foundation and the souls of its stuffier directors.”

The new appointees are Jae Min Chang, president and publisher of the Korea Times & Han Kook Il Bo; Shirley T. Hosoi, president and chief executive officer of First Interstate Franchise Services; Richard D. Nanula, senior vice president and chief financial officer of the Walt Disney Co., and Frank Sanchez, an educator and McDonald’s franchise holder in East Los Angeles.

Also added to the board was James L. Easton, chairman and president of Easton Aluminum and president of the International Archery Federation. He is the sole new Anglo member.

Board Chairman David Wolper, a television producer, said Tuesday that the appointments followed intense consideration and personal interviews.

“I think they’re all good members,” he said of the appointees. “They increase the diversity of the board considerably.”

Wolper also said that the board is contemplating a further expansion and that two or three more members may shortly be added.

Attorney John Argue, a member of the board’s nominating committee, called the new appointees “outstanding.”

Hosoi, he said, is “the highest-ranking woman in any financial institution in Southern California.” He characterized Nanula as “a genius, a great talent who has been offered spots on many corporate boards.” Chang, he noted, is the son of a late member of the International Olympic Committee and member of a family that recently contributed $1 million to the IOC Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland. “These and the others are terrific people, quality people,” he said. “In helping us to make our grants, they will add a great deal of wisdom and common sense to the board.”

As for Reinhardt’s statements, Wolper declined to comment and Argue said, “As an attorney practicing in the federal courts, I would have a firm no comment to Judge Reinhardt’s remarks.”