Irvine Co. Recruits Vice Chairman and Financial Officer From Building Firm

The senior financial officer of a major Southland home builder has been recruited by the Irvine Co. to fill the long-vacant position of vice chairman and chief financial officer.

Norman J. Metcalfe, 50, also will be one of two vice chairmen of the giant land development company, which last year had gross revenue of $800 million. He will start in his new job March 1.

Metcalfe has been chief financial officer of Kaufman & Broad Inc., a major home-building company based in Los Angeles. He also was president of Kaufman & Broad’s Sun America Investments subsidiary from 1989 until 1992.

He was the ninth highest-paid CFO at a publicly held company in California in 1989, with salary and bonuses of $954,181, according to corporate documents reported in an annual Times survey.

Metcalfe began at Kaufman & Broad as a financial analyst in 1970, three years after earning an MBA at the University of Washington. He became chief financial officer in 1982.

At the Irvine Co., Metcalfe will tackle the financial tasks that were taken over by Chairman Donald L. Bren personally when former Vice Chairman John Galvin retired last July, a company spokesman said.

“His experience with both traditional and alternative financial markets dovetails well with our corporate strategy to reduce our traditional dependence on banks and insurance companies and broaden the base from which we seek long-term financing,” Bren said in a statement.