Scaling New Heights : Young Executives Are Old Hands at Leading Corporations : Success: Nine of O.C.’s top 100 are not yet 40; one is 27. Some attribute rapid rise to luck, while others cite hard work.
Wayne Lowell humbly attributes his zoom up the corporate ladder to luck. James T. Schraith was in such a hurry to get where he is today that he dropped out of college.
Samuel L. Westover wanted to be a doctor but discovered he enjoyed crunching numbers more than peering into microscopes. Kelly A. Gray recalls as her inspiration childhood dinners where her parents passionately discussed their family business.
However they did it, they became some of Orange County’s most successful executives--all before their 40th birthdays.
Nine of the 100 highest-paid officers at local public companies are in their 30s. And Gray, senior vice president and creative director of St. John Knits in Irvine, is a mere 27.
With total compensation last year of $803,569, Gray was the second-highest-paid female executive in Orange County--behind only her mother, Marie St. John Gray, the apparel company’s co-founder and vice chairman. Together, they represent half of the women who ranked among Orange County’s best-paid corporate officers.
“I feel very fortunate to have achieved so much at such a young age,” Gray said. “It’s very much due to the guidance I’ve received from my family and a strong support team at work.”
Gray got her first job with St. John at age 12, wrapping packages in the mailroom. “I always imagined myself as being very involved in the company,” she said. “It was my parents’ life, and it became my life.”
In addition to her other responsibilities, Gray models clothes for St. John magazine advertisements. Her salary last year included $165,000 in modeling fees.
Westover, president and chief executive of Systemed in Laguna Hills, is almost a millionaire at age 38. Last year, the company paid him $956,116--all but $109,000 of it in stock options.
“I’ve made good career choices,” Westover said. Thirteen years ago, he left his job as an accountant with Price Waterhouse for a position as chief financial officer at a small start-up company: Los Angeles-based Maxicare Health Plans Inc., now a $2-billion operation.
Last year, he joined Systemed, which manages prescription drug insurance plans. “I wanted to work again for a fast-growing, entrepreneurial company,” Westover said.
And 36-year-old Schraith, senior vice president of sales and service for AST Research Inc., pocketed $595,067 in salary, bonuses and stock options last year. He started working for electronics companies when he was a teen and hasn’t stopped--not even to finish the course work for a college degree.
“I wasn’t patient enough,” Schraith said. “When I was in school, all I wanted to do was get out and get my hands dirty. I don’t know if I’d recommend that to everyone. But by getting into the workplace early, I learned a lot more than I would have sitting in a classroom.”
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Schraith was recruited by Irvine computer maker AST in 1987. Though only 29, he had already spent a decade at electronics giant Schlumberger Technologies, based in New York.
Lowell, 39, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Pacificare Health Systems in Cypress, made $675,614 in total compensation last year. He claims that he owes much of his success to serendipity.
“I don’t think you can underestimate the benefits of being in the right place at the right time,” he said. “I know a lot of men and women who are equally dedicated and who have worked equally hard, but who just haven’t gotten the right opportunities.”
Lowell joined Pacificare--which owns and operates health maintenance organizations--eight years ago as corporate controller. At the time, the company had about 250 employees and $100 million in annual revenue. It since has grown to 3,000 employees and expects revenue of almost $3 billion this year.
“All I ever wanted to do is what I do now,” Lowell said. “But I thought I would be doing it for a smaller company and that I would be five or 10 years older.”
