Different Strokes

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As a veteran trial lawyer, Dan Stephenson has seen plenty of high-stakes competition in bet-the-company cases.

But the 55-year-old likes to go head to head outside of the courtroom, too. In addition to heading up the 180-lawyer litigation department of Detroit law firm Dykema from his downtown L.A. office, he’s also an elite swimmer, winning gold in four races in his age group at the World Masters Swim Championships this past June in Riccione, Italy.

“You’re not swimming as fast as the Olympians, but you’re trying as hard,” he said.

In college, Stephenson was the swim team captain at UCLA with a good shot at qualifying for the Olympics in 1980. But that dream ended when the United States boycotted the Summer Olympics in Moscow that year.

Still, he’s continued to race competitively.

“It gives you this mental toughness where you say to yourself, ‘This thing I’m doing at work isn’t so bad. I’ve done a lot of hard things before, including that set I swam this morning,’” he said.

Back to School

Like many people, GJ Hart, chief executive at California Pizza Kitchen Inc. in Playa Vista, has a special fondness for his alma mater. Any fondness for a large institution usually is one-sided, but in this case, his sentiment was returned.

Hart, 54, graduated from James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va., in 1984. Since then, he’s served on the executive advisory council of the school of hospitality, sport and recreation management, and he guest teaches. He also provides students some hands-on management experience working corporate events.

The hospitality school noticed. At a fundraising dinner in Washington, D.C., last month, the school named Hart its first Hall of Fame entrant.

“I was blown away,” he said. “It’s pretty cool to get the first one.”

Seriously Chile

Before she left to work for two months in Chile, Linda Whalen was warned. People in South America are truly laid back, she was told. Meetings start late. Then everyone chats about personal stuff.

“But I found it was the polar opposite,” said Whalen, who returned from Santiago late last month. Meetings started on time and agenda items were dispatched with businesslike efficiency. “I said, ‘Wait a minute! Aren’t we supposed to talk about our families?’ ”

Whalen, who manages PR and marketing for Ernst & Young’s western region, went to South America to help refine the marketing plan for Buscalibre.com, an Amazonlike e-commerce portal. Her trip was part of a company program in which a dozen executives are sent each year to help entrepreneurs in emerging economies, at no expense to the recipients. Whalen was the only one from Los Angeles to go this round.

While people in Chile are hard working and focused, she said, they are not detached and cold. In fact, colleagues greet each other with a kiss on the cheek.

“It’s certainly more personal than a handshake,” she said.

Staff reporters Alfred Lee and Bethany Firnhaber contributed to this column. Page 3 is compiled by Editor Charles Crumpley. He can be reached at [email protected].

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