Sometimes Speaking Loudly Carries Day

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Last month’s Walk to End Genocide at Pan Pacific Park drew more than 3,000 people, the largest iteration yet of what has become the biggest annual anti-genocide demonstration in the country.

Hosting was Jesse Gabriel, a 32-year-old attorney at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher. Gabriel isn’t as well-known as some of the event’s speakers, including Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, but he has been involved for years with Jewish World Watch, the non-profit behind the event.

He said he was honored when Janice Kamenir-Reznik, Jewish World Watch’s co-founder, asked him to emcee the event.

“It may have had more to do with having a loud voice than anything else,” he joked.

Gabriel said he was struck by the diversity of participants. Proceeds went to Jewish World Watch’s education and advocacy efforts as well as programs to aid survivors of atrocities in Sudan and eastern Congo.

“There were a lot of young people with homemade signs walking around and raising money,” he said. “It was very inspiring to see so many people at such a young age feeling like they can get involved and make a difference.”

All Out of the Family

When Jim McCarthy takes the stage to address a roomful of family business owners at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management later this month, he will bring a different perspective to the seminar.

That’s because McCarthy, 44, is chief executive at discount ticket seller Goldstar of Pasadena – which is not a family business at all. McCarthy co-founded Goldstar a dozen years ago with two friends.

Still, McCarthy, who received his M.B.A. from Anderson, thinks an entrepreneurial message is relevant to family business owners.

But making his company a family one? He said there are no plans to bring his two teenage kids into the fold.

“Who knows what they’re going to want to do?” McCarthy said.

Mojo Still Rising

By day, Ross Gerber, 43, manages money as chief executive of Santa Monica wealth management firm Gerber Kawasaki.

But by night – one night a month, at least – he’s the guitar-picking frontman of Venice rock outfit Danger Band.

The band, just Gerber and two friends, started up last year and plays about once a month at the Bank of Venice bar. They play a blend of blues and rock, covers and originals, though Gerber says bar patrons might not know the difference.

“The greatest thing about playing blues and music from the ’60s is a lot of people aren’t familiar with it,” he said. “So people don’t know if something’s an original or not.”

Gerber is a big fan of ’60s music and proudly notes that he resides not far from where late Doors frontman Jim Morrison once lived. He also gave his son, Max, the middle name Morrison after the singer – though hopefully the younger Gerber will only carry the rock star’s better traits.

“We were thinking the young Morrison, not the drunk Morrison, hanging off the side of the Chateau Marmont,” Gerber said.

Staff reporters Alfred Lee, Jonathan Polakoff and James Rufus Koren contributed to this column. Page 3 is compiled by editor Charles Crumpley. He can be reached at [email protected].