SPMG - Titans of Business: A Biographical Look

11/08/2023

Andrew Cherng

Andrew Cherng is a Chinese-born American billionaire restaurateur. He is the founder and chairman of Panda Restaurant Group, based in Rosemead, California. He is the co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Panda Express. The Cherngs invest out of their family office, the Cherng Family Trust.

Cherng was born in April 1948 in Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province, Republic of China on the northern bank of the Yangtze River. His father was Ming-Tsai Cherng, a chef.

He and his family moved to Taiwan after the Kuomintang was defeated on mainland China in the end of the Chinese Civil War, and in 1963, his family moved to Yokohama, Japan, where his father had taken a job as a chef.

In 1966, at age 18, he immigrated to the United States to study at an American university. He earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics in 1970 from Baker University in Baldwin City, Kansas, and a master's degree in applied mathematics from the University of Missouri in 1972. At Baker he had met his future wife, Peggy Tsiang, born in Burma and raised in Hong Kong, who went on to earn a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Oregon State University in 1971 and a PhD in electrical engineering from the University of Missouri.

In 1972, he moved to the Los Angeles area to help his cousin run a restaurant called Ting Ho. After a few months, he found a restaurant in Pasadena to take over.

In June 1973, along with his father Ming Tsai Cherng, they took over a restaurant and started a new Chinese restaurant called Panda Inn in Pasadena, California on Foothill Boulevard, using funds from the family and a Small Business Administration loan. It opened on June 8, 1973. The cuisine was more general Chinese than the Cantonese usually found in the area.

In 1983, Andrew Cherng opened the first Panda Express, a fast food restaurant, at the newly opened Glendale Galleria II mall in Glendale, California. He had been prompted to start the spin off by the developer of the mall who had eaten at Panda Inn and invited Cherng to take a place at the food court.

The company had expanded to 100 restaurants by 1993, with the opening of an outlet at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Cherng has stated a preference for keeping the company closely held. However, in 2006 he told USA Today if the company could get a valuation close to that of Chipotle Mexican Grill, he might reconsider his stance. However, in an interview with The Seattle Times newspaper in 2008, he said he would not be interested in making the company public, saying they did not need the money and citing concerns with the trouble and expense of dealing with shareholders.

The Cherngs have since invested heavily in new restaurant concepts such as Just Salad, YakiYan, Ippudo, and Pieology.

In 2018, it was announced that the Cherng Family Trust purchased the former Mandarin Oriental hotel on the Las Vegas Strip and rebranded it as a Waldorf Astoria. The total acquisition price for the property was $214 million.

In February 2011, the Cherngs donated $2.5 million to support the Collins College of Hospitality Management at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona.

In March 2017, the California Institute of Technology announced that they were changing the name of its medical engineering department to the Andrew and Peggy Cherng Department of Medical Engineering after receiving a $30 million gift from Andrew and Peggy Cherng. In the following month, the University of Missouri announced receiving a $1.5 million gift from the Cherngs which would benefit its Honors College.

Andrew and Peggy, an engineer who was working for aircraft companies in the Los Angeles area, and who both first met in college, married in 1975. They have three daughters. Two of their daughters, Andrea and Nicole, work for the Panda company in its corporate headquarters in Rosemead. Their daughter Michelle is a primary/secondary school teacher.

In 2015, it was reported that he and his wife had invested $15.2 million in a beachfront property and home in Honolulu. In 2018, the couple purchased a mansion in Henderson, Nevada.

Since 2010, Cherng has been a member of the Committee of 100, an international, non-profit, non-partisan membership organization that brings a Chinese American perspective to issues concerning Asian Americans and U.S.-China relations.

In 2008, Cherng was listed in Forbes' Twenty-Five Notable Chinese-Americans.

In 2008, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona conferred Cherng with an honorary doctorate.

11/08/2023

Michael Chow

Michael Chow is a British Chinese restaurateur, interior designer, artist and actor.Chow, also known as M, is the co-founder and owner of the Mr Chow restaurant chain. He has appeared in numerous films, held solo art exhibitions and worked as an architectural designer.

Chow was born Zhou Yinghua in Shanghai. His father was Zhou Xinfang, one of China's most famous actors of his time and the leading figure at the Peking Opera. His sister is an actress and erstwhile Bond girl Tsai Chin.

His mother came from a wealthy family whose fortune had been made in tea. He was sent to a British boarding school when he was 12 and spent his adolescence in Europe; after arriving in London in 1952, he was never able to speak to nor see his father again. In 1956, Chow studied at Saint Martin's School of Arts and the following year at the Hammersmith School of Building and Architecture. He had a career as a painter in parallel with his acting career. He had multiple gallery shows across London, including at the Institute of Contemporary Arts.

Chow and his business partner Robin Sutherland opened "Smith and Hawes", a hair salon in London's Sloane Avenue, which they later sold to the famous hairdresser Leonard of Grosvenor Square, when it became Leonard and Twiggy. Chow then came up with a concept to open a restaurant that offer Chinese food served by Italian waiters, and with a menu the British could understand. Sutherland backed his idea, raised the money, and housed six chefs hired from Hong Kong. Chow designed the restaurant featuring cool green floor tiles and white walls, and Mr Chow opened in Knightsbridge, London in February 1968, serving Pekinese cuisine. Chow bought art by Allen Jones, Peter Blake, Patrick Caulfield, David Hockney and Jim Dine for the walls, which became as celebrated as the food. The partners opened three other Mr Chow restaurants in London before Chow bought Sutherland out and moved to New York.[citation needed] His restaurant chain has expanded to places such as Las Vegas, Miami, New York City and Beverly Hills.

Chow has said his restaurants have always been underlined by "this desire and need to promote the Chinese culture", which he has done through food. He visits China at least twice a year, and has said he's thrilled by the country's economic growth and greater presence on the world stage. "China always has been a great, great nation", Chow said in an interview for The Wall Street Journal and added, "Chinese people — I like them. What can I say?" His restaurants have been widely panned by food critics, but have remained popular for decades due to their ability to attract celebrities with the allure of fancy dining and intentionally high prices.

Chow was appointed to the 12-member board of governors for Eli and Edythe Broad's three-story, $140 million contemporary art museum, The Broad, in downtown Los Angeles.

From an early age, Chow became an obsessive collector of furniture and contemporary art, notably his now, famous collection of portraits (of himself) by world-renowned artists. Since the sixties he has designed many architectural projects, including all of his restaurants, the Giorgio Armani boutiques in Beverly Hills and Las Vegas, and his home in Holmby Hills, Los Angeles.

In 2011, Chow returned to his passion for painting with the encouragement of his friends, gallerist Jeffrey Deitch and artist Julian Schnabel. In 2014, his first solo exhibition was held at Pearl Lam Galleries in Hong Kong. His major solo exhibition in 2016 at the Ullens Centre for Contemporary Art in Beijing was an homage to his father, Zhou Xinfang.

He has been married four times, first to Grace Coddington (1968–1969), then to Tina Chow (1972–1989) and third to Eva Chun Chow (1992–2017). His first three marriages ended in divorce and he has been married to Vanessa Rano since February 9, 2019.

Michael Chow has five children: China Chow and Maximillian Chow with Tina Chow; Asia Chow with Eva Chun; Phoenix Chow and Skye Chow with Vanessa Rano. Maximillian is the head of culinary operations at the family restaurants.

11/04/2023

The 78-year-old shipping mogul and her husband Gianluigi Aponte saw their fortunes jump a combined $46 billion this past year, enough to make her the highest-ranking female founder ever.

19/02/2023

Speaking at the annual Munich Security Conference, Vice President Harris said Russian forces have been documented committing acts of murder, sexual assault, torture and deportation.

06/10/2022

The beauty brand owner appeared on Shark Tank in 2015 and was told “she would never even get market share” with a business like hers.

27/01/2022

29/11/2021

Charles William “C. W.” Post (October 26, 1854 – May 9, 1914) was an American innovator, breakfast cereal and foods manufacturer and a pioneer in the prepared-food industry. He was the founder of what is now Post Consumer Brands.

https://spmgmedia.wordpress.com/2021/11/29/spmg-media-titans-in-business-c-w-post/

Charles William “C. W.” Post (October 26, 1854 – May 9, 1914) was an American innovator, breakfast cereal and foods manufacturer and a pioneer in the prepared-food industry. He was the …

04/07/2021

Abner Mason, founder and CEO of ConsejoSano, the technology company specializing in culturally-aligned patient outreach, joins esteemed colleagues at the California Black Health Network (CBHN) as a member of its board of directors. Mason will put his life’s work in health equity to good use as he helps guide the CBHN in its mission to ensure that all Black Californians, regardless of their education, socioeconomic class, sexual orientation, gender identity, housing status, or immigration status have access to high quality health care.

L.A.-based health tech CEO to help group combat health disparities plaguing Black Californians Abner Mason, founder and CEO of ConsejoSano, the technology company specializing in culturally-aligned…

20/11/2020

The move will unite two major players in digital media. As the Journal reported, under the deal, the companies will syndicate content from each other and jointly seek advertising opportunities. The conglomerate will be run by BuzzFeed founder and chief executive Jonah Peretti, who cofounded the first iteration of HuffPost in 2005.

The move will unite two major players in digital media.

07/04/2020

Graves was widely considered to be the ultimate champion of black business, launching Black Enterprise in 1970 to not only chronicle the rise of African American entrepreneurs, but also provide the tools for African Americans to succeed in the business mainstream and “achieve their measure of the American dream.”

Black Enterprise, has died at 85. According to his son Earl “Butch” Graves, Jr., he passed away at 9:22 p.m. on April 6 after a long fight with Alzheimer’s. Graves, Jr., who is the current CEO of B…

12/01/2020

Jen Rubio

She reinvented the suitcase and then sold a million of them. Now her company is worth $1.4 billion.

After being told in college that she couldn’t get into marketing without an MBA, Jen Rubio struck out on her own, pioneering social-media strategies for a number of brands until she landed at Warby Parker, which disrupted the eyewear market. In 2015, she and fellow Warby alum Steph Korey did the same thing to the luggage industry by launching Away. Beautiful design and a focus on customer interaction gave Away’s luggage Instagram rocket fuel, and by 2019 the company was valued at $1.4 billion. Revenue in 2019 is projected at $300 million—but the big project is international expansion. The company is eyeing China, where travel is exploding, and plans to add 50 new stores to its existing seven by 2022. Away is also expanding product lines, with the goal being, as Rubio says, “to completely transform the entire travel experience.”

Twitter:
Facebook:facebook.com/away
Instagram:instagram.com/away
LinkedIn:linkedin.com/company/away
Website:awaytravel.com

12/01/2020

Joanna Gaines

She parlayed a lifestyle reality TV franchise into a home decor empire.

During the five-year run of their hit show Fixer Upper, Joanna and Chip Gaines ruled HGTV—and reality television in general. The business empire the couple has created in its wake, which is headquartered in their hometown of Waco, Texas, has been designed to last much longer. In addition to their construction and real estate company, the Gaineses’ portfolio of businesses now includes a restaurant, a few Texas vacation rentals, a quarterly publication, a series of home improvement books and cookbooks, several lines of furniture, paints, and home accessories, and a sprawling Waco shopping complex undergoing a $10.4 million expansion this year. Their latest move: teaming up with Discovery to launch their own cable network in 2020. The Gaineses will serve as the talent and the chief creative officers for the network, focusing on home design, food, travel, entrepreneurship, and other family-friendly content.-

Twitter:
Facebook:facebook.com/MagnoliaMarket
Instagram:instagram.com/magnolia
LinkedIn:linkedin.com/company/magnolia-
Website:magnolia.com

12/01/2020

Rihanna

She is the first woman to create a fashion house with luxury behemoth LVMH.

At just 31 years old, nine-time Grammy-winner Robyn Rihanna Fenty is a one-woman empire, with deals in music, film, fashion, and cosmetics minting a reported $600 million every year. In May, her portfolio got even bigger: The native Barbadian became the first woman to create an original fashion label with French luxury behemoth LVMH—and the first woman of color to run one. Fenty is a patented line of clothes, shoes, and accessories designed to complement the entertainer’s already successful makeup line, Fenty Beauty, which reportedly pulled in $570 million last year. The artist is designing her new clothing line--the first new fashion house created by LVHM in over 30 years--to operate solely via e-commerce, without runway shows or flagship boutiques. It will also offer up to size 14 U.S., a more inclusive range than is typically shown on Fashion Week runways. It’s a fitting gesture for an artist who’s building her fashion label in her own image--to “thrive beyond traditional boundaries.”

Twitter:
Facebook:facebook.com/fenty
Instagram:instagram.com/fenty
LinkedIn:linkedin.com/company/fenty
Website:fenty.com

12/01/2020

Catherine Mahugu

She put the work of African artisans on the covers of American magazines.

Look away from Michelle Obama’s dazzling smile on the cover of December’s Essence magazine and you might notice a graceful brass ring and necklace—both from Soko. That photo “was such a validation of what we do,” says Catherine Mahugu, who co-founded the business with Gwendolyn Floyd and Ella Peinovich. After Obama’s cover, Oprah Winfrey flashed a Soko bracelet and earrings on the cover of April’s O magazine— and fashion pace-setters like Reformation, Zolando, Amour Vert, and Nordstrom’s have taken up the brand. But what’s more important to Soko’s co-founders is the income provided for the 2,300 artisans in Mahugu’s native Kenya. To advantage African workers, Mahugu also just launched Chiswara, a company trying to digitize the agricultural supply chain, first by partnering with small farmers in Kenya to sell their coffee internationally. “In the U.S., we pay $5 for a cup of coffee, but the lives of the farmers don’t reflect that,” says Mahugu, whose parents grew up on coffee farms. “We are giving farmers a seat at the table.”

Twitter:
Facebook:facebook.com/ShopSoko
Instagram:instagram.com/shopsoko
LinkedIn:linkedin.com/company/soko
Website:shopsoko.com

12/01/2020

Jennifer Hyman

Her $1 billion valuation proves renting fashion is as good as owning it.

In 2009, when Jenn Hyman and co-founder Jennifer Fleiss started women’s-clothing rental business Rent the Runway, people saw the idea as either radically new or cute but trifling. “That will be so fun for you, to have all these fancy dresses,” one condescending would-be investor told Hyman, who considers herself a trend-spotter. She’d noticed that the younger generation was starting to value experiences over things, and that social media was turning the world into one big fashion show. She was right about all of it. Earlier this year, Rent the Runway’s valuation topped $1 billion, making Hyman one of the only female founders to pass that milestone. The company, which has 1,800 employees around the world, recently entered two new markets: kids and home--the latter through a partnership with West Elm. Says Hyman, “This is really just the beginning of what it will mean to have a subscription to Rent the Runway.”

Twitter:

Facebook:facebook.com/RentTheRunway

Instagram:instagram.com/renttherunway

LinkedIn:linkedin.com/company/rent-the-runway

Website:renttherunway.com

12/01/2020

Melanie Elturk

She's making the hijab a fixture of American fashion.

As a teenager in suburban Michigan, Melanie Elturk didn't see many professional women wearing hijabs, as she did. “The only role models [in hijabs] we could look up to, in those days, were our mothers,” Elturk, now 34, says. “I knew that we needed to show a different image to Muslim girls: You can be successful because of your hijab, and not in spite of it.” So in 2010, Elturk and her husband, Ahmed Zedan, founded Haute Hijab, an online retailer of fashionable-yet-functional head coverings. Her myriad designs—which come in fabrics ranging from jersey to chiffon and silk—have been a hit online among the Muslim community. Last year, Haute Hijab brought in $1.3 million in sales, and in February of this year, it closed a $2.3 million seed round. Soon, Elturk plans to expand into athletic and medical hijabs, as well as hair care and eyewear products that work better with headscarves. “The grand vision is to become the go-to Muslim lifestyle brand,” she says

Twitter:
Facebook:facebook.com/hautehijab
Instagram:instagram.com/hautehijab
LinkedIn:linkedin.com/company/haute-hijab/about
Website:hautehijab.com

12/01/2020

Sheena Allen

She is helping people without bank accounts enter the financial system—and go cashless.

Sheena Allen grew up in a one-bank town in rural Mississippi, watching friends and relatives rely on expensive check cashers and payday lenders. Now she’s running a fintech company aiming to help her community--and some of the 32.6 million other underbanked American households--enter the financial mainstream. In 2016, Allen founded app-maker CapWay as part educator, part bank account. It sells financial education materials to colleges and lets individual users check their account balances and receive transaction alerts. Next up is a debit card, which Allen says has generated a waiting list of 10,000 people. Once launched this fall, the card could help CapWay work with a big new potential source of business: digital subscription services and big online sellers--enterprises that take only electronic payments and that want to bring more potential customers into the cashless economy. Allen says she’s currently talking to several “well-known” retailers and online service providers about how CapWay can help them better identify and work with low- and middle-income communities. “They’re either going cashless,” she says, “or they’re realizing that to continue scaling, they’re going to need an audience that has not always had access to plastic.”

Twitter:
Facebook:facebook.com/GoCapWay
Instagram:instagram.com/GoCapWay
Website:capway.co

12/01/2020

Alex West Steinman

Because co-working members in the middle of the country need diversity and inclusion just as much as those on the coasts.

In 2017, Alex West Steinman teamed up with three other Minneapolis-area PR and advertising professionals to create a femme-forward co-working space with the mission to “economically empower women by providing safe, accessible space for personal and professional transformation.” After crowdfunding its first location, the Coven grew to 500 members within a year. A second location opens in December. For every five memberships purchased, the Coven gives one to a member of the community who couldn’t afford it, “prioritizing people of color, folks from the LGBTQ community, those who are differently abled, immigrants, and veterans,” it says. The broad goal for West Steinman and her team is to corner the middle of the country (“underdog cities,” as the Coven calls them). It wants to open more than 20 locations in the next five years.

12/01/2020

Najla Austin

She saw the need for an intimate club custom-made for people of color. It opens this year in Brooklyn.

Company name: Ethel's Club
Location: Brooklyn, NY
https://www.ethelsclub.com/

Naj Austin had tried out many different co-working spaces and private clubs--and found them all the same. “At the end of the day, it’s people working--on couches that are different colors,” Austin says. She kept waiting for a space to open for people of color, like herself—and nothing did. She launched an Instagram page to gauge interest for what she dubbed Ethel’s Club in January of this year and within months, she had a 4,000-person waitlist for membership. She located a space in Brooklyn and decked it out with furniture suited to different body types and art that she thinks will speak to people of color. The soon-to-launch community will have a tiered-fee annual membership based on financial need.

12/01/2020

Carlos Slim Helú is a Mexican entrepreneur who became one of the wealthiest people in the world. His extensive holdings in a considerable number of Mexican companies through his conglomerate, Grupo Carso, SA de CV, amassed interests in the fields of communications, insurance, construction, energy, mining, retailing, publishing, and finance.

BRITANNICA

Carlos Slim Helú
MEXICAN BUSINESSMAN
WRITTEN BY: The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
See Article History
Alternative Title: Carlos Slim
Carlos Slim Helú, (born January 28, 1940, Mexico City, Mexico), Mexican entrepreneur who became one of the wealthiest people in the world. His extensive holdings in a considerable number of Mexican companies through his conglomerate, Grupo Carso, SA de CV, amassed interests in the fields of communications, insurance, construction, energy, mining, retailing, publishing, and finance.

Slim was born into a family of Lebanese Christian immigrants to Mexico, where his father made a fortune in real estate during the Mexican Revolution of 1910–20. Slim graduated with a degree in engineering from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, and by the mid-1960s he was investing in and founding a variety of businesses that became the foundation for Grupo Carso. He attained billionaire status in the aftermath of the economic crash of 1982, when the Mexican government, defaulting on foreign debts in light of a devalued peso, began nationalizing banks and scaring away business investors. Having purchased at bargain prices controlling interests in a variety of companies, Slim managed them so effectively that within the span of a decade their aggregate value soared.

Carlos Slim Helú
MEXICAN BUSINESSMAN
WRITTEN BY: The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
See Article History
Alternative Title: Carlos Slim
Carlos Slim Helú, (born January 28, 1940, Mexico City, Mexico), Mexican entrepreneur who became one of the wealthiest people in the world. His extensive holdings in a considerable number of Mexican companies through his conglomerate, Grupo Carso, SA de CV, amassed interests in the fields of communications, insurance, construction, energy, mining, retailing, publishing, and finance.

Carlos Slim Helú
QUICK FACTS
Slim Helú, Carlos
BORN
January 28, 1940 (age 79)
Mexico
Slim was born into a family of Lebanese Christian immigrants to Mexico, where his father made a fortune in real estate during the Mexican Revolution of 1910–20. Slim graduated with a degree in engineering from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, and by the mid-1960s he was investing in and founding a variety of businesses that became the foundation for Grupo Carso. He attained billionaire status in the aftermath of the economic crash of 1982, when the Mexican government, defaulting on foreign debts in light of a devalued peso, began nationalizing banks and scaring away business investors. Having purchased at bargain prices controlling interests in a variety of companies, Slim managed them so effectively that within the span of a decade their aggregate value soared.

For more than a dozen years, Slim’s key holding and the anchor of his success was his ownership of the former national telephone monopoly, Teléfonos de México (Telmex), which allowed him to broaden his investment portfolio into American technology and telecommunications firms such as Prodigy Inc. and SBC Communications Inc. Grupo Carso also held extensive interests in numerous Mexican companies. By the late 1980s Slim had forged close ties with Pres. Carlos Salinas de Gortari and the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party. In 1990 the Gortari administration privatized Telmex, and Slim, along with SBC and France Télécom, made the $1.76 billion purchase. Slim later won management control of Telmex, alienating France Télécom but keeping close relations with SBC. His tight control of Telmex upset his competitors, as well as some consumers critical of the communications giant. The mobile-telephone division of Telmex, América Móvil, became a separate company in 2001 and enjoyed several years of spectacular growth, eventually becoming one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world. América Móvil purchased its former parent in 2011.

Slim acquired the ailing electronics products and services company CompUSA in 2000. After realizing that he had misjudged his ability to turn the company around—a rare misstep for Slim—he sold it in 2007. By the following year Slim had become the largest shareholder in the New York Times Company, the financial conglomerate Citigroup, the luxury retailer Saks, and the consumer electronics retailer Circuit City. In 2017 América Móvil announced that it would launch a new Spanish-language television network, Nuestra Vision, aimed at a Mexican-American audience.

A noted art collector and philanthropist, Slim founded (1994) a not-for-profit art museum, Museo Soumaya (named for his wife), in Mexico City. In 2011 the museum moved to a larger building in the city. The new anvil-shaped structure—designed by Fernando Romero, Slim’s son-in-law—featured a facade covered in aluminum hexagons, and the interior offered 183,000 square feet (17,000 square metres) of exhibition space. Slim was also prominent in the revitalization of the historic centre of Mexico City, establishing (2000) the Foundation for the Historic Centre of Mexico City, and he received the Hadrian Award from the World Monuments Fund in 2004 for his efforts in preserving culturally significant buildings in Mexico City. Slim also received several awards for his philanthropic efforts, which included establishment of the Carlos Slim Foundation, focusing on the areas of health, sports, and education through such organizations as the Carlos Slim Institute of Health, which funds research projects on public health in Mexico. In 2009 the Carlos Slim Foundation partnered with Grameen Trust—a nonprofit venture of Grameen Bank, the Bangladeshi bank founded by economist Muhammad Yunus as a means of providing small loans to poor individuals—to launch the Grameen-Carso microcredit program in Mexico.

In 2015–16 Slim publicly criticized Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald J. Trump for making allegedly racist comments about Mexican immigrants to the United States, for proposing to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, and for threatening to withdraw the United States from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Following an unexpected meeting between the two men in December 2016 (by which time Trump had become president-elect), Slim restated his view that investment and economic development in Mexico would prevent unwanted immigration much more effectively than a physical wall.

24/12/2019

Tyler
Perry

FILM DIRECTOR

Twitter:

Instagram tylerperry

This was a big year for Perry. The showbiz titan bid adieu to Madea after 10 movies by taking the smack talker on a U.S. stage tour. He announced Peachtree & Vine Productions with longtime “Madea” producer and former Lionsgate exec Tim P***n, a multi-year Viacom partnership starting with two BET shows — White House drama “The Oval” and comedy “Sistas” — and content for the upcoming BET Plus. But the year’s capper was the grand opening of Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta. The 330-acre production hub is built on a former Confederate Army base and has more space than Disney, Warner and Paramount lots combined. And that significance wasn’t lost on Hollywood, as a who’s who of trailblazers flew in to celebrate Perry’s mega-endeavor