West Valley residents start a new business newsweekly
By Nathan R. Huff
Eager to tap the tech-savvy Silicon Valley business community, several prominent local businessmen are spearheading a new weekly publication to compete with the San Jose Business Journal.
Saratoga's Phil Boyce, former chairman of Pacific Western Bank, is the idea man behind Silicon Valley Business Ink. Boyce has been interested in starting a business publication for several years, and will serve as co-chair of Business Ink's board.
He is joined by friend and Los Gatan Armon Mills, a managing partner at Shilling & Kenyon/SK Consulting and former publisher of the Business Journal. He is returning to print media as the publisher of the Silicon Valley Business Ink.
The founding group also includes Mills' friend and co-chair, Jim Evers, the former president and co-owner of KICU; and Ray Madorin, a retired Xilinx executive.
Business Ink is well into the hiring process and the staff already includes a half dozen current and former Business Journal employees, including editor John Bowman. The new publication plans to have a full staff of 25 in place before its September debut.
"All these people approached us, we didn't really go to anyone," Mills, who published the Business Journal for nine years, said. Former Journal employees include Bowman, managing editor Vikki Bowes-Mok, chief financial officer Linda Baker and director of marketing and circulation Jerry Waxman.
The 10-person editorial team will focus on tech-related business issues, according to Mills, with each reporter taking an additional beat--real estate, banking, lifestyle and others. Boyce said the paper would try to reach out to the young, upwardly mobile business crowd in the valley
"While it's a business paper, it's going to be a lot more than that," Boyce said, adding that he believes there is plenty of room in the valley for two business papers.
The longtime Saratoga resident said he would be taking a part-time advisory role in the management of the Business Ink, but the real direction would come from Mills. "It's Armon's paper," Boyce said. "I'm the gray-haired guy in the corner who can lend a hand when needed."
Boyce, a former banker, has lived on the same property for 53 years, raising a daughter who now resides in Los Gatos. The semiretired investor now spends most of his time as chairman of Sand Hill Capital in Menlo Park. He has served with a number of other business-related organizations, as well as on the board of Villa Montalvo, the Children's Shelter and Saratoga Parks Foundation.
"The stars seemed to line up," Mills said, "because this gave me the break I needed to be involved in starting my own publication with Phil, Jim and Ray."
Mills is a nine-year resident of Los Gatos with two children, both of whom graduated from Los Gatos High School. He has been extensively involved in the community, serving as director of the Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce in 1996 and as chairman of the Silicon Valley Capital Club. He also volunteers his time as chairman of the YMCA and with the Boy Scouts of America, which awarded him the "Distinguished Citizen Award" in 1998.
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Saratoga, California Since 1955
