DR. HENRY T. NICHOLAS III, BROADCOM CO-FOUNDER AND
VICTIMS’ RIGHTS ADVOCATE, SPONSORS CONCERT AND
DEDICATES TO HIS LATE SISTER MARSY THE 2ND ANNUAL
“KEEP CALM AND BEAT H.E.A.T. ROCKING & RALLY”
SANTA ANA – The Orange County District Attorney’s Office (OCDA) and the Orange County Human Trafficking Task Force (OCHTTF) are pleased to announce that Dr. Henry T. “Nick” Nicholas III, co-founder, and former Co-Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer of Broadcom Corporation will sponsor and dedicate the rock concert at the 2nd Annual “Keep Calm and Beat H.E.A.T. Rocking and Rally” at Chapman University to his late sister, Marsy, a crime victim. In honor of this cause and the event, a new band was created by multi-platinum artists and their friends. The band, The Bow Street Runners, features Stan Frazier and Murphy Karges of Sugar Ray, Ryan Shuck and Amir Derakh of Julien-K (formerly Orgy), Lewis Richards (produced for Dirty Heads and Slightly Stoopid), Quinn Archer and the Outriders, Griffith Clawson, Foster, Sabrina Hong, Gino DeFalco, Tony Howell (Parkaimoon), and Damon Tucker (Parkaimoon). The concert, which follows a day-long symposium, is free for everyone to attend and begins at 5:30 p.m. at Chapman University’s Attallah Piazza.
Entrepreneur and Business Leader
Dr. Nicholas is an entrepreneur, business leader, music executive, philanthropist and nationally recognized victims’ rights advocate. In 1991, he launched Broadcom Corporation from the bedroom of his home in Redondo Beach, California, with Dr. Henry Samueli. Under his leadership, Broadcom reached $1 billion in annual revenues faster than any other U.S. semiconductor company in history. Broadcom currently employs more than 10,000 employees worldwide, with revenues in excess of $7 billion in 2011. Dr. Nicholas led the company as President and Chief Executive Officer, as well as Co-Chairman of the Board of Directors, from the company’s founding until January 2003. Broadcom pioneered the broadband communications semiconductor technologies that power data transmission, communications, and networking devices. The company estimates that 99.98 percent of Internet traffic crosses at least one Broadcom chip, in the home, on mobile devices, across the network and in the cloud. Broadcom pioneered the world’s first wide scale deployment of Wi-Fi, cable modems, digital cable, and broadband switching technologies, selling to industry leading companies such as Apple, Cisco, Dell, DirecTV, Huawei, Samsung, Sony and many others. Dr. Nicholas was formerly founding director of microelectronics at PairGain Technologies, developing the basic technologies for HDSL and ADSL. Prior to joining PairGain, he held senior positions at TRW.
Victims’ Rights Advocate
Dr. Nicholas supports public safety, victims’ rights, education, medical research, youth sports, and national defense through the Henry T. Nicholas Foundation. He was the architect and principal author of “Marsy’s Law,” an amendment to the California State Constitution enacting a “Bill of Rights” for crime victims. Passed by more than 6.7 million voters in 2008, this constitutional amendment was named in honor of Dr. Nicholas’s sister, Marsy Nicholas, who was murdered in 1983 by an ex-boyfriend. The foundation continues working closely with law enforcement agencies, prosecutors’ offices, and lawmakers to enact and enforce victims’ rights legislation at state and federal levels. Marsy’s Law is on the ballot in Illinois to be a state constitutional amendment this November.
In 2004, Dr. Nicholas was instrumental in the historic defeat of California State Proposition 66, which threatened to significantly compromise public safety by diluting California’s popular “Three Strikes” law. If enacted, Proposition 66 was estimated to release more than 26,000 convicted criminals. With only 12 days left before the vote, Dr. Nicholas spearheaded and funded a campaign featuring the bipartisan support of every living California governor, including Arnold Schwarzenegger, George Deukmejian, Pete Wilson, Jerry Brown and Gray Davis. The campaign was an unprecedented success, turning what was thought to be an insurmountable lead of 65 to 18 percent for the proposition, into a stunning defeat. Voters rejected the measure by 52.7 percent.
Music Executive
Nicholas cofounded the Aliso Viejo-based Level-7 media company with industry titan, Rob Cavallo (now Chairman of Warner Bros. Records.) Level-7 was behind Sublime’s 2009 reunion featuring lead singer Rome and developed Huntington Beach’s Dirty Heads, whose new album debuted at No. 8 last month on Billboard’s top 200. Nicholas was also the principal owner and shareholder of Guerrilla Union Inc., which melds music, arts, culture and technology. The Pomona-based company hosts Rock the Bells, a hip-hop festival featuring dozens of acts that fueled the reunion of the Wu-Tang Clan and Rage Against the Machine.
Philanthropist
Founded by Dr. Nicholas in 2008, the Nicholas Academic Centers provide after-school tutoring, mentoring, college placement assistance and cultural enrichment opportunities to high school students who would not otherwise have access to these services. This program has sent almost 500 inner-city students to some of the nation’s top colleges and universities, such as Notre Dame, Georgetown University and University of California, Berkeley, where they have earned over $2.7 million in scholarships and financial aid. The Nicholas Foundation partnered with the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles in 2009 to establish a small-business incubator and training center for the economically disadvantaged. This program has become a model for self-sustainable philanthropic entrepreneurship and has been responsible for creating more than 300 new food-industry businesses and over 600 new jobs.
Other Accolades
Dr. Nicholas has served as a member of the Homeland Security Advisory Commission in Southern California. He has been the recipient of the Orange County Titan Award and the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award for Electronics, and was named one of the Top 20 Entrepreneurs by Red Herring magazine and one of the World’s Top 50 Cyber Elite by Time Digital Magazine. He was named the UCLA School of Engineering Alumni of the Year, was the recipient of the Ronald Reagan Award for Pioneering Achievement in Criminal Justice, and has received awards from Crime Victims United, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office and the Los Angeles Sheriff Department for his work in victims’ rights. Dr. Nicholas was recently honored with the Key to the City of Santa Ana and accepted Santa Ana Unified School District’s Innovative Partners Award.
Dr. Nicholas attended the U.S. Air Force Academy and received his Bachelor of Science, Master of Science and PhD in Electrical Engineering from University of California, Los Angeles.
“Marsy loved music. We would spend hours listening to Led Zeppelin. She had the biggest heart, and if she hadn’t been so tragically murdered she would be helping out those who were less fortunate than she. This was exactly the type of cause that Marsy would tirelessly dedicate herself to. As a victim of crime, I know we must raise awareness and funds to help prevent further victims,” stated Dr. Nicholas. “I am also extremely proud to support the amazing musicians who will be performing at the concert. Stan (Frazier), Murphy (Karges), Ryan (Shuck), Amir (Derakh), and Lewis (Richards) are all great friends and I wanted to be part of supporting their efforts.”
“I have worked with Nick closely on victims’ rights issues in helping pass Marsy’s Law and in defeating Proposition 66. I love that someone of Nick’s resources and talent is not just satisfied with building a multi-billion dollar company, but cares enough to give back to our community,” stated OCDA Tony Rackauckas.
In April 2013, OCDA formed the HEAT Unit, which targets perpetrators who sexually exploit and traffic women and underage girls for financial gain, including pimps, panderers, and human traffickers. Often the perpetrators are gang members and/or career criminals. The Unit has completed the prosecution of approximately 60cases with a 100 percent conviction rate, with sentences up to life in state prison.
The 2nd Annual “Keep Calm and Beat H.E.A.T Rocking & Rally” at Chapman University is part of an initiative to go after perpetrators of human exploitation and trafficking with vigor, while taking a comprehensive approach to solve the problem and bring community stakeholders together. The symposium will be held to increase community awareness of human exploitation and trafficking, the second-largest criminal enterprise in the nation behind narcotics trafficking and nets $32 billion a year. A free rock concert will immediately follow with Director of Music Stan Frazier, of Sugar Ray, at the helm.