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Profile — Creating a Firm Foundation

Frank Ault’s Dedication

Keeps Local Philanthropic

Group on Solid Ground

The financial health of two San Diego institutions occupies Frank Ault at work and in his volunteer hours.

As vice president and controller of Sempra Energy, Ault helps the parent company of San Diego Gas & Electric Co. adapt to a changing regulatory and business climate.

Seated in a fifth-floor office in sight of the sun-drenched Embarcadero, however, Ault is more inclined to talk about a charitable enterprise he leads. After all, the San Diego Foundation is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year.

As of this month, Ault marked the halfway point of his two-year stint as chairman of the foundation’s 30-member board of governors.

The middle weeks of the year have been heady ones at the foundation, with the public announcement of an $80 million bequest from the Hervey family of Point Loma. Foundation assets, estimated at $315 million on May 1, zoomed into the $400 million range. The announcement came at a 25th anniversary gala that featured newsman and author Tom Brokaw as master of ceremonies.

Ault, 56, has been with the San Diego Foundation for 14 of its 25 years. One of the greatest pleasures of his tenure, he said, is seeing foundation assets grow twenty-fold during that time. When he started in 1986, assets were just $19 million.

The foundation administers more than 600 funds for donors. To make an endowment last in perpetuity, money is invested to outrun inflation and to generate funds that are then granted to the community.

Ault says the foundation puts a lot of care into its investment strategy, and that sticking to a “relatively conservative” course has produced returns “in the high teens” over five or more years.

“Now, granted, we have benefited from a very strong economy and a very strong market,” he says. “But people who get overly conservative and put it all in bonds obviously would not have done as well. We keep pretty close to a 60-40 split between equities and debt-type securities.”

Match Game

Foundation staff members also conduct research into community needs and the practical ways potential donors might meet unfilled needs.

“In some extent I would say we work like a broker,” Ault says. “We’re matching up the donor and what they are trying to accomplish with what the community needs are.”

Ault frequently uses the term “we” while discussing the foundation’s work. While he and the board set policy, it is Bob Kelly, president and CEO of the foundation, and his staff that handle day-to-day matters.

Ault’s associates describe him as a nice person. A nice person, Kelly says, but no pushover.

Kelly described Ault as a hands-off manager as well as someone who holds people accountable. By Kelly’s account, a subordinate who makes a mistake will likely get a talk from Ault along these lines: “You screwed up. OK. That was wrong. Now let’s keep going.”

“I think what I like best about Frank is his measured style and his conscientious approach to things,” said Ann Parode, a former foundation board chairwoman who worked with Ault for several years during the 1990s. “Not every volunteer does work conscientiously.”

“Frank is a numbers man but he really understands the big picture,” Kelly adds. “He pays incredible attention to detail but doesn’t get bogged down in detail.”

Economic Background

Ault holds a master’s degree in business administration from United States International University and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Stanford University.

He joined SDG & E; in 1969 and held various accounting positions, working up to director of internal auditing in 1981. He became vice president and controller in 1986 , the same year, he noted, he joined the San Diego Foundation board.

From 1994 to 1998 he was vice president and controller with Enova Corp., then SDG & E;’s parent company. Ault remained vice president and controller when Enova merged with Pacific Enterprises, parent of Southern California Gas, to form Sempra in 1998.

He now manages Sempra departments dealing with tax services; payroll; financial reporting and accounting; budget and performance management; accounts payable; and affiliate compliance.

The latter touches on the relationship between business operations regulated by the state Public Utilities Commission, and those that are not. Ault also serves as vice president and controller of Sempra Energy Financial, a subsidiary which invests in affordable-housing limited partnerships.

Work with the energy company has been “a tremendous experience for me,” Ault says, notably in the last couple of years “with the growth that we’ve done on the international side, and with the trading business back East and overseas.”

Ault lives in Del Mar Heights. His wife, Evie, is a glass artist with a studio in Balboa Park’s Spanish Village. He has two daughters, who both live in the area, and one granddaughter.

Ink In His Blood

Though he has spent the bulk of his life in Southern California, Ault was born in London. His father was a war correspondent for United Press and his mother was a nurse in the Norwegian air force. The family came to the United States in 1946 and to Southern California in 1948, where Ault’s father took a job as managing editor of the Los Angeles Mirror. The family went east to Palm Desert in 1949 so he could edit a trio of papers in eastern Riverside and Imperial counties.

Frank Ault went to high school in Indio, then to Stanford, and served in the Army for three years, spending time in Europe.

Part of Ault’s charitable work is a holdover from his late teens and early 20s. During that span he spent eight years, off and on, as a volunteer firefighter in Palm Desert. For a while he was chief of the volunteer squad.

Palm Desert in the 1960s was a small town that emptied out during the summer. Rescue and medical aid calls made up most of the volunteer fire department’s work, Ault recalled, adding the department was “pretty much the medical support for the community.” Ault also worked summers for the recreation department, and drove a rescue vehicle to work, just in case he got a call.

In recent years, Ault has worked to supply surplus SDG & E; vehicles to local volunteer fire agencies, whose equipment can be as rustic as a 1963 pickup truck with a 120-gallon tank in the bed.

Ault is also board chairman and treasurer of the San Diego Regional Fire and Emergency Services Foundation, which raises money to support volunteer fire departments within the county. The San Diego Foundation manages its fund.

The two foundations , the fire foundation and the San Diego Foundation , make up the bulk of Ault’s civic work.

The San Diego Foundation filled $26 million in grants during 1999 and expects to grant more than $28 million this year. Grants go to initiatives in a variety of areas, including arts and culture; economic and employment development; the environment; health and human services; and education.

Rewarding Work

In June, Ault helped the San Diego Foundation distribute nearly $250,000 in scholarships. He says the mood of the 68 recipients , “the enthusiasm of getting the money, getting the opportunity to go to college that they might not otherwise have” , stuck with him.

“You just can’t feel the thrill of the event.”

Ultimately, Ault says, business gets the benefits of such largesse.

“For us to have a vibrant society and strong businesses here, we have to have well-educated, prepared employees,” he says. “If a business is well-founded financially, it then puts money back into the community. But it has to rely on the community to have educated employees. So it’s really a circular type of thing.”

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