{"id":10787,"date":"2026-09-26T07:48:57","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T14:48:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/keck.usc.edu\/news\/?p=10787"},"modified":"2026-10-06T09:31:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T16:31:14","slug":"investing-in-innovation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/keck.usc.edu\/news\/investing-in-innovation\/","title":{"rendered":"Investing in Innovation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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\n\n \n Press Release<\/span>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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Investing in Innovation<\/h1>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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Randy Kendrick \u201986 and mentor Rocky Tarantello fund the Kelly Tarantello Chair in Pediatric Cardiac Surgery and innovative research to help babies born with faulty hearts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n

\n Candace Pearson<\/span>\n \n September 26, 2026<\/span>\n <\/div>\n \n \n
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Rocky Tarantello, John David Cleveland, MD, and Randy Kendrick. Photo by Brian Morri Photography \/ Steve Hankins<\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n \n \n \n\n<\/div>\n \n\n <\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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Randall (Randy) Kendrick \u201886 has always been a bold thinker, willing to invest in the Big Idea, whether that means launching his first real estate business the same day he graduated from USC Marshall School of Business or pioneering ways to balance development with environmental stewardship on a megasite in central Texas.<\/p>\n

So Kendrick, inspired by his mentor and former Marshall School professor Rocky Tarantello, was ready to sign on when he learned about pediatric cardiac surgeon John David Cleveland, MD<\/a>, and his groundbreaking research aimed at giving babies with congenital heart disease a better chance to live longer.<\/p>\n

Kendrick\u2019s $3 million gift to Keck Medicine of USC has established the Kelly Tarantello Chair in Pediatric Cardiac Surgery. Its inaugural holder is another bold thinker: John David Cleveland, MD, Chief of the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) and Assistant Professor of Surgery and Pediatrics at the Keck School
\nof Medicine.<\/p>\n

The chair is named in honor of Tarantello\u2019s daughter Kelly, who was born with congenital heart disease. It is the former Marshall School professor\u2014who led a popular real estate development program for students\u2014that Kendrick credits with giving him the foundation for his success today.<\/p>\n

Transforming Lives<\/h3>\n

Kendrick\u2019s gift will help advance Cleveland\u2019s groundbreaking preclinical research into a lifesaving alternative for critically ill babies\u2014many of whom die while waiting for a heart transplant due to a severe shortage of donor organs.<\/p>\n

For the first time, Cleveland and his team at CHLA have demonstrated in laboratory studies that the use of genetically engineered pig hearts may work as a potential bridge to heart transplant or even a more lasting answer. \u201cI am excited about this gift to honor Rocky, Kelly and Dr. Cleveland. If we save only one child it is more than worth it,\u201d said Kendrick, founder, president, and CEO of Xebec, a national logistics real estate platform.<\/p>\n

This is not the first gift that the visionary entrepreneur has made to his alma mater, but it is his first to medical science at USC.<\/p>\n

In 2021, he made a transformational $20 million naming gift to USC Marshall to fund the Randall R. Kendrick Global Supply Chain Institute. A Trojan track-and-field alumnus, Kendrick also supported the renovation of the Alyson Felix Field, which was completed in 2021, and was a cornerstone donor for the Bloom Football Performance Center at USC, which opened August, 2026.<\/p>\n

His current passion project is transforming a 33,000-acre property northeast of Austin, known as Sandow Lakes. Once the site of the largest aluminum smelter on earth, under Kendrick\u2019s leadership the property is taking shape as a model of sustainability and invention. Its first phase: a 50 million-square-foot, master-planned industrial park and a cutting-edge 1,200 MW combined cycle natural gas power plant.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith this endowment of a new chair in pediatric cardiothoracic surgery, Randy Kendrick has once again exemplified our highest Trojan values,\u201d said USC President Beong-Soo Kim. \u201cHe is a true business innovator, and he has repeatedly translated that success into meaningful and generous action on behalf of others. This gift, which will save the lives and improve the health of untold numbers of children, is a spectacular example of that.”<\/p>\n

Inspiration for Discovery<\/h3>\n

Cleveland\u2019s CHLA team is at a critical point in their research, with cardiac xenotransplantation moving closer to clinical reality. \u201cWe still have more to learn in the lab, but with Mr. Kendrick\u2019s generosity, we have more resources to advance these potentially life-saving investigations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Kelly
Kelly and Rocky Tarantello. Photo courtesy of Rocky Tarantello.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kelly Tarantello was born with single-ventricle heart disease and underwent a series of surgeries as a newborn and toddler to \u201creconnect\u201d her heart\u2019s plumbing to enable it to rely on one ventricle. Over the years she had other procedures, including a heart and liver transplant at age 29 at another Los Angeles facility. She died at age 32.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy daughter would be gratified to know that her name will be associated with discoveries in pediatric cardiac surgery,\u201d said Tarantello, head of Tarantello & Associates in New York. \u201cMy years at USC were a memorable time, including the start of my friendship with Randy Kendrick, and I appreciate his furthering this important cause.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pediatric heart transplant volumes in the U.S. have stayed static for more than a decade. There are about 400 to 500 such surgeries each year, yet the need is much higher.<\/p>\n

Ventricular assist devices (VADs), mechanical pumps that boost the heart\u2019s circulation of blood to the body, can support some patients during their wait for a heart transplant. However, infants with single-ventricle heart disease need other options.<\/p>\n

Less than a third of such babies survive even three months on a VAD, due to high rates of strokes, bleeding, and infections. As a result, few survive long enough to get a new heart.<\/p>\n

Meeting an Unmet Need<\/h3>\n

Xenotransplants often utilize pig organs because the organ size and anatomy closely match humans and scientists can genetically modify the organs to make them more immunologically compatible.<\/p>\n

As a result, pig hearts may support babies until suitable human hearts can be found, even allowing them to go home during the waiting period for a human heart. This is in drastic opposition to current standards of care where they live for months to over a year connected to VADs in the hospital.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur experts at CHLA\u2019s Heart Institute are dedicated to refining and developing new surgical techniques, in partnership with the latest techniques in genetics and immunology,\u201d said Vaughn Starnes, MD, Chair of Surgery at USC. \u201cHaving a donor like Randy Kendrick on our team can change the future for more children.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to exploring the viability of using pig hearts in transplants, Cleveland\u2019s CHLA team is testing an investigational medication designed to retrain the immune system to better accept a foreign organ as \u201cself.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a landmark study, Cleveland and his team recently showed that a genetically engineered pig heart can function for two years in an animal model\u2014far beyond the previous record of nine months. He presented the results in April 2026 to the International Society for Heart & Lung Transplantation, where the study was called the strongest evidence yet that a cardiac xenograft can grow, adapt, and maintain healthy function over an extended period.<\/p>\n

If such findings hold true when the research moves to human clinical trials, cardiac xenotransplantation \u201ccould offer children not only a reliable bridge to transplant,\u201d said Cleveland, \u201cbut also the possibility of life-altering destination therapy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n\n <\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":10838,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[192,468,446,140,169,649],"class_list":["post-10787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press-release","tag-childrens-hospital-los-angeles","tag-department-of-surgery","tag-homepage","tag-impact-stories","tag-latest","tag-usc-cardiac-and-vascular-institute"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nInvesting in Innovation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/keck.usc.edu\/news\/investing-in-innovation\/\" \/>\n<meta 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