As chief concierge, James Little, 49, is tasked with making guests at the Peninsula Beverly Hills happy. Most of the time it’s simple, such as booking reservations at restaurants and getting tickets to shows. Occasionally, it involves more extreme measures, like the time he had to take an international flight to fetch a dog.

A few years ago, a woman was living at the Peninsula while her new house was being built in Beverly Hills. Her spouse had recently died and she had moved from London to help with her grief. The problem was her dog was still in England. She asked Little to charter a plane to retrieve the dog. He got a price quote: $70,000.

Since that was a ridiculous price, he offered to take a regular commercial flight over and bring the dog back.

“I was, like, ‘Listen, I’ll get the dog and come right back’ and she was, like, ‘No, we will put you up in a hotel. You need to explore London.’”

Little had never been to England. He remembers walking around Hyde Park, mesmerized.

He was immediately approached by a group of guys who needed an extra person for a soccer game, and he played with them, later joining them at a pub. He saw the Tower of London and went to the museums.

“Now I can talk to guests about England with some kind of authority,” Little said. “And the dog really did help with the grief.”

Class Act for University

Shirley Wang loves UCLA.

The class of 1990 alum lives five minutes from the Westwood campus. She sees the track team run by every morning. She sends her younger two children to UCLA camps every summer.

Wang, 46, founder and chief executive of fiberglass door manufacturer Plastpro, also attends weekly meetings as a board member of the UCLA Foundation, the university’s philanthropic arm that manages donor contributions. So it’s not surprising that the proud Bruin is passionate about giving back.

She and her 49-year-old husband, Walter Wang, chief executive of plastic pipe maker JM Eagle, have donated $1 million to the school’s $1.5 billion plan to help middle-class families who don’t qualify for federal Pell Grants, which generally target students with low-income backgrounds.

Wang said she still fondly remembers her dorm roommate; her classes as a communications major; and how she sold advertising for the school newspaper, the Daily Bruin.

“You grow up there,” she said of the school.

Staff reporters Hannah Miet and Melissah Yang contributed to this column. Page 3 is compiled by Editor Charles Crumpley. He can be reached at [email protected].