Board of Directors
Executive Committee
Board President
John Hobson, CIELO and 910 Technologies
“I started working at an early age (9) for a local farm that raised everything from Christmas Trees to pumpkins as well as traditional crops like corn and soybeans. I was fortunate that the owner gave me the opportunity to learn and try new things and the freedom to problem solve on my own.“
Board Vice President
Janet Randolph, Vice President, Human Resources, Telogis
“My first job was in sales, at Judy’s in the Cerritos Mall; I was 16. At Judy’s I learned that attentive customer service and a can-do attitude are vital in business. I earned commissions on sales made, and remember how motivating it was to be recognized for performance both on the floor and in my paycheck. I am now a human resources executive. My early career performance rewards and recognition experience has been a valuable and important lesson I have frequently recalled during the course of my career in HR”
Janet Randolph currently is Vice President, Human Resources at the connected intelligence software firm Telogis, with expertise in global talent management and leading organizational and cultural change in support of business growth and performance.
Board Vice President
Elle Mackrell, Advantage Placements
“My first job was as a model for one of the department stores in Savannah, Georgia. When I turned 16, I my Aunt opened a new bookstore and she hired me as her assistant. I did everything from opening and displaying the new books, sorting, and filing to selecting books for customers. I became the star salesclerk, inventory specialist and reader. Today, I work with individuals to devise comprehensive and effective job search strategies, create powerful resumes, get the most out of networking and interview successfully to find the right career within an organization that fits their needs and work style.”
Elle MacKrell — a CPA and former CFO and Controller — is now Managing Director and Founder of Advantage Placements, which helps companies achieve business and operational success by providing project, interim and direct hire professionals and other recruiting services.
Board CFO
Eric Juarez, Arden Insurance Services
“My first real job was working the prune harvest on my aunt and uncle’s farm in Northern California. I worked on the farm during the summers while in high school. The first thing I had to do was learn to drive a tractor with a forklift on the back. The forklift was used to load the prunes on to the trucks. Then I got to drive
Board Secretary
John Archer, Tele Communications Systems, Inc.
“I had several jobs in high school, all at the same time starting at age 16. I was a salesperson for a friend’s camera store, newscaster for a local radio station, reporter for a local newspaper and organist for Army Chapels at Ft. Knox.”
John Archer – today a consultant for Nomir Medical – is a marketing and product management leader with a proven track record hiring exceptional product managers, and creating innovative products and marketing strategies for new and challenging product areas.
Board Committee Chairs
Board Chair, Events
Karla Fosburg, Freedom Innovations
“My first job was at Kentucky Fried Chicken in North Long Beach at sixteen making $1.40 per hour. I worked 30 hours a week while attending high school. It was a great learning experience. I learned all about customer service, the customer always being right, delivering top quality products in the most efficient way possible and all of the back end details of running a retail establishment. I learned about commitment and managing my time to balance my work and school life. I was a really responsible kid and it was not long before I was doing everything necessary for opening and closing the store every day and training all of the new hires. I learned all about the demands of customers and dealing with difficult people especially if they had to stand in long lines during those famous “cherry pie sales” on President’s Day week-end. It is amazing to think about the amount of responsibility they were willing to give me and how valuable all of the lessons I learned were in laying the foundation for my adult work life.”
Board Chair, Programs
Gloria Hays, Founder, Inside Solutions Inc
As is often the case, my network and training helped me land and succeed in my first job. My mom, a juvenile court judge in my home town referred me to a young lawyer launching his practice, to provide secretarial support. I remember being nervous, yet ultimately settled in and gained confidence. Partly due to his patience with a novice, yet also because of my high school typing and shorthand training, I was well-prepared to effectively capture and produce detailed notes, court and client documents. Early exposure to a client-focused, high-volume, time- and quality-sensitive work environment was great work-life preparation. Not to mention, I learned how to make and serve a great cup of coffee!
Board Chair, Marketing/PR
Dianne Seeber, Strategic Communications Consultant
“When I was 14, I was on the fashion board for a beautiful department store outside Detroit. Being surrounded – and fascinated! – by fashion, I yearned to be on the sales floor. Unfortunately, the minimum age for salespeople was 16. I persevered and they gave me a job as a gift-wrapper during the holidays. I loved greeting happy customers, eager to transform their purchase for a loved one into a lovely package. Two years later, I was a busy and happy salesclerk, holidays and summers. To this day, I still use the same, special gift-wrapping technique I learned on my first job!”
Board Members
Finance and Legal
Ron Amburgey, Vice President, Amburgey-Carich Construction, Inc.
“My first job was at Universal Business Forms in Santa Ana. I worked 10 hours a week at $1.75 an hour. My duties were cleaning up and I got the job through a friend of the family. I was a 15-year-old sophomore at Costa Mesa High and my mom drove me.”
Fundraising Committee
Kaleigh E. Causey, Senior Associate, Pimco
“My first job was tutoring Algebra and Geometry in high school. I loved (and still love!) math and working with numbers, and was excited to find a job that paid me to help students do homework and study for tests. Through tutoring, I learned how to explain difficult and complex topics in a simple way - a skill critical to my finance career now!”
Marketing/PR Committee
Wendy Cullen, Sales Leadership Executive
“My first job was as a waitress at 19 years old at Eat N’ Park in Western Pennsylvania where I grew up. (This restaurant was like a Denny’s or COCO’s to those of you from California.) My name tag when I first started had my name and it also said, “I’m New but I’m Learning”. I was so excited when I graduated to a regular name tag which meant I passed my training program. I was soon promoted to shift supervisor, new store training specialist, and then promoted to the store management trainee program. I often look back at my experiences with my first job and how they have helped me throughout my career and now as a leader of winning sales teams.”
Marketing Committee
Ric Hattabaugh, Vice-President Business Development, FieldConnect, Inc.
“My first paid jobs were bailing hay when I was 14 during summer in Indiana. I walked to work. Not much farming done in winter, so when I got my license I became a dishwasher at Perkins Pancake House. After some months, I decided that I wanted a job where I’d have a clean shirt after work, so I tried telemarketing. Telemarketing was harder than either of my first jobs, so I quickly rejoined the restaurant industry as a busboy making barely enough to drive my 1966 Pontiac to work and school. Looking back, I learned that the difference between a job I liked and one I didn’t was mostly my attitude.”
Ric Hattabaugh has been head of sales and/or marketing at a series of tech startups/restarts in the San Francisco Bay Area and Orange County.
Finance Committee
Matt Heisler, Managing Director, Grant Thornton, LLP
My first job was at a produce store in rural southwest Michigan. The owners (a young couple) noticed a demand for flowers in the area. So, they built a greenhouse (still standing today) which was a resounding hit with the locals. Soon, they had customers asking for the store to plant flowers, trees, and to care for them. This soon morphed into a thriving landscaping and lawn care division. I was one of six guys who would go around Diamond Lake (a place where affluent folks from Chicago would summer) planting trees, bushes, installing decorative landscaping (RR ties and stone covering was a big hit at the time), and weekly lawn care. Looking back, it taught met the value of showing up on time, being dependable, taking on responsibility, being forthright and honest (not all jobs went smoothly), responding to market opportunities, and doing all this while still having fun. Ohhhh…those days were the best. I worked about five summers there in my HS and College years. I averaged 60 hours per week during the summer. And, yet, I never felt like it was “work.”
Fundraising Committee
Javier Iglesias, Banking Manager, US Bank
“My first job was working as a prep cook at a San Diego beach side restaurant. I obtained a work permit through school as soon as I turned 15 1/2 and applied in person that day, knowing they hired at an early age. The manager was impressed that I applied so quickly after obtaining the permit, so I got the job on the spot. I continued there for a few years and worked my way throughvirtually every position at a restaurant. I thrived in the high-paced environment that taught me to always smile, stay busy, and provide a great experience to customers. To this day, I love to cook seafood, since my last position was as a head cook, grilling fish!”
Today, Javier Iglesias works with a team of Relationship Managers and Business Owners as a Banking Manager at U.S. Bank, leveraging the customer service skills learned on his first jobs.
“My first job was an “over-the-phone” technician for Sears. During this time I learned that customer service is just as important over the phone as it is in person. The most challenging part of my job, which I learned very quickly, was to build rapport with the customers who called in. Customer service was crucial because they needed to trust me in order to influence and allow me to walk them through resolving their issue with their appliance right then and there instead of having to wait for a in person technician to come out and flip a switch back on or push a special hidden button to get their washer running again. Today I am a Regional Program Manager for Wells Fargo Banks employee wellness program and I have carried these customer service skills throughout all of my job roles and especially throughout my career.”
Daniela SantaMaria-Regional Program Manager for Wells Fargo’s employee financial wellness program called Wells at Work. Our program helps the community, students and employees of companies across Orange County succeed financially through financial literacy seminars.
Finance Committee
Mark Skaist, Stradling Yocca Carlson & Rauth, P.C.
My first job, when I was 16, was as a trash sweeper at Universal Studios. I earned $2.10 an hour, and had to pay union dues out of my meager paycheck. It was a pretty tough job, with me having to empty trash cans and haul the trash bags across the park to the incinerator, refill condiments, and clean my work area long after the park closed for the night. At the time, however, I thought it was great - my first foray into the “entertainment industry” - the best part was sneaking into Universal Amphitheater to watch concerts after my shift was over.
Programs Committee
Jill Tomac, President, Leadership Resource Group
“My first job was a camp counselor in upstate New York when I was 16 years old. I had a group of 3rd graders that I was responsible for organizing, instructing, nurturing, and inspiring. The job was highly rewarding while at the same time physically and emotionally demanding. For 8 hours a day I had a dozen 8-year olds that needed my undivided attention. I learned a great deal about responsibility, organization, empathy, and motivation. What I came to realize was that these children looked up to me as a role model and absorbed everything I did and said. It taught me about the importance of modeling expected behaviors and being mindful in my word choices. Now as a leadership coach and business consultant I continue to apply these learnings around setting expectations, holding myself and others accountable, and communicating to inspire the best in others.”
Marketing/PR Committee
Rachel Stam Trinidade, Vice President of Marketing, HireRight
“Growing up in Houston, TX, I spent the weeks leading up to my 16th birthday looking for my first job. ClothWorld, a local sewing store, was hiring and introduced me to my first real taste of work. Watching people turn fabric into beautiful clothes and home furnishings really tapped into my creative side and left a lasting impression. Today, as a Marketing professional, I get to use my creativity on a daily basis and that all started with my first job.”
Honorary Board
Evelyn Hart, Chair
Former Mayor of Newport Beach
Iman Bar, M.D.
Pediatrician
Fred Bockmiller
Former Board Member and UCI
Ivan Calderon
Co-Founder, Taco Mesa and Taco Rosa Restaurants
Robert Dees
President Orange Coast College, Retired
Bruce Fetter
President & Chief Operating Officer, St. John Knits, Inc.
Wing Lam
Co-Founder, Wahoos Fish Taco
Gwyn Parry, M.D.
Director of Community Medicine, Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian
Avi Pai
Provence Wealth Management Group, Former Board Member
Arlene Schafer
Former Mayor of Costa Mesa
Valerie Schmidt
Founder Executive Coaching
Richard Watts
Newport-Mesa Unified School District, Retired