The San Diego Business Journal on Aug. 14 will recognize San Diego’s Next 40 Top Business Leaders Under 40. The event will be from 4-7 p.m. at the Westin San Diego Gaslamp Quarter. Here are some of the 150 finalists, listed alphabetically. Ten names will be released each day for 10 days starting July 30, 2018. LIST TO DATE
Anton Burman Senior Associate ACI Apartments Burman has achieved more than $60 million in total sales transaction at ACI. Of those sales, more than $34 million was completed in a one-year period. One transaction, the close of a 68-unit El Cajon property for $14.1 million, was recently a finalist in the Best Real Estate Deals of 2017 by the San Diego Business Journal. He also is active in the neonatal nonprofit Miracle Babies.
Innesa Burrola President Boutique Recruiting Burrola has grown her company by about 300 percent for consecutive years and has been on the SDBJ fastest-growing private companies list for three years in a row. She has been honored as a top recruiter by LinkedIn. She was born and raised in Russia and was the first family member to obtain a degree in the United States. She volunteers at the San Diego Jewish Academy. She knew from an early age that she wanted to be a mother and a business owner and achieve it all before age 30, and she did!
Scot Chisholm Co-founder and CEO Classy Chisholm has spent the past 10 years building a social enterprise technology company serving the nonprofit community. Since 2011, fundraising on the Classy platform has doubled each year—resulting in thousands of nonprofits collectively raising over half a billion dollars. Classy also hosts an annual awards program to spotlight the innovative work nonprofits are implementing around the globe. In addition to his work with Classy, Chisholm is on three soccer-related boards of directors – Street Soccer USA, SF City Football Club and ASC San Diego. He previously served on the founding board of directors at Team Rubicon, a veteran-led disaster relief organization. Prior to co-founding Classy, Chisholm worked as a senior consultant for Booz Allen Hamilton on its economic and business analysis team.
Matthew Cole President Cubic Transportation Systems Cole is an internationally experienced executive, having first joined Cubic at its European headquarters in Surrey, England. Since then, Cole, who was born near London, has taken on roles of increasing responsibility in the company, which took him to Australia in early 2009 and San Diego in late 2011. In addition to leading the transportation division, he also serves as senior vice president at the corporate level. Major accomplishments have included the successful redirection of a critical project on the verge of major litigation, re-securing a large, long-term customer that had previously been lost, and achieving financial targets in each financial year. His unit also secured more than $2.5 billion of business in first 10 quarters, including major contract wins in New York and Boston, both of which have options to grow to more than $1 billion.
Alysse Cooper President ICE Cooper was responsible for $9 million in sales last year, about 60 percent of the company’s revenue. She is negotiating ICE’s first international opportunity with the Gemological Institute of America in Belgium. She is co-chair of IIDA’s Design Connect trade show, the largest furniture trade show in Southern California. She has been on the NAIOP Developing Leaders council for four years in addition to serving as co-Chair in 2017.
Edward Cox CEO Dthera Sciences Cox is about to celebrate his second year as chief executive of Dthera Sciences. The publicly traded company is involved in non-pharmaceutical therapies that seek to lessen anxiety in patients with Alzheimer’s Disease and/or Dementia. Cox previously served a year as CEO of EveryStory, a similar therapy developer that was acquired by Dthera in 2016. He also held key leadership roles with Apricus Biosciences, Inc. and Bio-Quant, Inc., plus others. Cox graduated with a Master’s Degree in management from the Warrington College of Business Administration at the University of Florida.
Marie Crivello Senior Vice President, Client Relationship Manager Bank of Southern California Crivello has been successful in supporting local businesses through their next phase of growth. In 2017 she partnered with more than 50 businesses for a total of $48 million in loans. In 2018, she has already written loans for more than two dozen local businesses totaling about $20 million in financing. Crivello is the bank’s top producer and continues to surpass company goals. She has been the recipient of the company’s coveted Banker of the Year award several times over the past five years. Anna Crowe Founder and CEO Crowe PR In addition to her role as CEO, Crowe also is an adjunct professor of international marketing at the University of San Diego. Crowe has worked for the university since 2010. Nearly four years ago, she founded Crowe PR, capitalizing on a passion for improving the bottom line for technology, health and wellness, and hospitality brands. The firm also has an office in New York. She studied accounting at Rutgers University in New Jersey and later earned her Master’s in business administration from the University of San Diego. For the past year, she has volunteered as a board member for EO San Diego, the local arm of the 10,000-plus business networking group Entrepreneurs’ Organization.
Crystal Culhane Associate Fish & Richardson P.C. Culhane was selected by Fish & Richardson to participate in the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity Pathfinder Program. She is actively involved as a member of Athena San Diego, a professional development organization for women in science and technology fields. Culhane earned a doctorate in chemistry at Johns Hopkins University.
Clayton Dean Co-Founder, President & COO Circa Interactive Dean raised the company’s revenue by 46 percent in the past year. He was the lead in acquiring clients at prestigious institutions Tulane University and New York University, and he helped forge a partnership with a web engineering firm to leverage artificial intelligence to talk to potential students. Circa Interactive was named one of the 100 Fastest Growing Private Companies in 2017 by the San Diego Business Journal.
Brian Dersch President and CEO Dersch Design & Engineering Dersch is a licensed professional engineer and project leader with specialties that include microgrid, renewable energy and energy storage, medium voltage power distribution and lighting design. As president and CEO, he is behind projects in California, Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii and New York. Dersch’s volunteer affiliations include the ACE Mentor Program that encourages high school students to consider architecture, construction and engineering futures; the Surfrider Foundation, which seeks to protect our beaches; and Habitat for Humanity International.
Caroline Dessert CEO The San Diego LGBT Community Center Dessert is a veteran fighter for equality who has led the San Diego LGBT Community Center since 2016. But her presence at the center began years earlier, when she served as its public policy and community organizing coordinator from 2007 to 2009. In between, she served as the executive director of Immigration Equality. Dessert also previously worked for the California Department of Justice in the Officer of the Attorney General as a deputy attorney general in the public rights division, consumer law section. At San Diego’s LGBT Community Center, she leads a paid staff of more than 50 people, as well as more than 1,000 volunteers who assist the center in its various outreach activities.
Ryan Egli Senior Vice President CBRE Egli is an experienced real estate professional, specializing in the leasing and sales of Class A and B office and biotech/laboratory facilities. He leads the growing life science practice group for the San Diego office. Egli has been frequently honored by CBRE as a top producer in his 12 years. He previously worked as an associate with Colliers International and before that, he was a business consultant for IBM, working in the company’s supply chain and operational solutions practice. Ryan studied engineering at Miami University, where he was a member of the Kappa Sigma Fraternity.
Kristin Elliott CEO Precision Measurement Engineering Elliott is not only a general manager of Precision Measurement Engineering, Inc., she’s also CEO and founder of Aquasend Inc. – an early stage business pursing technology and software integration for inland aquaculture farmers. It’s a nice compliment to Precision Measurement Engineering, Inc., a leading manufacturer of oceanographic and freshwater monitoring equipment. Kristin’s father started Precision Measurement Engineering in 1982, and she has been involved in the family business since 2006. Since becoming CEO, she has tripled the company’s annual revenues with expected growth to $2.5 million this year. Elliott is a graduate of UC San Diego and has an MBA from Cal State University San Marcos.
Amanda Elsasser Manager of Club Membership Sales, Services & Special Events Hotel Del Coronado Elsasser quickly transitioned to Manager of Club Membership Sales after joining The Del team in November 2014 as catering manager. Through Amanda’s leadership over the past three years, The Del reached 1,000 memberships in 2018. She led Club at The Del sales to its most profitable year, resulting in $1.5 million in sales from new memberships. In college, she participated with her debate team at the Oxford Union, and was recognized as 20th best speaker at the World Debate Championships in Dublin, Ireland.