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 the last of the 150 finalists previews, listed alphabetically. LIST TO DATE
Sarah Thompson Executive Director Eric Paredes Save A Life Foundation Sarah Thompson organized six free heart screenings since 2017 for 3,858 participants to identify cardiac anomalies that put teenagers at risk for sudden cardiac arrest or death. Fifteen lives were saved. She exceeded organizational fundraising goals by 32 percent in the past year. Thompson created a statewide automated external defibrillator (AED) program to place AEDs in California high schools. She also implemented new legislation (Eric Paredes Sudden Cardiac Arrest Awareness Act) that became law July 1. She recently transitioned to a director position at Blair Search Partners.
Katie Tran Director, Marketing & Events San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce Katie Tran has been an integral force in the recent merger of the chamber and LEAD San Diego, helping to enhance LEAD events and programming while continuing to direct her portfolio of more than 60 chamber events. In July, Tran will be speaking at a national conference for event planners, sharing her expertise on event planning, management, and attendee experience through the use of a customized event app. Chamber events over the past several years have grown in attendance and profitability while keeping costs at a minimum. Last year, she received the Cvent Event Management Certification.
Travis Trautvetter Vice Chair Cushman & Wakefield Travis Trautvetter completed more than $392.5 million in 30 real estate transactions totaling nearly 1.2 million square feet during calendar year 2017, with 2018 year-to-date closings and pending sales valued in excess of $500 million, totaling over 2 million square feet. Trautvetter consistently ranks as a top producer in San Diego. With Cushman & Wakefield bolstering nearly 2,500 producers in the Americas, his production extends far beyond the boundaries of San Diego.
Clay Treska COO/Co-Founder Family Proud Clay Treska co-founded Family Proud providing patients and families social support services. He is responsible for the construction of initial stage budget and managing the fiscal strategy program. Treska is also a policy analyst at UC San Diego Health, where he implements department operational and financial assessments program for programmatic optimization and cost savings purposes. Treska is also a cancer patient advocate. After being diagnosed with cancer and enduring a double bone marrow transplant, Treska completed the Ironman World Championships Triathlon in Kona Hawaii, 8-weeks after being discharged from the navy hospital.
Dale Turner Executive Vice President, Chief Sales and Service Officer San Diego County Credit Union Dale Turner is responsible for all sales and service functions of SDCCU’s 43 branch locations and consumer call centers, with total employee responsibility of 550 team members. Since assuming this role, SDCCU’s customer service has improved tremendously, directly impacting its growth to $8.4 billion in assets, serving more than 387,000 members and leading to its 18th year being named San Diego’s Best Credit Union in the San Diego Union-Tribune Readers Poll. Turner worked on improving the customer’s experience when calling into SDCCU. As a result, average answer speeds improved over 1,000 percent
Adolfo Ventura Director of Operations MAAC Ventura joined MAAC more than 13 years ago. The social services agency focuses on promoting self-sufficiency for low- and moderate-income families through nutritional and home weatherization and improvement programs and affordable housing complexes. Ventura is a 2001 graduate of University of California at Berkeley. In 2007, he received a master’s degree in leadership and management from University of San Diego. Ventura volunteers as treasurer on the Media Arts Center San Diego’s Board of Directors, advocating for equitable and engaged communities. He also serves on the board of the San Diego City-County Reinvestment Task Force, which seeks to promote economic empowerment for all.
David Vogel Partner Hecht Solberg Robinson Goldberg & Bagley LLP David Vogel is a real estate and business lawyer, Vogel represents a developer of a proposed master plan community in transactional matters that are key to the future success of the project. The project plans to add thousands of new homes upon completion. He works closely with financial institutions to develop best practices and procedures for loan programs. Vogel helped form Whole Sports, a nonprofit organization focusing on amateur youth sports. Now a mature and successful organization, he provided advice, counsel and guidance to the founder and the organization. Vogel was a volleyball player while at Stanford and has also completed a 70.3 Ironman Triathlon.
Collin Waring Attorney CGS3 Recently Collin Waring has represented the buyer in the acquisition of a $47.5 million multifamily property in Plano, Texas; a residential developer in the acquisition of multiple multifamily projects totaling more than $45 million; the seller in the disposition of a $34 million multifamily property in Orange County; the buyer in the acquisition of a $12 million multitenant office building in Kansas City; the buyer in the acquisition of a $9 million multitenant industrial property in San Diego County and the buyer in the acquisition of a $2.5 million industrial property in Los Angeles County. Waring is highly skilled competitive golfer with a plus two handicap.
Music Watson Chief Communications and PR Officer San Diego County Office of Education Music Watson in charge of designing and implementing a comprehensive communications strategy for the County Office of Education, which supports nearly 800 schools across 42 districts, serving more than 500,000 students. In the wake of school shootings, Watson developed a strategic communications plan for the San Diego County Office of Education. She helped design the ethics training program at the City of San Diego which increased citywide awareness of ethics and compliance program elements by up to 29 percent. She launched a new program in partnership with 91X and Belly Up, titled “Inspired by Music,” to give grants for arts education.
Briana Weisinger Startup Advocate University of California, San Diego Briana Weisinger is the first startup advocate at UC San Diego. In 2018, she chaired the second annual Ignite innovation conference, bringing more than 100 expert speakers, mentors, and judges to inspire the next generation of student entrepreneurs. She was named to the US delegation for the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Hyderabad, India, and was invited to speak at the Global Entrepreneurship Congress in Istanbul on resources for female entrepreneurs. In order to recognize and empower student entrepreneurs, she created the Ignite Prize for Most Commercial Potential to honor graduate student researchers in engineering.
Parisa Weiss Shareholder Seltzer Caplan McMahon Vitek Due to the personal nature of her practice, many of Parisa Weiss’ career triumphs occur behind closed doors. She was elevated to shareholder of the firm earlier this year, and SCMV now has four women partners out of 24 total partners. Weiss represents both individuals and businesses in estate planning, trust administration, probate administration and probate conservatorships. Weiss is heavily involved with the San Diego Volunteer Lawyer Program (SDVLP), working to better the lives of thousands of women, children and men throughout San Diego County.
Rhett Wheeler Risk Manager Bill Howe Plumbing, Heating & Air, Restoration & Flood Wheeler joined the company in 2016, and as risk manager he has decreased incidents of unsafe and distracted driving within the company and reduced fuel costs. He visits job sites at least once a month, identifying areas for improvement as well as serving as an encouraging voice to the 125 employees to follow all safety procedures. Wheeler previously worked for 14 years with the Dominos pizza brand, working his way from an entry-level position to become a district manager. In his spare time, Rhett likes to play guitar and spend time with his family.
Dylan Whitman Co-Chairman BVAccel Whitman co-founded BVAccel – as in Brand Value Accelerator – and in less than five years grew the e-commerce agency to more than 100 employees, annual revenue of $10.85 million and offices across the country, in Mexico and Australia based on their expertise in selling on Amazon and Shopify. Whitman is active in the local Entrepreneurs Organization chapter, donates his time to the EO Accelerator program and also is a veteran who was deployed to the Middle East for 18 months shortly after 9/11. Whitman recently stepped aside from the CEO duties after acquiring and integrating a competitor, Rocket Code. He has recently been part of starting two other companies – a retail consumer brand company and an ecommerce software company Retention Rocket.
Chris Williams Associate VP Colliers International Chris Williams currently represents the largest portfolio of multitenant office space in North County along state Route 78 and I-15 corridors. He completed one of only three build-to-suit office deals in the 78 Corridor since 2015, which are typically the most complex commercial real estate transactions. This brought a new campus for Pima Medical Institute in North County. This deal was honored as a finalist in San Diego Business Journal’s 2018 Best Real Estate Deals. Williams also represented one of the other two build-to-suit deals in 2016. During his career, Williams has closed more than 600 deals totaling more than 2.8 million square feet and valued at more than $316 million.
Nicholas Wilson COO Douglas Wilson Cos. One of Nicholas Wilson’s primary responsibilities is to guide the expansion of the firm into the senior housing market, resulting in Sienna at Otay Ranch, with 111 beds for assisted living and memory care. In 2018, Wilson was appointed to the prestigious California Receivers Forum board. He currently serves as president of the Urban Land Institute Young Leaders group with over 200 young professionals in the real estate industry. At age 32, he was the youngest member to be named to the Executive Committee of the San Diego Downtown Partnership.
Bree Wong Vice President SWS Engineering Inc. Wong leads SWS Engineering’s business development, brand awareness, client and employee relations, and marketing strategies. She joined the full service civil engineering, land planning, land surveying and land development company in 2007. In January, she became president of Commercial Real Estate Women San Diego, or CREW. As president, she oversees the development of business networking opportunities and other programs for the organization’s membership, which has increased more than 60 percent in the past three years. She also serves on the Healthcare Educational Programs Committee for the American Institute of Architects San Diego. Bree’s philanthropic activities include working with the San Diego Housing Federation and the March of Dimes, the latter of which she became involved with after the premature birth of her twin sons, Liam and Ryder.