2015-2016 Speakers
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Vanessa Bechtel
Vanessa Bechtel is president and chief executive officer of the Ventura County Community Foundation where she oversees $137 million in charitable assets. She manages a scholarship program that awarded $1.2 million to local students in 2014 and about 600 funds that grant some $4 million a year to local nonprofit organizations.She is committed to growing the Center for Nonprofit Leadership, which trained volunteers and others from nearly 830 nonprofit groups in 2014. Prior to her work with VCCF, Bechtel served as executive director of the Foundation for Santa Barbara City College, one of the most highly regarded community college foundations in the nation. She co-founded the boutique financial planning firm Monarch Wealth Strategies in 2008 and was honored as Business Woman of the Year by the Santa Barbara Chamber of Commerce in 2010.
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Eduardo Cetlin
As president of the Amgen Foundation, Eduardo Cetlin is responsible for setting the global strategic direction of the foundation and overseeing a suite of programs that support the mission of advancing excellence in science education to inspire the next generation of innovators, and for strengthening communities where Amgen staff members live and work. He has co-led the building and management of Amgen corporate philanthropy since joining the foundation in 2005. He was named president in September 2014. To date, Amgen has contributed over $100 million to support STEM programs, including providing hands-on science opportunities to more than 750,000 students globally. Cetlin also serves as director of Corporate Affairs for Amgen Inc. with responsibility for managing patient assistance programs, which provide qualifying patients with access to Amgen’s medicines. Before joining the foundation, he worked at Amgen and General Electric in various corporate finance roles.
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Steve Hilton
Steve Hilton is chairman, president and chief executive officer of the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation where he oversees the worldwide humanitarian work of the organization established by his grandfather in 1944. The foundation’s current assets are in excess of $2.5 billion and current annual giving is approximately $100 million. Hilton joined the foundation's grant-making department in 1983 and in 1989 was named vice president of programs and elected to the board of directors. He was named president in 1998. His responsibilities expanded to include the role of CEO in 2005 and chairman in 2012. He has been instrumental in implementing foundation strategies addressing water, homelessness and blindness as well as establishing programs to develop leadership skills of Catholic Sisters and educate younger Hilton family members about philanthropy.
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Dena Jenson
Dena Jenson is former vice president and director of the Ventura County Community Foundation’s Center for Nonprofit Leadership. Under her strategic leadership and oversight, the center hosted workshops, seminars and networking events each year serving more than 800 organizations. Prior to joining the VCCF team in 2005, Jenson served as program and public policy director at the Perinatal Advisory Council in Los Angeles and as program director for the Los Angeles County Department of Health. She currently serves as a guest lecturer at Pepperdine University and California Lutheran University, fostering intergenerational learning between students and nonprofit professionals. She has served on the California Association of Nonprofits board of directors and is a past chair of the local chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals.
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Ron Brand
Ron Brand, Esq. is a Shareholder at the Irvine office of Jackson DeMarco Tidus & Peckenpaugh. Brand provides legal advice, guidance and representation to employers in all aspects of labor and employment law, including defense against claims brought by current and former employees. He represents employers in both federal and state courts and before administrative agencies, including the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. He also provides preventive advice to clients on a wide variety of human resources and personnel issues and conducts in-house management seminars and training sessions on all aspects of labor and employment law, including anti-harassment prevention training required by California law. Prior to joining JDTP, Brand was a partner at the Irvine offices of a national civil litigation firm and of a national labor and employment law defense firm. Brand is the recipient of an AV Preeminent rating from Martindale-Hubbell.
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Aaron Herzberg
Aaron Herzberg is a strategist, attorney and entrepreneur specializing in the emerging cannabis industry. He is an equity owner of two soon-to-be-opened licensed dispensaries in Santa Ana, California and a 38,000 square foot municipally licensed cultivation and processing facility currently under construction in Desert Hot Springs, California. He was awarded a cultivation license in Las Vegas, Nevada. Herzberg is a partner at CalCann Holdings, Inc., a California Medical Marijuana holding company where he and his partners are building a portfolio of licensed medical marijuana businesses in Southern California. Herzberg has risen over $5 million in investment capital in these projects since January 2015. He was selected in 2015 as a Super Lawyer, a distinction that is limited to the top 5 percent of lawyers nationwide. He is the recipient of an AV Preeminent rating from Martindale-Hubbell.
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Anant Yardi
In 1982, Anant Yardi recognized the need for an integrated accounting and property management software for the residential marketplace. As the director of systems development for Burroughs Corp. (now Unisys) and with 14 years of programming experience, Yardi had the background to design such a product. In 1984, “Basic Property Management” was created for the Apple II computer and sold to its first customer, Sabaco Realtors. Since that time, Yardi has directed the company through more than 30 years of steady growth, remaining the president and sole owner as Yardi Systems became a leader in real estate asset and property management solutions. He is recognized as one of the early pioneers in the commercial real estate automation industry, and his company continues to receive industry accolades. In 2004, he was honored with Realcomm’s “Digie” award and inducted into the Multi-Housing News “Hall of Fame.”
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Gordon Morrell
As executive vice president, Gordon Morrell protects Yardi Systems’ corporate and fiscal interests and oversees day-to-day operations of the company that has more than 4,000 employees and 35 offices worldwide. He also is deeply involved with nonprofit work, both through the company and on his own time. Yardi actively supports community projects in the arts, sustainability, education for disadvantaged youths, and social services. Morrell reads proposals and works with others to decide which projects to fund. Outside of work, he serves as chair of the Advisory Board of KCLU and works on activities for The Fund for Santa Barbara. He joined Yardi in 1990, following eight years as founder and president of Santa Barbara Softworks, a developer of educational software. Prior to this, he was an assistant professor of counseling psychology and human development at the University of Maine, and director of Childcare Services for Santa Barbara County Schools.
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Ronald Greenwood
Ron Greenwood is a combat veteran who was wounded in Vietnam and decorated for service on the front lines. Upon returning from his tour of duty, he graduated from college, received his law degree and established a successful law practice with offices in San Francisco, Silicon Valley and Walnut Creek. He worked closely with John Lopez, chair of the Association of Service Disabled Veterans, providing counsel pro bono in pursuit of the national legislation for disabled veterans. After the legislation became law, Greenwood and his wife and business partner Lisa opened Global Delivers Logistics. The model service-disabled veteran-owned business (SDVOB) was the first company to receive the John K. Lopez Excellence in Entrepreneurship Award from the California Department of Veterans Affairs. Greenwood is chair of the Gold Coast Veterans Foundation, which he and his wife co-founded in 2009. His ongoing contribution to the disabled veteran community includes many years as legal counsel to the California Disabled Veteran Business Alliance and past service as a board member.
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Jacqui Irwin
Jacqui Irwin was elected in November 2014 to represent California’s 44th Assembly District. She is chair of the state Veterans Affairs Committee and the Select Committee on Cybersecurity. She also serves on the Accountability and Administrative Review, Agriculture, Higher Education, and Jobs, Economic Development and the Economy committees as well as the Commission on the Status of Women and Girls, the State Public Works Board, the Interagency Council on Veterans, and the Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunity for Military Children. Before being elected to the state assembly, Irwin was a member of the Thousand Oaks City Council for 10 years serving two terms as mayor. Prior to her public service, she worked at Teledyne Systems and Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab. California’s 44th district includes most of southern Ventura County and Westlake Village in Los Angeles County.
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Mike Pettit
Mike Pettit is chief information officer for the County of Ventura, the ninth largest county in the state with an annual budget of $1.9 billion. He oversees information technology services, business alignment, leadership, strategy and guidance for all county departments and their 7,000 employees. He is responsible for the managerial, professional, technical and administrative support staff of the Information Technology Services Department, which delivers business-enabling services to more than 65 county agencies and departments and external government entities. In more than 20 years of IT experience, Pettit has held various technical and leadership roles with high-tech companies ranging from small startups to Fortune 100 corporations including Hewlett Packard. In addition to his industry experience, Pettit holds several certifications in IT service management and delivery and a degree in industrial technology from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.
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Francis Tam
Francis Tam is a partner in the IT auditing and consulting group with Moss Adams LLP. He has more than 20 years of experience performing cybersecurity and technology audits, and specializes in IT risk mitigation activities including internal control reviews, systems integration control, information security services, and IT project management review and oversight. He speaks regularly on the topics of cybersecurity, cloud computing, and IT risk management. He also has accumulated significant experience in financial, compliance, operational and information system audits. Prior to joining Moss Adams, he was a director with a national audit and consulting firm, and a senior manager with the risk advisory services/information risk management group at a major international accounting firm in Los Angeles. He is a certified public accountant and maintains numerous industry-recognized certifications.