Our Board of Directors
Tammy Robinson, Interim President
Director, Compensation & Benefits, St. John Knits, Inc.
“My first job was answering phones in the convent of my high school to pay my tuition! I was 13 and worked all summer long for 4 years. I don't think I missed my summers... I had a great time, learned alot, and obtained a great education.”
Annalisa Austin, Secretary
Marketing Project Manager, Pacific Life-Annuities & Mutual Funds
“I began my first job (besides babysitting) at 17 working at Wet Seal – a clothing store. I made $4.50 per hour as a Part Time Sales Associate, but most of that ended up going back to the company because I would spend most of my paychecks benefiting from the 30% employee discount.”
Fred R. Bockmiller, Chief Financial Officer
Principal Engineer, University of California at Irvine, and Director, Mesa Consolidated Water District
“My first real job with an official paycheck and social security deduction was at age 16 at McDonald’s on PCH in Newport where I worked 16 hours a week. The experience was valuable and forever cured me of ever wanting to work in a factory. Pay was about $2.35 per hour and when the Federal minimum wage went to $2.65 I was ecstatic.”
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.”
John Archer
Director of Product Management, Networks In Motion, 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.”
Dan Burke
Executive Vice President Administration & General Counsel, St. John Knits, Inc.
“My first job was at West Side Subs and Pizza in Brockton, Mass. I grated cheese, sliced meats and made a mean steak and cheese sub. Getting my first paycheck was a thrill – although the money usually ran out before the lingering smell of pepperoni was gone from my clothes.”
Barbara Bray
Vice President of Administration, HR Consulting
“My first job was at the University of California, Berkeley, where I was hired as an assistant craft counselor for their summer youth program. I was 14 and so proud to earn $1 an hour, since babysitting only paid 50 cents.”
Saleem Erakat
Attorney, Snell & Wilmer, LLP
"My first job (outside the family business) was as a busboy at Gusty's Bistro in South San Francisco when I was 17. I made $6.50 an hour and lived in fear of dropping a tray of water or dirty dishes on a customer after watching a waiter drop a tray full of bowls of tomato pasta all over a group meeting for a business lunch on my second shift."
Evelyn Hart, Honorary Board Chair
Former Mayor of Newport Beach
“My first real job was right out of high school when I worked for Pacific Telephone as an operator. We had switchboards and look out if you disconnected an important customer of ‘Ma Bell’s!’”
Ryan Kaneshiro
Director of Business Analytics, Oakley, Inc.
“I’ll never forget my first job. I was a 16-year-old lifeguard and swim instructor in Honolulu, Hawaii I enjoyed it so much that I thought I wanted to be a lifeguard for the rest of my life.”
Ryan Malone
Founder, Smart Bug Media
"My first job was as a telephone technical support rep for a software company. I was responsible for troubleshooting the issues the main tech support reps could not figure out. I received $8 an hour and was the youngest full-time employee at the company. A classic memory the summer before I went to college: The president of the company, despite urging from younger staff, decided Microsoft Windows was just a fad, and the company would not develop software for it."
Michael McNamara
McNamara Consulting
"Besides having a paper route (through rain, sleet and snow) for the Detroit News in Michigan at age 10, my first real job with a paycheck was behind the counter at a 20 ft. by 20 ft. A & W Root Beer stand. I was 14 years old."
Avi Pai
Senior Partner & Vice President, Provence Wealth Management
“My first job was in a ‘fresh foods’ restaurant – it was quality expediently served food that refused to be identified as ‘fast food’. I was a server, a cook, a meat cutter, and occasionally a dish washer. I was employee of the month twice in a 2 year stretch, I made $5/hour when minimum wage was $4.25 and was happy as could be! Although I came home smelling like roasted chicken and meatloaf, I learned invaluable lessons about cooking, earning an income, people, and life in general. In college, I never had to depend on fast food or the microwave – even on a very limited budget. To this day, I’m one of the best cooks out of my friends!”
Stephen Schilt
Retired Businessman
"My first job was as a type chaser at Columbian Press, a print shop in Portland, Oregon. I was paid $0.50/hr. A type chaser is a kid who takes trays of hot type from the linotype machine and gets it over to the composer who sorts the type and lays it in galleys in preparation for printing. We printed the local Catholic newspaper. This was in 1944. I was 13 years old and had to get a work permit."
Nick Veach, Consultant
"At the age of 18 I tried out and applied for a number of jobs as a lifeguard. Being a competitive swimmer since the age of 8, I had trained for years as a swimmer. In a field of over 150 applicants I was accepted in becoming a Long Beach Lifeguard & a lifeguard at Belmont Olympic Pool in Long Beach, CA. After a run/swim competition, I had to then pass a series of tests and other training requirements for an additional 40+ hours. I ended up selecting the position at Belmont Olympic Pool where I lifeguarded and taught swim lessons for the next four summers." |
