Business, Marketing & Sales

A real estate agent helps people buy or sell a home or commercial property.

A career in real estate? Why not! Run your own business with the potential for unlimited income. Valuable traits that could make this the perfect profession for you are: self-driven, organized, problem solver & desire to help people. The Chirko Group is the top 1% in Northern California.  Miriam Chirko has been a Real Estate Broker for over 25 years.  Her son, Ben Chirko has been a realtor for over 10 years and is an Aragon Alumni.  Also on their team is Stacey Doss who been a Realtor for over 17 years and is a parent of 2 Aragon Alumni and Daniel Choi who has been a realtor for over 6 years and a San Francisco Native. 

Speakers: Miriam Chirko and Ben Chirko

First Spark Ventures is a Deep Tech venture capital fund investing in breakthrough

technologies that make the world healthier, safer, and more productive. Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity and a type of financing that investors provide to startup companies and small businesses that are believed to have long-term growth potential. 

Jennifer Wu has had a lot of different jobs. From retail planning to co-founding a startup, to now investing in the cutting edge startups that will change the world. She would like students to know that the job they may have in 15 years may not even exist now. The world is changing rapidly, and the best advice is to keep challenging yourself and learning. 

Speaker: Jennifer Wu

A technical recruiter is a position that falls under the umbrella of Human Resource Specialist.  They are a Recruiter who specializes in finding candidates to fill technical jobs, such as jobs in information technology and engineering. Technical Recruiters are a unique breed of recruiters. In addition to all of the skills and traits of a regular recruiter, a Technical Recruiter has to have an in-depth knowledge of their industry. 

Sandy has worked in an array of sectors, but the core has been in business and sales. She started off in Payroll, then parlaying over to Human Resources (HR).   She has always been interested in hearing how people got to where they are; always inquisitive and recruiting fit right in! Sandy has done a variety of disciplines within HR, from Manager of Operations, Benefits Manager, Employee Relations, a lot of "Contract Recruiting" engagements and ultimately landing at her dream company, Facebook. 

Speaker: Sandy Bruschi

A publicist is a person whose job is to generate and manage publicity for a company, a brand, or public figure – especially a celebrity – or for a work such as a book, film, or album. 

Sally works in public relations and assists clients and organizations in implementing strategic communications campaigns. She got her start in professional sports, first the Denver Grizzlies and then as assistant director of media relations for the Colorado Avalanche. She moved to the agency side of the business and has since led the strategic direction and tactical execution of motion picture and technology accounts. She earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism at SDSU. 

Speaker: Sally Christgau

Real estate investing refers to the purchase of property as an investment to generate income rather than using it as a primary residence. It can be understood as any land, building, infrastructure and other tangible property which is usually immovable but transferable. Some of the examples of real estate are a house, apartment complex, office building, agricultural land, or commercial buildings. Real estate investment companies includes a wide range of disciplines, including development, construction, operations, acquisition, disposition, and finance.

Amanda joined Acacia Capital, a real estate investment firm, in 1998 and currently serves as Executive Vice President and Director of Acquisitions with responsibility for the acquisition and disposition of multifamily properties across the Western United States. While at Acacia, she has been actively involved in asset management, acquisitions, financing, dispositions and investor relations. She also serves as a member of Acacia's investment committee. She received her BA from the University of California at San Diego. 

Speaker: Amanda Lindberg

An executive coach works in partnership with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential. 

As a certified executive coach, Stevie has run her own business and currently works as the Senior Program Manager of Leadership Development. Stevie's support the leaders at Airtable where she helps them to be better humans by working with their teams. She facilitates workshops on things like feedback, time management, career growth & coaching to name a few. She works with all levels of leadership from those new in their roles to the C-suite. 

Speaker: Stevie Rabinowitz

An account executive is an employee who is primarily responsible for an ongoing business relationship with a client. 

Fred Kawamoto is a graduate of UC Berkley and has worked at IBM, Siemens and Cisco Systems in various sales, marketing and business development roles for over 20 years.  His job titles have included Country Manager for Japan, International Sales & Marketing Manager, Head Quarter Liaison for Siemens/Germany and Global Alliance Manager.  He has left the information technology industry and currently runs his own Electrical Contracting company.    

Speaker: Fredrick I. Kawamoto 

Communications specialists help businesses by managing all internal and external communication of a company, and represent the company to the outside world. They draft media statements, answer media inquiries, compile publications, plan events and press conferences. 

After graduating from Aragon, Daria attended Stanford University where she studied the impact of media on society and majored in Communications. In 2006, she joined Google in an associate role that exposed her to many parts of the business. She soon discovered Internal & Executive Communications - a field combining writing, business strategy, and employee experience. She was among the first Internal & Executive Communication managers at Google and built and led the first such team at YouTube. She now advises start-ups. 

Speaker: Daria Acker

An account executive is an employee who is primarily responsible for an ongoing business relationship with a client. 

Christina started her career in a career rotational program with Charles Schwab where she learned a variety of online marketing functions including starting and running their Search Marketing program. After 5 years at Schwab, she joined Google, where she's been working for the past 17 years. At Google, she has worked across a variety of functions within the Large Customer Sales division and most recently she has been focused on large local retail companies including Williams-Sonoma and Gap Inc. 

Speaker: Christina Kaiser