Board of Directors
The Foster City Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors is comprised of business leaders who are dedicated to driving a vibrant local economy and supporting our city’s diverse communities
Angie Krackeler
Angie leads a team of developer evangelists working with Startups, Venture Capital firms, Incubators and Business Partners, to inspire, and enable them to adopt IBM’s Cloud solutions. Her focus is on developing demos, use cases, and solutions using Watson cognitive computing, the Internet of Things, Mobile, Big Data, Watson Analytics and Cloud. Prior to joining the IBM Cloud Ecosystem team, Angie was Senior Planning & Delivery Manager for IBM Innovation Center Silicon Valley, working across all IBM Development Relations business units to create an integrated business partner experience at our events and technical engagements.
Angie has held various leadership positions in software development, IBM Global Services, IBM Sales & Marketing and hardware development. Roles including Senior Network Services Manager, Worldwide Cloud Lab Operations Manager, Delivery Project Executive, Consulting, Technical and Sales.
Angie joined Foster City Chamber of Commerce board of director in 2016. Angie has been working closely with the Chamber to develop and host various community projects to help increase the interests and skills of the younger generations.
Angie has a MSEE from Syracuse University.
Melvin Justice
A Bay Area native, Melvin Justice has been in the transportation industry for over 20 years. Originally from San Francisco his affiliation with the transportation industry started with his first solo bus trip at the age of 8. Melvin never looked back and continues to use the means of transportation to explore the city, the state and the world holistically.
In the course of his career, Melvin has started and sold two small businesses, worked in major public and private sector organizations, and continues to volunteer at two non-profit organizations.
At every opportunity throughout his career and life, Melvin has sought to learn from others in order to create a thriving environment for those he interacts with both professionally and personally.
Always thinking outside of the box, Melvin seeks to incorporate innovation with proven processes and best practices to challenge the status quo.
The Foster City Chamber of Commerce is comprised of diligent and determined business leaders from the community. The ability to contribute and add value to the Board in areas such as community engagement and fiscal best practices is what Melvin hopes to achieve by joining the Board. In collaboration with the former and current board members, Melvin would like to continue to move the needle forward to ensure that local businesses (large and small) maintain a strong, active voice in the community.
Rica Ruiz
Raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Rica’s affection for this community runs deep and is what complements her knowledge of the local Real Estate market. With over 20 years of comprehensive sales experience ranging from owning her own business to corporate sales & extensive experience in both residential and commercial real estate sales, Rica has developed a client-centered philosophy & attention to detail that enhances every transaction. Dedicated to providing top notch service to both sellers and buyers, Rica is committed to providing a perfect blend of experience, knowledge & integrity to ensure favorable results for her clients. As a trained negotiator and problem-solver, Rica incorporates traditional values of hard work, integrity and personal commitment to excellence to create the foundation of her success.
Rica has received the Seniors Real Estate Specialist Designation (SRES) and the Short Sales and Foreclosure Resource (SFR) certification through the National Association of Realtors.
Having graduated Magna Cum Laude from San Francisco State University with a degree in Radio & Television, Rica has made her home in Foster City with her husband Rob and son, Samuel. She enjoys spending her free time running/working out, dancing and volunteering in the community. Some local and national non-profit organizations that Rica supports include Generations United, California Youth Connection (CYC), World Vision, No Kid Hungry, Alzheimer’s Association, and St. Jude’s just to name a few.
Nathan Tsai
Nathan Tsai is the Managing Director for the Foster City Hotel Group and is on the ownership team of several other hotels and retail spaces located in and around Foster City. While he lives in the San Mateo area, he grew up working in the Crowne Plaza Hotel. An engineer by education, he worked in the technology industry in both San Francisco and Mountain View before returning to grow his family’s local hospitality business. Nathan was on the team that completed the construction of the new TownePlace Suites and the adjacent Chess Corner Retail Center and is proud to see both properties serving customers and guests from Foster City and beyond.
He has spent considerable time leading efforts in Cambodia to build schools and technical institutes for children and adults whose lives remain devastated after the genocide in Cambodia and the effects of the Khmer Rouge. In 2017, Nathan was honored with the Decoration of National Construction by Gen. Ke Kim Yan, a Deputy Prime Minister of Cambodia, for his humanitarian contributions to Cambodian education.
Locally, Nathan has volunteered at Sequoia Hospital as an EMT and has donated both time and capital to other organizations in the Bay Area.
Daniel Brown
Daniel Brown is a local business developer in Foster City, with a technical background and history in Mechanical Engineering. Between 2012 and 2017, Daniel obtained a bachelor’s and Master of Mechanical Engineering from the University of Alabama. After graduation, Daniel entered the start-up, analytical instrumentation industry when he moved to Germany and worked for an emerging company named Sentronics Metrology. During his time with Sentronics, Daniel transitioned from an engineering role to sales and, eventually, business development. Daniel’s work was crucial in building a U.S. pipeline and presence for Sentronics Metrology. This work ultimately resulted in a move to Foster City in June of 2018 to continue this work; now as an employee of Sentronics’ U.S. Distributor, Quantum Analytics.
Continuing in the role of business development, Daniel identified the largest growing market for Quantum Analytics and spearheaded a project to create and launch a new division focused on improving the efficiency and level of service given to this industry, while simultaneously increasing company partnerships and offerings. This project resulted in the development of Rhine Laboratories, a consulting and knowledge-services company for startup cannabis testing laboratories across North America. Daniel is now the Vice President of Rhine Laboratories, and is responsible for overall business strategy, sales, logistics, continued business development, corporate partnerships, regulatory affairs, and overseeing of day-to-day operations. The recent launch of Rhine Laboratories has renewed QA Group’s focus on fostering growth in Foster City, both in community as well as business. Daniel has worked with the Business Leadership Council on their Transportation Task Force since early 2019, and sees value in increasing QA’s presence and value to its community through participating as a board member for the Foster City Chamber of Commerce.
Dan Demers
Dan Demers, a San Mateo native, is the Executive Artistic Director at Hillbarn Theatre. He has been working locally for more than 15 years in educational theatre, directing and acting all over the Bay Area. His diverse background in business management, graphic design, creative direction, coupled with his out- of-the-box thinking, brings a unique perspective to this award-winning theatre company. With a Bachelor’s degree in Theatre Arts and Direction, Dan strives to change and grow the theatre to ensure that Hillbarn continues to be a beacon of the arts on the Peninsula.
The Foster City Chamber of Commerce is a pivotal part of the city and the community. Running Hillbarn Theatre and working in the non-profit world allows Dan to look at things very differently and he is excited to bring that unique outlook to the Board of Directors and apply his talents to work on behalf of the Chamber.
Cliff Berry
Cliff is a corporate real estate executive with 25 years of experience in areas such as real estate transactions, acquisitions/dispositions, construction management, strategic planning, facilities management, and lease administration. He has spent the last year and a half as the Senior Director of Real Estate & Facilities at Visa managing a staff of 22 and overseeing the Bay Area portfolio that includes 1 million square feet at the 4 building campus in Foster City.
Prior to Visa, Cliff spent 24 years at Oracle in Redwood Shores where he played numerous roles in Real Estate & Facilities during a period of time when Oracle grew from a few thousand to 130,000 employees. During that time, he was involved in over 30 acquisitions, and helped build and manage their Bay Area real estate portfolio that grew from 150,000 square feet to over 4 million square feet.
Cliff has a Bachelor’s degree from the University of California at Berkeley and is married with two teenaged sons. In his free time, Cliff is an avid golfer.
Joanne Bohigian
Joanne is a business development, market planning and strategy professional with over 20 years leading for-profit and nonprofit organizations to develop and execute strategic plans for growth, foster and build strategic alliances, lead business and cultural change, promote volunteer and partnership involvement and raise funds to support organization mission, vision and values.Joanne has a reputation for sound business acumen as well as creative go-to-market insight and effective management of initiatives in both start-up organizations and Fortune 500 companies as well as nonprofit and municipal entities.Joanne brings proven ability to maximize the growth and profitability of an organization from her experiences serving such global companies as SAP, IBM, Lotus Development and cc:Mail, Inc. Ms. Bohigian founded whaddyathink®, a business consulting company in 1999, and focused on market development, collaboration, business transformation and sustainability strategy services.Joanne is a graduate of the University of San Francisco with a Bachelor of Science, Business Administration, McLaren College of Business) and Golden Gate University (Master of Business Administration, Executive MBA Program).
Al DeGroot
Al heads the Facilities Management & Operations Team within the CEF Organization at Gilead Sciences. In his role, he provides strategic direction and oversight covering 3.7M sf at 56 locations across Asia, EMEA, Latin America and North America. His scope includes: Physical Site Operations, Service & Amenity Management, Maintenance, Utility Operation, Commissioning & Laboratory Operations.
Al joined Gilead in 2013 and is based at the Corporate Headquarter site in Foster City, California. He has 34 years of BioTech Industry experience in leading Facilities & Plant Engineering functions within Corporate, GxP/GMP Manufacturing & Research/Development Environments.
Staff
