Representatives from corporate organizations and major Minority Business Enterprises (MBEs) will be stationed at designated tables during the networking reception, eagerly awaiting event attendees to initiate conversations. Visit these Resource Table staffers to discover opportunities for involvement with their companies, seek expert advice, acquire company-branded swag items, resources, and more! Feel free to bring any burning questions you may have or simply stop by for a casual meet and greet.
Mick Penn
Community Relations Manager
Mick Penn works for Swinerton as the Northern California Regional Community Relations Liaison. Mr. Penn spearheads Swinerton’s workforce development, small, diverse, veteran business outreach and community engagement in Northern California. Mr. Penn currently serves on the board of directors of the Western Regional Minority Supplier Development Council, Cypress Mandela Training Center, Mission Hiring Hall, Construction Industry Education Foundation Board of Trustees, and the City of Richmond Workforce Development Board. In 2021, Mr. Penn was named the Western Regional Minority Development Council’s Supplier Diversity Leader of the Year and the Associated General Contractors of California’s Construction Education Foundation Friend Award winner. Mr. Penn has a BA from San Francisco State and a Master of Public Administration from University of San Francisco.
Lester Lafiguera
Purchasing Manager
Lester Lafiguera serves as the Purchasing Manager for Gilbane's Western Division; in this role, he is responsible for trade contractor prequalification, bidding, and developing and maintaining supplier relationships. Lester advocates for diverse companies to help achieve Gilbane's economic inclusion commitment that provides contract opportunities to small and minority businesses. Gilbane has pledged to generate $4 billion in awards to minority, women, disadvantaged, LGBTBE, and veteran-owned businesses over the next five years. Lester is passionate about providing opportunities to all segments of society and helping improve the economic situation, especially those disadvantaged.
Leticia Avalos
Workforce Diversity Administrator
Since joining Hathaway Dinwiddie in 2010, Leticia has been actively recruiting diverse subcontractors, vendors and trades workforce. Her extensive experience in community engagement allows her to seamlessly develop and manage day-to-day activities such as outreach, implementation, monitoring and reporting of the project’s commitment goal. Leticia has been an integral part of many projects bringing her understanding and expertise of procurement, inclusion and diversity initiatives to Hathaway Dinwiddie’s projects including 50 UN Plaza, The Exchange, HealthRIGHT 360, SOMA Hotel and is currently focused on the Mission Rock Development. In partnership with Tishman Speyer and the San Francisco Giants, Leticia assisted with the Mission Rock Academy first all-woman construction training class in San Francisco history.
Sharla Sullivan
Outreach & Partnerships Manager
Bay Area native, Sharla Sullivan, is a mom of three who’s passionate about workforce development and supplier diversity. As the Outreach and Partnerships Manager at Webcor, she works to increase small and diverse business participation, local hiring, and community engagement on private and public works to further Webcor’s mission to build solutions and better lives. Webcor is a general contractor building structures all over California that bring exceptional value to public and private clients while operating in a safe, quality-driven environment.
Sheila Laub
Bio forthcoming
Ron Blaj
Bio forthcoming
Angelique Alvarez
bio forthcoming
Marcus Tartt
Center Director
For the past 20 years, Marcus Tartt has helped to develop sustainable businesses in under-resourced communities throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. Before joining Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center as the Bayview Center Director, Marcus launched the Community Developer, a commercial real estate business in East Oakland, CA, and worked as a Senior Project Manager for the City of Pinole, CA where he led multiple development teams to redevelop under-utilized property along the San Pablo Avenue Commercial Corridor.
Currently, as the Bayview Center Director, Marcus oversees the development and implementation of programs that support aspiring and emerging Entrepreneurs throughout the Bay Area. A warrior for economic justice and minority small businesses, Marcus likes to hike, bike and play racket ball during his spare time.
Joann Patty
Business Outreach Liaison
Joann Patty currently serves as a Business Outreach Liaison at the Office of Small Business and Disabled Veteran Business Enterprise Services, California Department of General Services. In this role, she educates business owners about the benefits and opportunities of pursuing a Small Business (SB) certification, Disabled Veteran Business Enterprise (DVBE) certification, and contract opportunities with the state of California.
Joann is an experienced leader in workforce development. She has a proven record of accomplishment with over a decade of experience in obtaining and managing close partnerships with the County, State and Federal programs, Community Workforce Boards, and nonprofit partnerships.
Joann has a background in Labor Studies and Employment Relations and holds a bachelor’s degree in Interdisciplinary studies from California Institute of Integral Studies.
Stacy Dickinson
Business Banking Consulting Senior
Stacy Dickinson, MBA is a Sr. Business Consultant for the Community Business Strategies team, covering Northern California. She focuses on accelerating small business growth through mentorship and coaching. Stacy joined the firm in 2011 as a personal banker After 3.5 years, she moved into KYC and Client Onboarding for the JPMorgan Private Bank to explore all the firm had to offer. In 2017, she decided to go back to her true love and became a Business Relationship Manager. She remained in that role until 2021 when the what was once the Minority Entrepreneurs Initiative, was launched in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Stacy encourages business owners to look at their businesses through a different lens. She uses her extensive expertise in business and banking to help to educate and mentor small businesses to take their dreams to the next level.
Prior to her role at JPMorgan Chase, she worked for a local credit union and managed gyms for over 5 years. Stacy was born and raised in San Jose, CA and has her B.S. from UC Davis and MBA from SNHU.
Laura Higgins
Head of Diverse Businesses
Laura Higgins is an Executive Director, Head of Diverse Businesses at J.P. Morgan Chase for the Pacific region covering California, Northern Nevada, Washington, and Oregon. In this role her mission is to lead a team that acts as a strategic consultant to diverse, women, LGBTQ+, and veteran owned businesses who are looking to scale and grow their businesses. Prior to this role, she was Head of Supplier Management at J.P. Morgan Chase having joined the firm in May, 2015 to build a new team focused on elevating relationships with the bank’s strategic partners, Gold Suppliers, leading to increased value for both the bank and its partners . As part of this she and her team led the Gold Suppliers to strengthen their Supplier Diversity programs and increase their spending with diverse owned business by in excess of $10B in under two years. Prior to joining J.P. Morgan Chase, Laura spent 15 years at Deutsche Bank in New York City where she held a variety of technology, COO, and supply chain leadership roles. Laura holds a B.S. in Accounting and Management Information Systems from the University of Delaware and currently resides in San Francisco with her husband Brian, their 3 sons and dog Gracie.
Cynthia Seward
Bio forthcoming
Alexi Chacon
Senior Administrative Analyst
Alexi Chacon is a Senior Administrative Analyst at BART’s Office of Civil Rights. He works primarily on spreading the word about BART’s equity programs to small businesses in the Bay Area. Additionally, he, along with the Performance and Data Analytics Team, analyzes small business participation data in BART’s awarded contracts to ensure that our equity programs are benefitting and reaching small business owners. Prior to working at BART, Alexi completed a Master’s program at the University of Oxford in public policy evaluation.
Baris Lostuvali
Project Executive
Baris is DBIA certified and has worked on a wide variety of construction projects including pre-construction, new construction, and building renovations for healthcare, commercial office buildings and industrial facilities.
Chris Tobin
Senior Project Manager
Chris is an experienced construction professional with a passion for safety, innovation, and craftsmanship. He brings expertise in the complex world of construction, notably in Healthcare.
Stephanie Geringer
Senior Marketing Associate
Stephanie provides support for strategic proposal and presentation development and various communication programs.
Cassandra Manansala
Project Manager
Cassandra Manansala, Skanska Project Manager, started her career in construction in 2014 when she joined the VTA BART Silicon Valley Berryessa Extension project in San Jose, California, to work with the local communities. From there, Cassandra has worked to deliver projects in multiple sectors across the state of California. Cassandra’s contributions allowed her to explore new ways to apply intercultural communication theory at a corporate business level. She worked with teams across the country to standardize the company’s diversity program—including compliance matrices, reporting initiatives, and integrating inclusive practices on construction projects.
Michelle Nolen
Director of Community Outreach & Supplier Diversity, Northern Pacific Region
Michelle Nolen is responsible for building relationships with small and diverse firms within the construction industry and develops programs that reinforce McCarthy’s commitment to build stronger and more vibrant communities where we live and work. She leads Diversity, Equity & Inclusion initiatives through the McCarthy National Supplier Diversity and Community Outreach programs to promote small and diverse business partnerships. Michelle has worked on many private and public works design-build projects including projects at SFO, SFPUC, Kaiser, UC Davis and California State Universities. She has over thirty years of construction industry experience which includes work in project management, field supervision and estimating, as well as ten years in procurement and compliance roles that included fostering and implementing DE&I best practices during procurement and construction. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from Stanford University and a Masters of Business Administration focusing on finance from the University of California at Berkeley.
Brooke Droege
Supplier Diversity & Community Outreach Manager
Brooke joined McCarthy Building Companies in early 2023 as a Supplier Diversity & Community Outreach Manager. She is working to include diverse and local businesses on the UC Davis Health hospital tower project in Sacramento. Prior to McCarthy, Brooke worked for the state of California’s Department of General Services where, as a Business Outreach Manager, she led a team dedicated to promoting the state’s supplier diversity program through outreach, education, and advocacy with the goal of increasing California’s small and diverse business contracting participation. Brooke holds a BA and MA degree in Communication Studies from Sacramento State University and prior to her time with the state, she taught Communication Studies for five years at Sacramento State University and Los Rios Community Colleges. Brooke is passionate about providing contracting opportunities to small and diverse businesses, particularly within underserved communities. She strives to continue working to connect with businesses to help them grow and gain valuable experience as project partners.
Dalia Demian
Outreach Branch Manager
Dalia has over 11 years of experience within State Government and over 15 years in training and marketing. She is the Outreach Branch Manager with the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), Office of Civil Rights (OCR). The OCR’s Training and Outreach Branch is primarily engaged in activities to promote awareness of and compliance with Caltrans' small business programs: Small Business (SB), Disabled Veteran Business Enterprise (DVBE), and Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE). These activities include, but are not limited to, providing training and technical assistance to internal and external stakeholders, developing reference materials, and organizing and participating in outreach events.
Beverly Johnson
Contract Equity Administrator
For over 35 years, Beverly has managed East Bay Municipal Utility District’s Contract Equity (CE) Program, an effective and non-discriminatory contracting and small business enterprise (SBE) incentives program, which provides added value to diverse businesses. Beverly’s active involvement in business development spans over 41 years and has led to over $1 billion in contract awards going to minority and women-owned businesses and to numerous awards and recognitions. Her motto, “M/W/SBE win = EBMUD win.”
Al Sevilla
Principal and President
Since 1992, Al Sevilla has been the Principal and President of Alisto Engineering Group, Inc., a multi-disciplinary engineering, environmental, and construction company serving public and investor-owned utilities, public agencies, oil, energy and gas companies, major corporations, educational and health-care institutions and public sector clients throughout the US and abroad. He has a B.S. in Chemical Engineering and Master of Environmental Engineering degree and is a registered Professional Engineer in more than 30 states. With more than 40 years of experience in engineering and environmental consulting, he has completed thousands of projects in more than 35 states and abroad for various governmental agencies, Department of Defense, major utilities and oil companies, and Fortune 500 corporations. His commitment to safety, sustainability, equality, inclusion, and diversity is evident in Alisto's mission statement, vision, and core values.
Reinaldo Freitas
Business Development Manager
Reinaldo Freitas is a corporate business leader with over 15 years of experience in general business, construction, and engineering projects, providing services to various industries, including investor and publicly owned utilities. Currently serving as the Business Development Manager at Alisto Engineering Group, a prominent Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) with a 32-year history located in Walnut Creek, California, and with regional operations in key locations, including San Antonio and Dallas, TX; Yonkers, NY; and Southern California. Reinaldo is actively working to extend Alisto's services to new regions and clients. Dedicated to driving growth and ensuring client satisfaction, he focuses on expanding partnerships aligned with a commitment to efficient and fast communication, ensuring that Alisto is always readily available for its clients. Reinaldo sets and achieves business development goals, oversees representatives, and upholds Alisto's values of integrity and innovative, cost-effective solutions. In addition to his professional pursuits, Reinaldo, a triathlete, is also a husband and father of two little dogs and one cat.
LaNiesha Littleton
CEO
LaNiesha Littleton, CEO of iHEALTH 360, leads a team of healthcare and safety experts that drive significant cost savings by delivering workplace health and safety compliance solutions to employers across the U. S.. iHEALTH 360 is DBE, SBE, CPUC, MBE, WBE, and WOSB certified, proudly serving the industrial, office, life science, and healthcare business sectors. Established in 2020, the firm specializes in ergonomic safety with a focus on job hazard analysis, risk mitigation, OSHA first aid treatments, training, health promotion, and more. LaNiesha’s current role is to drive business development and strategic partnerships to deliver cost effective, comprehensive, and easily scalable solutions to confidently support employers anytime, anywhere. With an approach designed to preserve employee health from hire to retire, LaNiesha is positioning the company to be a leading provider in the workplace health and safety industry. In her spare time, LaNiesha enjoys traveling and spending time with a highly inquisitive 5 year-old son, Liam!
Neetu Trivedi
Physical Therapist
Dr. Neetu Trivedi is a Physical Therapist, holding a Doctor of Physical Therapy degree from Duke University. With over 20 years of combined clinical and management experience in the industry, Dr. Trivedi is deeply committed to helping individuals regain their functionality and return to work, life, and play. Dr. Trivedi possesses a comprehensive skill set to address various rehabilitation needs and is especially passionate about a holistic approach that embraces a culture of safety and well-being. With a focus on injury prevention in the workplace, she collaborates closely with individuals and their employers to mitigate risks and promote overall wellness.
Jennifer Elmore
Contractor Development Program (CDP), Program Manager
Jennifer Elmore, Contractor Development Program (CDP), Program Manager for Merriwether & Williams Insurance Services. Jennifer is responsible for coordinating technical assistance services for small and emerging contractors. The services offered through the CDP include individual and group counseling, contract review, business development training, and mentor protégé support.
Johanna Le-Penn
Contractor Technical Assistance Program (CTAP), Business Development Manager
Johanna Le-Penn, Contractor Technical Assistance Program (CTAP), Business Development Manager for Merriwether & Williams Insurance Services. Johanna is responsible for providing and coordinating technical assistance services for small and emerging contractors. The services offered through the CTAP includes individual and group counseling, assists small and local contractors, identifies and shares Alameda County’s construction contracting opportunities, provides technical assistance including certification assistance, one-on-ne training, workshops, and seminars, and offers bonding assistance for qualifying projects up to 40% of the bond amount or $750,000, whichever is less, works with prime and subcontractors and will work with primes to meet their Small Local Emerging Business (SLEB) or ECOP requirement.
Nik Karagiorgos
Founder
Nik Karagiorgos founded EverWatt, an industry-leading energy service company (ESCO) renowned for its transformative approach to energy management. Guided by Nik's innovative leadership, EverWatt has ascended to the forefront of the field, offering tailored solutions that revolutionize how businesses and organizations optimize their energy consumption. Nik's expertise extends beyond conventional ESCO offerings. Leveraging EverWatt's specialization in healthcare infrastructure and a deep understanding of regulatory frameworks such as HCAI ensures that every project is executed flawlessly, even in the most challenging environments. Additionally, EverWatt's collaborations with prestigious governmental entities, including the Department of Justice, CIA, NASA, and various federal agencies, underscore the company's reputation as a trusted partner in critical infrastructure projects.Nik's unwavering commitment to excellence propels EverWatt's mission to redefine industry standards in sustainability and innovation.
