STEVE O’CONNELL President and CEO California Credit Union
Under Steve O’Connell’s leadership for the past 12 years, California Credit Union has achieved outstanding financial performance and introduced numerous innovations to achieve significant transformation, growth and member service enhancements across every area of operations. Through his guidance, the credit union has achieved the strongest financial performance in the organization’s history, increasing assets to nearly $5 billion serving more than 200,000 members. In addition, consumer lending has reached all-time highs over the past two years.
At O’Connell’s direction, an Innovation Department was created to launch industry- leading technologies to support members more effectively and efficiently.
Meghan Pinchuk is a leading chief investment officer in the industry, managing over $2.5 billion in assets. She is a female CIO in a male-dominated industry, breaking glass ceilings and empowering other women in the financial industry.
With 20 years of experience in the industry, Pinchuk achieved CIO status under the age of 40 and is a fiercely independent thinker, pushing client portfolio meaningfully away from a standard 60/40 (stock bond) portfolio into a multitude of alternative investments. The goal is aligned with Morton Wealth’s core investment tenets of true diversification, cash flow and downside risk management.
Jeff Sarti is passionate about democratizing alternative investments for the typical investor. Typical investors are stuck with investing primarily in stocks and bonds and high quality alternative investments are typically only available to institutions such as endowments, foundations or larger family offices. Sarti and Morton Wealth are changing this narrative by partnering with investment groups to provide broader access to these alternative investments.
Sarti is also passionate about serving NextGen clients, and through Morton is launching a new service offering called Modearn, focused on empowering younger investors who are still in the height of their careers and growing their families to enjoy the present while preparing for the future.
KEITH SULTEMEIER President & CEO Kinecta Federal Credit Union
Keith Sultemeier has served as president and CEO of Kinecta Federal Credit Union for eight years and has approximately 30 years of experience in financial services, public accounting and technology startups. Kinecta is a $5 billion full-service financial institution headquartered in Manhattan Beach, serving members throughout Southern California and across the country. Sultemeier earned a BBA in accounting and an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin.
Sultemeier and his leadership team are dedicated to providing a comprehensive array of financial services and constantly strive to improve the services, convenience and support they offer to its member-owners and communities.
WAYNE WARD Senior Vice President; Regional Manager, Greater SouthernCalifornia West Region California Bank & Trust
A well-known industry expert, Wayne Ward has broad and extensive leadership experience in financial services in both government and private sectors. He has more than 35 years of commercial banking and leadership experience in driving revenue growth and profitability in both sales and commercial banking organizations.
Ward joined California Bank & Trust as a business center manager out of the Long Beach Main office in 2007. After spending one year managing the Long Beach Main office, Ward was promoted to manage the Greater Southern California West Region of California Bank & Trust, where he manages 14 business banking offices.
MICHAEL WAXBERG Private Wealth Advisor Northwestern Mutual – Fortify Capital
Michael A. Waxberg is the founder and private wealth advisor of Fortify Capital, which is a member firm of the Northwestern Mutual Private Client Group. He is a certified financial planner and has spent over two and half decades building a nationally recognized investment and financial planning practice.
Waxberg is deeply rooted in the legal, entertainment and business communities, advising on comprehensive retirement, investment and estate planning strategies. He has in-depth knowledge of tax and business planning, working with both individuals and businesses, helping to navigate the ever-changing financial landscape.
Reza Zamani is a founding partner and CEO of SteelPeak Wealth. Zamani has specialized in investment advisory and financial planning to meet the specific needs of ultra-high net worth clients, with over 20 years of industry experience. SteelPeak Wealth represents the culmination of an approach combining responsible fiduciary services, excellent client service and innovative thinking.
Zamani believes that giving back to the community is vital. He has served as a board member for non-profit organizations such as Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center and The Wellness Community of Los Angeles. He is currently involved with the Boys & Girls Club of Malibu.
Inside The Valley has turned to some of the leading employment attorneys and experts in the region to get their assessments regarding the current state of labor legislation, what changes have come to the labor law landscape in light of recent challenges, the new rules of hiring and firing, and the various trends that they have been observing, and in some cases, driving. Here are the unique insights they provided.
Janice Miller, of Miller Haga Law Group in her office in Calabasas. (Photo by David Sprague)
Janice Miller is an attorney with more than 25 years of experience. She currently serves as the managing partner at Miller Haga Law Group in Calabasas.
She was previously the managing partner of Berke Miller Law Group. Before that, Miller was NBCUniversal’s vice president of business affairs for Universal Studios Hollywood
and CityWalk, playing a role in its billion- dollar expansion.
1. Miller is a huge football fan and even calls football season her “favorite season.”During football time you can find her rooting for the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles. She says her love for the sport grew when her daughter was working with the University of Utah’s football team while completing her bachelor’s degree in athletic training.
Miller is also a big fan of pickleball. She played tennis in high school and calls playing pickleball now a “natural transition.” She plays a few times a week and will be attending a pickleball camp
in April.
2.She is a published author. Miller recently wrote a book called “Coopertition,” which she describes as her “Covid project.” The book argues that competing businesses can work together to benefit clients. She does not currently have plans to write another book.
3.Miller says her dream job is to be a part-time bartender for a large resort in Maui while also “working her legal magic beachside.” She calls the Hawaiian island her “happy place,” and adds that she was “devastated” by last year’s fire and tries to vacation on the island as often as possible.
4. Miller loves country music and attends live concerts as often as she can. Her favorite artists she has seen live include Garth Brooks and Kelsea Ballerini. Miller is also a fan of Stagecoach, an annual country music festival in the desert.
5. It’s wedding season in the Miller household. Both of her children are engaged and will be married in 2025 and 2026. Her son is a commercial airline pilot; her daughter has started a doctoral program in behavioral health.– HANNAH WELK
Tony Santa Cruz, who is launching Santa Cruz Brewing in May, examines an in-progress honey brown ale. (Photo by David Sprague)
Santa Clarita is inviting you to come get your beer on – or perhaps to come get your brew on.
And not just any kind of beer. We’re talking about a banana cream pie-flavored hefeweizen, brewed with lactose. Or a Belgian-style dubbel brewed with cacao nibs and black cherries. Maybe you’re in the mood for a honey-infused brown ale.
Whatever you’re looking for, there’s a chance you’ll find it handcrafted in a Santa Clarita brewery.
Starting at the turn of the century, civic leaders have worked to vault the city from a suburban bedroom community to one where people are attracted to live, work and play. An important part of that equation for many is beer, and in the past decade several craft breweries have taken off in the community, bringing with them their distinct brands and cultural homages to the third largest city in Los Angeles County.
“The city wasn’t totally familiar with the craft beer scene, so when we opened up in 2015, we were kind of a new concept for the general public here,” says Todd Tisdell, a cofounder of Valencia’s Pocock Brewing Co. “It took a while for the city to embrace it. Slowly but surely, I think the town has come to embrace craft beer.”
TAP Pocock Brewing Manager Danielle Olexiewicz pull a draft. (Photo by David Sprague)
After having Wolf Creek Restaurant & Brewery as the main option since 1997, Santa Clarita’s beer scene grew in 2015 when Pocock opened its doors. After that came Brewery Draconum in Newhall and the now-shuttered Telco Brewery in Valencia. One of the founders behind Telco is now reviving that old site as Santa Cruz Brewing Co., and Palmdale-based brewery Lucky Luke Brewing Co. has taken over Wolf Creek’s brewery facility in Valencia as its third location.
Some are open to the possibility of bringing in even more breweries – notwithstanding the presence of restaurant-brewhouse brands BJ’s and Oggi’s in the area.
“The beer scene here is definitely growing,” says Tony Santa Cruz, who is launching Santa Cruz Brewing in May. “Just in the five years we at Telco were open as a brewery, you could see that people were becoming more interested. We always had new customers come in. I think the Santa Clarita community can actually sustain more breweries and it would definitely help us out.”
Evolving interests in beer
Tisdell, who has lived in neighboring Castaic since 2005, took up homebrewing with a friend – Geoff Pocock – and from there got curious about how far they could take it.
“It’s something that I felt was definitely missing in Santa Clarita,” Tisdell says. “Back then it was a great place to live and raise a family, but everybody left to go do things. I want to create something that I would go hang out at, and I believe that’s what we did.”
The pair launched Pocock Brewing in 2015, building a brand of “English inspired, West Coast brewed” beers and earning their share of medals from beer competitions. On top of stalwarts like the Surfing Hippos hazy, Proper American lager and the Despicable passionfruit-orange-guava imperial tart, they’ve since added ciders and non-alcoholic beverages to their products, serve locally made wines and run a popular pizza kitchen under their roof.
This year Pocock made its first expansion, opening a tasting room and restaurant – complete with rooftop seating – in the Newhall neighborhood.
“It’s one of the areas that Santa Clarita is really trying to turn into a nightlife walking street,” Tisdell says. “The city has been bugging us for quite a while to put a spot down here on Main Street and they really saw the vision here.”
Santa Cruz, similarly, has spent more than two decades living in Castaic. He befriended a fellow Cub Scout parent who would sometimes bring his homemade beer on camping trips – thus piquing Santa Cruz’s interest. He embarked on his own homebrew journey, often fashioning makeshift equipment using other appliances.
After Telco – which opened in 2018 – closed in August, Santa Cruz says he decided to keep the craft going and made plans to launch a new operation.
“During that process, I thought, ‘I don’t want to stop,’” he says. “When the equipment went up for auction, I went ahead and grabbed all of it. Once I knew I had the equipment, I had arrangements made to keep the property with the landlord.”
Santa Cruz says he aims to keep things more dynamic with the new brand. He’s already brewing his launch beers – a lineup that will include a Mexican lager,hazy IPA, West Coast IPA, brown ale, blonde and a seltzer.
“On the first go-round, we were making these beers that were always on tap. They never really changed out. We would, every once in a while, change one out, but never really had a rotating tap,” he says. “This time, that’s one thing I’m going to change. I’m going to leave some of the styles we had before, but at least half of the taps are going to be rotating, always changing.”
Open for business
After first opening in Palmdale and then expanding into Lancaster, Lucky Luke made Santa Clarita its third outpost in 2021. The company purchased Wolf Creek’s brew location and continues to brew the restaurant’s own recipes for them in addition to their own operation. Lucky Luke co-founder Samantha Schmitz, who is also president of the Los Angeles County Brewers Guild, said she previously found mentorship from the Wolf Creek owners and had long admired this location. Since joining the Santa Clarita scene, the reception for her products has been warm, Schmitz says.
Brewery owner Todd Tisdell holds branded decor from his brewery. (Photo by David Sprague)
“You never know how it’s going to be going into a new city as an outsider, but it’s been wonderful and they’ve accepted us,” she continues. “It feels a lot more tight-knit and community-based than we anticipated because of the size of it. We love to see that it’s not just a community where everybody commutes out of. I would definitely say they care a lot about what’s happening in their community. It’s been fun to bring new beer styles and tap into what people are looking for.”
Jey Wagner, chief executive of the Santa Clarita Valley Economic Development Corp., says the city’s demographics – mostly ages 18-24 and 45-64 – along with a working population of 65% and proximity to fringe parts of the county make a good market for breweries. Average return on investment for breweries, he notes, is around 20%, and at a startup cost ranging from $500,000 to $1.5 million are comparable to starting a restaurant or bakery.
“You may find these breweries in the middle of industrial areas – and we have many of those,” Wagner adds. “They’re easy to set up, easy to get permitting on and positively ripe for a lot of industrial areas.”
Santa Cruz says that while the city has grown from being merely a bedroom community, it has retained a small-town charm that makes him want to stay there.
“Santa Clarita is one of the biggest cities in the county, but at the same time you have that feel of it being a small little hometown. I definitely wanted to keep all of that here,” he says. “The city was great to open up in. You always hear those nightmares about working with the local city, but that didn’t happen here. It wasn’t a hard decision to open up a business in Santa Clarita.”