Officers

Mr. Flintoft, a founding member of BizFed and chair of the LAX Coastal Area Chamber of Commerce, has been an active participant in BizFed’s Advocacy Committee work for more than a year and has served as co-Vice Chair of the committee

Tom has been a lobbyist with Rose & Kindel for the past 17 years and beginning this year is a Founding Principal of Kindel Gagan. Tom's advocacy efforts focus on the policy and procurement of government goods and services for industries including construction, transportation, telecommunications, technology and non-profits before a variety of departments of the City and County of Los Angeles.

Tom's background includes property leasing and management experience with the Riley Pearlman Company and Shurgin Development Company. He also served for three years as Sports Director for the Los Angeles Marathon. Tom is a founder and past chair of the Leadership LA Alumni Association, which seeks out and nurtures future community leaders and improves their understanding of social, political and economic issues facing our region.

Tom also is a board member of the Los Angeles Business Council and a Director on the Westchester Playa Neighborhood Council. Tom received his Bachelor's Degree in Economics from Fordham University in 1984.

David W. Fleming, an attorney with Latham & Watkins, was the instigator of the successful charter reform movement in the City of Los Angeles. In 1997, he and then LA Mayor Richard Riordan co-chaired a voters' initiative to reform LA City government, culminating in creation of an elected citizens' Charter Reform Commission that drafted a new charter adopted by voters in 1999.

As the first female publisher in the nearly 100 year history of the Los Angeles Daily News, Tracy Rafter brought strategic vision, unbridled passion, fearless innovation, and dynamic leadership at a time of unprecedented challenge and change in the news media industry. She is now the principal of her own next level media company IMPOWER, LLC, and also owns a business advisory, Rafter Group, Inc. which provided management and leadership to organize, launch, and operate BizFed.

As a 25 year veteran of the newspaper business, she has held chief executive positions in a variety of major markets across the country, including over a decade with the Journal Register Company of Trenton, New Jersey, where she served as Publisher and CEO of four award winning newspapers in Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. While producing record operating profit margins for JRC these individual newspapers and websites received national acclaim for both editorial and advertising excellence. Tracy was part of the JRC executive team that celebrated one of the top IPO's achieved by a newspaper company in 1996.

Additionally Tracy owned and operated a group of newspapers and web sites in Walla Walla, Washington before moving to Los Angeles in early 2002 to join the Los Angeles Newspaper Group (owner of the Daily News).

During the past six years in California, Tracy has also made her presence widely known in the SF Valley and throughout Los Angeles by contributing her time and talents to a broad range of local civic and charity organizations, hospitals, and businesses. She is currently on the board of directors with LA's Best After School Program, Junior Achievement, Economic Alliance, Valley Presbyterian Hospital, and the Fernando Awards. In recognition of her entrepreneurial spirit, commitment to excellence and giving back to the community she was awarded Business Woman of The Year by the SFV Business Journal in 2005 and named the Woman of the Honor for Haven Hills (battered women's and children's shelter) in 2006.

A native of Twin Falls, Idaho, she began her media career while still in high school at the Times News (formerly owned by Howard publications, now Lee Enterprises, Inc.) and later graduated from College of Southern Idaho. She happily resides in Sherman Oaks, CA with her two young daughters.

Mr. Wilbur joined Employers Group in March 2007 as the youngest CEO in the association’s 112-year history and is a founding member of BizFed. He and his team were instrumental in developing and delivering a vital member survey that took the pulse of LA County business owners and helped to frame our action plan and top priorities in 2008. He was most recently Chair of the Operations Committee.

Before joining Employers Group, Mark was the Associate Dean of the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California (USC) for three years, leading many efforts from external affairs, development and executive education, which included customized solutions for companies to help meet the critical needs of their employees and executives. While at USC, he accepted the post of Associate Dean of the Office of Corporate Programs. Prior to USC, Mark was a Partner in Business Consulting at Arthur Andersen, developing solutions for clients across the U.S., Asia and Europe.

Mark’s professional experience and expertise are in strategic planning, business process design, customer relationship management, organizational change, customer service design and enhancement, as well as global operations and service integration. Mark served as an instructor for the Arthur Anderson Center of Professional Education, and was honored with the “Andersen Excellence in Education” for his exceptional teaching skills four times. Mark earned his BA and MBA from USC.

Mr. Gale represents the Redondo Beach, Manhattan Beach and South Bay Association of Chambers, and since 2001 has been a Principal Government and Regional Affairs Representative for the Metropolitan Water District (MWD) of Southern California.

Charles provides Metropolitan with over 20 years of government affairs experience with working with elected officials and regulatory state and federal agencies through Southern California. In addition to assisting with the successful implementation of Metropolitan’s state and federal legislative advocacy outreach programs, Charles is responsible for outreach to the Southern California Home Builders on Metropolitan’s Residential Conservation programs.

Prior to Metropolitan Water District, Charles worked for the Building Industry Association of Southern California as the Director of Government Affairs and Political Action Committee for 8 years. Charles holds a BS in Political Science from the University of Southern California with an emphasis in urban/regional governments.

Ms. Cox-Nitikman is the Senior Director for Public Policy and Education for BOMA Greater Los Angeles, a not-for-profit trade association representing over 300 commercial office buildings with over 150 million square feet of space in LA County. Martha’s responsibilities include overseeing BOMA/GLA’s local advocacy efforts, as well as its certificate program for building managers and 14 other educational events each year.

In her current capacity, Martha works on a broad range of real estate issues that are monitored by four policy committees and a political action committee. She also works closely with the staff for BOMA California, an affiliated statewide lobbying organization, to provide input on state legislative and regulatory efforts.

Martha is completing her 22nd year with BOMA/GLA. She was instrumental in BOMA/GLA receiving the Government Affairs Award of Recognition for Outstanding Single Government Affairs Issue by BOMA International in 2007. Martha served as a White House Intern in 1980, and received a Masters in Public Administration from USC in 1981. She was awarded a Juris Doctor degree from McGeorge School of Law in 1984.
 

Mr. Litz has been Government Affairs Director of the Beverly Hills/Greater Los Angeles Association of REALTORS ("BHGLAAR") since 1996. BHGLAAR serves the Greater Los Angeles Basin including the cities of Beverly Hills, Culver City, Los Angeles, Santa Monica, and West Hollywood.

James’ past and present community involvement includes Director, Homestead Hospice & Shelter; Director, Los Angeles County Boards of Real Estate; Director, West Hollywood Community Alliance; Director, Project New Hope; Director, Westside Economic Collaborative (“WEC”); Chair, Government Affairs Committee, West Hollywood Chamber of Commerce; Chair, Government Affairs Directors, California Association of REALTORS; and Member, Save our Sheriffs (“SOS”) Committee. He is a graduate of San Francisco State University with a Degree in Real Estate Finance.

As Executive Vice President of Client Services, Mr. Tiratira oversees all client facing services for EG and is responsible for managing the seamless integration and delivery of services through Research, the EG Helpline, the Library, and Consulting. Ken is responsible for directing and overseeing all federal and state advocacy activities for Employers Group.

Prior to joining Employers Group, Ken led and managed the Woodland Hills Office of Gartner Consulting, overseeing a team of 25 seasoned professionals. He was directly responsible for managing the sales pipeline for both the commercial and the state and local government sectors, closing sales, providing quality assurance for consulting delivery, and managing utilization and professional development. Prior to Gartner, Ken was responsible for managing and leading the Western Region for Northrop Grumman’s State and Local Government Practice. At Northrop Grumman, he led the efforts to revitalize and turnaround a moribund consulting practice, increasing consulting sales from $1.5m to over $18m in a two-year period.

Ken also has extensive experience with statewide member service organizations and several governmental entities, including the California Healthcare Association, the California School Boards Association, the California State Assembly, and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. He earned his B.A. in Political Science from Stanford University, and his Master of Public Administration at John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.

As a founding member of BizFed, Mr. Kelsall also stepped up early on to Chair the Polling/Research committee in BizFed’s first year. Recently, John was co-Vice Chair of the Advocacy Committee and Vice Chair of the Polling & Research Committee.

Since 2005, John has been the President & CEO of The Greater Lakewood Chamber of Commerce. Prior experience includes Vice President for Operations at Hank Player USA, Branch Manager and then Area Manager for AppleOne Employment Services, Qualifying and Managing Broker for Century 21 Real Estate Professionals, and operations of his own holding company for 18 years, Kelsall & Lillya, Inc.

John is a graduate of Rider University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Commerce and a minor in Business Law. He is a graduate of Western Association of Chamber Executives Academy and a current Board Member of the South East Los Angeles County Workforce Investment Board, the Lakewood Weingart Family YMCA, and the Long Beach Education and Business Advisory Council. Other board memberships and community involvement include: Long Beach Small Business Development Center Advisory Board Member, Rotary Club of Lakewood Rotarian of the Year 2008, Board Member and Past President of Rotary Club of Lakewood, Van Nuys Chamber of Commerce Marketing and Governmental Affairs Committee, Clearwater Chamber of Commerce Business Committee, and two years as Board Member of the Society for Human Resource Management, Shreveport Chapter. John also was a Special Consultant to the U.S. Secretary of Education for Higher Education Regulations 1976.

Ms. Cajas is President and CEO of the Regional Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and brings over 15 years of experience in the areas of Economic Development, Marketing and Advertising.

Sandy is also owner of Diversity Marketing Group, a small business that markets multiethnic events and fundraises for ethnic communities. One of the contracts for Diversity Marketing Group has been the Cambodian New Year Festival, bringing 17,000 Cambodians to the City of Long Beach.

Sandy graduated from Chaffey Community College in Rancho Cucamonga in Marketing and Design, and during school also served as program interim director for the Fashion Department at Chaffey College. She continued training at Cal Poly in Apparel Manufacturing and has trained Fashion History at Brooks College and developed training curriculum programs at The International Trade Vocational School in Long Beach.

Gary L. Toebben assumed the position of President and CEO of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce on July 1, 2006. The chamber is the largest business organization in America’s second largest city. It serves as a trustee for the current and future welfare of the region by championing initiatives that contribute to the economic prosperity and quality of life of the businesses and citizens of Los Angeles.

Gary has been instrumental in the formation and start up support of BizFed. He and his organization have provided invaluable strategic, financial and physical leadership to make sure BizFed come to life to have a dramatic positive impact on the local economy.

Prior to moving to Los Angeles, Mr. Toebben served as President of the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce for seven years, the Lawrence, Kansas Chamber of Commerce for eighteen years and the North Platte, Nebraska Chamber of Commerce for six years. He began his professional career as a teacher with the Lincoln, Nebraska Public Schools.

Mr. Toebben served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the American Chamber of Commerce Executives in 2003 and is currently a member of the ACCE Board of Trustees. ACCE is the professional organization for all chamber of commerce executives in the United States and Canada.

He is a graduate of the Center for Creative Leadership in Greensboro, North Carolina, the Institute for Organization Management at the University of Colorado and the Academy for Organization management at Notre Dame University. He is a past Chairman of the Board of Regents for the University of Colorado Institute for Organization Management, the Kansas Chamber of Commerce Executives, the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce Executives, the Kansas Industrial Developers Assn, the Western Nebraska United Chambers of Commerce and the Nebraska State Tourism Advisory Board.

Mr. Toebben is a native of Nebraska and holds a B.S. in Mathematics from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. He and his wife Janice, who is a vice president with US Bank, have four children ages 27-32.

Ms. Gallegos has more than 20 years experience as an active community volunteer and was appointed CEO of the Regional San Gabriel Valley Chamber of Commerce in 2007.

Heidi has a variety of achievements including helping revitalize Rowland Heights’ Community Buckboard Days Festival, initiating Rowland Unified School Policy on Parent Involvement in Public Schools, and reorganizing Rowland Council PTA. Heidi is co-Chair of the Safe Communities Program and Festival, and was a patrol officer with the LA Police Department from 1986-1990, working South Central and West Los Angeles. From 1981-1986, Heidi was a Police Service Representative and was the sole female Police Service Representative invited to work the 1984 LA Olympics, USC Cadre, and the sole female police officer invited to work LAPD Southwest Gang Task Force in 1988.

Heidi is a Board Member of the La Puente Valley Regional Occupation Center, Joint Powers Agreement, on the Rowland Unified Board of Trustees, the Region 23 Delegate for the CA School Boards Association, a member of the California Women’s Leadership Association, Four Corners Chapter as well as the Rotary Club of Walnut Valley. California State Assemblyman Bob Huff (R-60 AD) named Heidi 2008 Woman of the Year.