From Bob Shallit's July 26th column in the Sacramento Bee

Making connections: Gillian Parrillo is claiming a success for Sacramento Executive, the networking group she and husband Pierre Cutler founded before the duo's recent move to Dallas. Parrillo met former Hewlett-Packard and Agilent exec Julie Morris and realized she had perfect skills for local startups. She invited Morris to the group's April meeting, held at the Supper Club. And there, at the chocolate-dipping fountain, Morris started chatting with biotech entrepreneur Pam Marrone.

Marrone asked for a résumé and ended up hiring Morris as the first employee for her new Davis firm, Marrone Organic Innovations.

By the way, Parrillo flies back to town for each Sac Exec gathering and remains president of the Sacramento Entrepreneurship Academy. But there are signs she's being won over by Big D. She reports the city has "100 times" the downtown activities of Sacramento. And, she gloats, "we already have our arena."

Come to our next event scheduled for September 20th at Lomo's Argentine Grill in Old Sacramento. If you are new to town, you can meet lots of companies looking for help in various forms - employees, advisers, board members, investors. Or if you are a company, start-up or established, come check out the amazing talent ready to jump in and help your company - and be creative about how...it doesn't always have to mean a paycheck every pay period.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive