Today Pierre and I went to a local arena where multiple high school graduations were being held throughout the day. We thought that there was one more thing these graduates needed to do on their awesome day - register to vote.

We arrived with clipboards and pens and forms and we got busy. We registered young graduates and family members and friends and anyone else we could. We were excited to watch the parents encourage their kids to sign up.

It was exhilarating, sharing this special day with these beacons of the future. Many of these kids came from very poor neighborhoods. The fact that they had persevered to graduate is celebration enough. But now they are even more empowered. They are voters!

And more ceremonies to come next week.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 4:53 PM | Permalink

The Chinese American Council of Sacramento (CACS) has published Canton Footprints, Sacramento's Chinese Legacy.

This book captures Chinese Americans contributions to Sacramento's diversity and their integral part in Sacramento's rich history. Canton Footprints, Written by eminent Chinese American historian Philip P. Choy, it brings together over 150 years of Chinese American history in Sacramento. Through more than 40 oral histories, Choy shows the role and influence that the Chinese American community has had in shaping Sacramento.

The 160-page book includes 178 historical photographs and is offered in soft bound and hard cover. The photographs from the Anna Wong Lee Collection and 19th Century lithographs and engravings from Philip Choy's private collection give visual impact to the importance of the Chinese American Community's role in Sacramento history.

The author, Philip P. Choy will give a lecture and sign copies of the book on Sunday June 1, 2008 at a CACS dinner to be held at the Holiday Villa Restaurant, 7007 S. Land Park Dr.
Sacramento, CA. The cost is $25 per person.

The book costs: $20 paperback, $30 hardbound.

To place orders for the book, contact: Donna Scotti, PO Box 60267 Sacramento, CA 95822
e-mail: CACSbookorder@comcast.net.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 10:36 AM | Permalink

Obama in Portland with a crowd of 75,000.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 7:27 PM | Permalink

I like Charles Barkley. He was a great basketball player. He's fun to watch as a basketball analyst for TNT. But Charles apparently is a very bad gambler, claiming to have lost $10 million in the casinos over the past twenty years.

The news and sports shows are a buzz this week about him owing $400,000 to the Wynn Las Vegas Resort from a bad night at the tables this past October.

Now for the $64,000 question - does Charles Barkley have a gambling problem? I don't think so. But what is his problem then, if he has lost $10 million in the past twenty years at the casinos?

It's simple. He has a math problem. Charles doesn't understand the mathematical principles behind Las Vegas casinos - the house has an advantage when it comes to odds. And Charles has not figured it out - if you play for twenty years in Las Vegas, it's almost certain you will lose over the long run.

Charles, stop gambling with the Las Vegas house. Go someplace else, where you can get better odds, preferably when the odds are in your favor.

Charles, it's simple - you have a math problem. Fix it.

Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Pierre Cutler at 12:48 PM | Permalink

A feel good video.
And a shout out to Mike Posehn, a friend whose time elapse videos we often feature on this blog. Mike, I thought you would appreciate this but, as I found it on a liberal blog, I thought you might have missed it!

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 2:03 PM | Permalink

This much we know - to be a uniter, one must bring people of diverse backgrounds together.

So, we were working at the Dallas Barack Obama HQ this weekend. We were part of an effort by the Obama campaign to recruit a million volunteers to add to his million donors. More than 150 people showed up to learn how to register new voters and walk neighborhoods signing up new volunteers. Groups of four were set up in random fashion and the 'troops' went out on the streets.

Several hours later, we watched the foursomes return, bonded by the experience. They were energized by their day together. And then we began to notice the true relationship that had been generated during their common purpose. In walked one of the groups, two white women in their late sixties and two young black men in their twenties. They were laughing and joking and exchanging phone numbers and talking about what a great time they had had and how they wanted to do it again soon.

Another foursome, two young black women in their twenties and two white men in their thirties are finishing up their day. As they left, the white guys stick out their hands and do their best to replicate a 'black' handshake, something they have evidently talked about and discussed on their cavassing route. At the same time, the young women are bidding their white companions Shalom, having evidently discused the fact that the guys are Jewish.

Please tell me where else such diverse people would be coming together and really getting to know each other? And this is happening all over America each and every day in the common act of getting Barack Obama elected as President.

Tears come to our eyes, hope returns our hearts. Things are going to be really, really different. A new America.

Oh, by the way, we signed up 48 new voters yesterday. And one of them was an 88 year old woman!

Pierre Cutler and Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 6:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

SARTA's Leadership Series Presents: Leveraging Your Board of Directors
Wednesday May 21, 2008 9:00am-10:30am
McClellan Technology Incubator

Course Overview:
Historically, those investing the most money took the Board seats of a given company as a condition of their investment. The "watchful eye" scenario has played itself out for years in Board rooms across the country. Whether qualified to strategically direct or not, there they are; the suits empty as they may be......Whether saddled with such burdens or having those that are qualified, the CEO and management team must properly get "real" work from their Boards on a variety of fronts.

Fund raising, governance, compensation, staff development, customer development, market segmentation, etc. are all areas where an engaged Board might find a useful role. Just how then do you get this entitled bunch to do real work for a living.....

Who should attend:

• President, CEO
• CFO, VP Sales, VP HR, VP Engineering
• Investors for their portfolio companies
• Other Senior Executive team members

Instructor: Roger Akers, Founder and Managing Partner, Akers Capital.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 8:56 AM | Permalink

I want to introduce Sacramento Executives readers to The Motley Fool. Many of you probably have already heard about The Fools, Tom and David Gardner. The Motley Fool began in 1993 - when they

published a newsletter with a simple stated goal: to educate, amuse, and enrich their readers and help them make better financial decisions. Headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, the privately-held multi-media company today has nearly 200 employees in the United States and UK and is a top provider of investment advice and financial information.

The Motley Fool's market-beating newsletter advisory services are also industry leaders. Delivering superior investment ideas and stock recommendations, The Motley Fool currently offers eight services that cover a range of strategies (including mutual funds, value, growth, small caps, etc.) and financial topics (including personal finance and retirement planning).

Today, four newsletters later, I decided to reflect on their advice and determine if it is worth it.

And the answer is absolutely yes. The Hidden Gems team has delivered. The eight stock recommendations are up on average 8.9%, versus 3.9% for the Dow Jones and 4.9% for the NASDAQ. Here are the detailed results:

1. January 24 recommendations - Volcom, Inc. (NASDAQ: VLCM) up 29.1% and Jones Lang LaSalle, Inc. (NYSE: JLL) up 8.6%;
2. February 28 recommendations - Blackboard, Inc. (NASDAQ: BBBB) up 21.8% and Aladdin Knowledge Systems, Ltd. (NASDAQ: ALDN) down 22.3%;
3. March 27 recommendations - American Oriental Bioengineering, Inc. (NYSE: AOB) up 20.5% and Hurco Companies, Inc. (NASDAQ: HURC) down 7.5%;
4. April 24 recommendations - Jinpan International, Ltd. (AMEX: JST) up 13.4% and MVC Capital, Inc. (NYSE: MVC) up 7.6%.

The bottom line - The Motley Fool's Hidden Gems newsletter provides excellent advice and is worth the $199 annual fee. I plan to renew my subscription in January. And folks, you should seriously consider subscribing too!

Disclaimer: I do not receive any benefit from the Motley Fool by writing this review.

Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Pierre Cutler at 7:26 AM | Permalink

Warren Buffett at his annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholders' meeting this past weekend:Capitalism without failure is like Christianity without Hell.

His sidekick Charlie Munger: We try to behave as if Berkshire stock was all owned by crippled relatives.

It's definitely working, many of Berkshire's investors have become multi-millionaires.

Buffett said the current financial crisis is a byproduct of a system that encouraged executives to "paint pretty pictures."

At his annual stockholder's meeting, he followed his owned advice and gave very blunt guidance:

"There is absolutely no question" that Berkshire's returns will decline, Buffett said. "Anyone that expects us to come close to replicating the past should sell their stock. It isn't going to happen. I think we're going to get decent results over time, but we're not going to get indecent results."

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 7:48 AM | Permalink

Over the past month, I saw a lot of press about how the U.S. government has Nelson Mandela on the list of terrorists not allowed to enter the United States. On April 9, BBC reported Congressman Howard Berman introduced a bill in Congress to remove Mandela from the list. And soon thereafter, Dr. Condoleezza Rice spoke out about the injustice. It's been a month and I'm still waiting for the announcement - Nelson Mandela is free to travel in and out of the U.S.

What is going on here? I am outraged at how we treat heros such as Nelson Mandela!

And why do we need to wait for the Congress to pass a law? Can't President Bush make a simple request to the State Department, removing Nelson Mandela's name from the travel ban list? Or better yet, if Dr. Rice is really embarrassed by this, why doesn't she just take action and fix the situation?

James Michener, author of "The World Is My Home" would be disgusted with this travel ban. And so should every citizen of the world!

I dream of a world without borders, just like Yusef Islam (formerly known as Cat Stevens). In 2004, Islam was barred from entering the United States, after U.S. security officials said his name was on list of banned people.

Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Pierre Cutler at 12:10 PM | Permalink

Texas corporations just do not get it - they continue to practice sexual discrimination in the workforce.

My proof?

Today's Dallas Morning News reported the CEOs' pay for the top fifty largest publicly traded companies (as measured by 2007 revenue) in the Dallas / Fort Worth area and only two of them are women - Katherine J. Harless of Idearc Inc. (number 27 with $4.8 million) and Mary E. Burton of Zale Corporation (number 47 with $2.5 million).

And worse, according to Dallas Morning News reporter Karen Robinson-Jacobs, the number of women in the boardroom and corporate executive officers is a paltry 8.6% (98 women out of 1,138 positions).

The paper surveyed the top 100 DFW area companies and received 69 responses. The results are pitiful. Of the responding companies, nineteen had no women on their board and no women in executive officer positions. Amazing! 138 directors and all men. 124 officers and all men. And these are the largest companies, where it would be fair to presume diversity. But no sir! (sorry for the pun).

I wonder why 31 companies failed to respond? Perhaps they have even fewer women in executive positions and are hiding from public scrutiny?

God forbid if you are a minority woman! Out of 528 corporate officers, precisely two are minority women (and it's not much better if you are a minority male with just eight).

Folks, these are publicly traded companies. When will shareholders wake up and demand equality?

I am ashamed of these numbers. And you should be too!

But I do know one thing - there will be exactly zero white men on the democratic ticket for this fall's presidential election. Maybe as a result, we'll see a "trickle-down" effect in the Texas boardrooms and corporate offices.

Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Pierre Cutler at 11:00 AM | Permalink

Western Blue, Northern California's largest and most experienced IT service and solution providers, announced the launch of the Extreme IT Makeover Program which will award an IT makeover worth up to $75,000 for a Sacramento business. The goal of this program is to give businesses the ability to be more competitive and grow their business profitably.

As part of this program, Western Blue will partner with HP and Intel to award a complete solution to give the winner the edge it deserves. The package will include an IT and network assessment, design recommendations, set-up/installation services, IT equipment, consultation services, and support and maintenance services.

"We are very excited to announce the launch of the Extreme IT Makeover Program. With so many demands and limited resources, Western Blue has recognized the needs of many small businesses to have IT deliver an impact on growth and profitability," said Terry Joslin, President of Western Blue. "With the help of our partners, we will be able to help Sacramento businesses stay ahead of the competitive and economic pressures."

Visit their website for more information or to apply for the Extreme IT Makeover Program.

Gillian Parrillo
SacWomen

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 3:01 AM | Permalink