What’s Happening at PCG?
From donut parties to happy hours, and holiday parties for every occasion.
It’s always happening at PCG.
News
100 MARIN Fall 2017
When:
September 28, 2017
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Location:
Mill Valley Community Center | 180 Camino Alto, Mill Valley, CA 94941
100+ People Who Care: 100MARIN is Marin County’s premier members-only giving circle. Founded in January 2015, the group has over 200 members.
The giving circle concept is not new. Started in 2006 by a group of cause-minded women in the Midwest, there are now hundreds of giving circles nationwide and abroad.
2016 at PCG
2016 at PCG
What a fantastic year we’ve had! In the Spring we celebrated our 13th anniversary with a Cinco de Mayo Fiesta with employees, clients, and friends.
We also celebrated some key employee anniversaries including on our HR team – Kayla with 2 years, Kim with 3 years, and Carolyn with 6 years of service while in accounting we had Eric with 4 years, Veronica with 3 years, and a whopping 9 years of service for Ike! We are so appreciative to have all these amazing dedicated team members.
New to the PCG team are Mercedes (HR), Melanie and Ryan (both accounting). All three are amazing additions to our ever-growing and developing production lineup! We are so proud of the amazing core team we are building at PCG who continues to provide excellent accounting and human resources departments to our clients. It was through the hard committed work of all our awesome employees that we were recognized by Inc 5000 as one of the Fastest-Growing Private Companies in the US.
Our extended family continues to grow as well. We had a super fun joint baby shower for Kayla & Jamie. We had great fun with some hilarious baby shower games including baby food tasting/guessing and trying to figure out what kind of candy bar had been melted in a diaper! We’re excited to announce that Kayla’s bundle of joy arrived and we all enjoyed meeting her new little one in a recent office visit. We can’t wait to meet Jamie’s in the New Year!
We do like our parties so of course, we had a Halloween Mac-n-Cheese cook-off. Kayla’s spicy Mac-n-Cheese was the unanimous winner. A number of employees got into the spirit and were sporting some creative costumes that day as well.
PCG once again was involved in a number of community events. In particular, as a founding member, we helped support the 4th100 Marin event in September to help raise money for non-profit community development organizations in Marin County. This event raised $40,000 for Defenders, a Marin City Health and Wellness Center behavioral health program for teen boys. The Marin Humane Society, Enriching Lives Through Music, Beyond Differences and the Ceres Community Project were runners-up, receiving $1,000 each. For more information on the program please see the Marin IJ article.
TJ & Franka continued their work with the Entrepreneur’s Organization including leading the organization of a phenomenal anniversary event for the San Francisco chapter’s 25th anniversary, attending the Arizona Alchemy learning event and the EO Strategy Summit where they joined with fellow entrepreneurs on working towards building a strong strategy for developing the organization. Much fun was had by all!
As we head into the end of another great year we of course kicked it off with an Ugly Sweater picture day (here’s the goofy one that didn’t make our annual holiday card) and are looking forward to our annual holiday party.
Wrapping up 2016!
Hey all! We wrapped up 2016 in typical PCG style — with a holiday party! We started the evening at Rickey’s in Novato with a fireside-hosted cocktail hour and appetizers. After the appetizers (which were amazing by the way) we moved to our reserved tables. We ended up taking up half the restaurant! We then relaxed with some great food, wine, and live music
November and December were also great months for employee anniversaries. We had a number of employees celebrate their 3rd year at PCG including Jehanne, Adrienne, Brad, and Katrina. 2013 was a busy hiring year as will be 2017. We just hired Gail Esh who is working with our accounting teams and are excited to have two new bookkeepers starting in January. We are also actively looking to expand the HR team as well. 2017 is going to be a phenomenal year for PCG!
Fall/Winter 2016
The end of 2015 and the start of 2016 have been full of activity at PCG but we still made sure to incorporate some great fun employee events! Of course, Oktoberfest could not go by without a little beer sampling put together by our very own Eric Reinacher, our resident brewing hobbyist, and a whole spread of German treats including homemade German pretzels. We switched things up a bit for our holiday party this year and hosted our own private party sponsored by Katrina Fehring at the Bel Marin Keys Yacht Club. We used our client, Big4 Party Rental for our rental needs, and employees all pitched in to help decorate. Then we sat back, enjoyed the water view, time visiting getting to know each other’s guests, and partaking in a scrumptious dinner catered by xxx, our employee Jamie’s father’s business.
We welcomed some new staff members to the PCG team. Annette Lopez-Lamott is our newest HR Associate to our ever-expanding HR team and Lindsay Stolarczyk joined as an Accounting Associate to support the newest accounting team at PCG. Exciting news for Gail Merz who decided to stretch her wings after 9 years with PCG by moving out on her own. She’ll continue to work for PCG in an agent role, providing seamless support to our mutual HR clients.
We are also excited to announce that TJ Van Voorhees will be serving as the 2016 President of the San Francisco chapter of Entrepreneur’s Organization, a global, peer-to-peer network of more than 11,000 influential business owners, enabling leading entrepreneurs to learn and grow, leading to greater success in business and beyond. Exactly what we strive every day to provide our clients through our services! Both TJ and Franka attended the EO Global President’s Conference in Park City, Utah recently.
Pacific Crest Group continued its community involvement and sponsorship of both the Marin Business Forum and 100Marin. Following are upcoming events:
- Marin Business Forum – A community where like-minded business owners can share valuable information to improve business practices and productivity by leveraging the power of collaboration. Our next quarterly event will be Thursday, March 24, 2016, 5-7pm at Drake’s Landing Community Room in Greenbrae, CA. Our speaker will be Attorney Lester Rosen presenting real-world case studies and expert advice on safe hiring and pre-employment background checks. Please visit MBF Events.
- 100Marin – An evening of food, wine, and philanthropy at which within 1 hour, 100+ people will collectively select one deserving Marin County non-profit and gift them well in excess of $10,000. Thursday, March 10, 2016, 6-8 pm at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging in Novato, CA. For more information and to RSVP please visit 100MARIN.
Both our employees and clients enjoy and benefit from attending these events and we hope you can join us too!
Spring 2015
We are excited to welcome several new members to the PCG team this Spring. David Ibarra is a new accounting associate hired in March and we are awaiting the start date of two more new team members: Peggy Ridge for accounting and Michelle Feeney for human resources starting at the end of April. Also, we are thrilled to announce the promotion of Jehanne DeWalque, one of our Accounting Operations Managers to her new role as Production Manager for PCG.
To continue our team-building and family-oriented culture, PCG hosted a beach weekend out at Stinson Beach! We had lots of food and lots of fun in the sun!
We are celebrating a couple of milestone anniversaries this season … Gail Merz, our Director of Business Consulting and Employee Development has been with PCG for NINE years now and Jamie Sandeen, one our advanced accountants, has been with PCG for THREE years.
To close out, don’t miss our next Marin Business Forum event on June 11, 2015, titled “Leading at Mach 2.” This hard-charging, high-impact keynote offers your leaders the straightforward, critical tools that U.S. fighter pilots employ to lead their wingmen into the demanding environment of aerial combat. Learn how the best fighter squadrons and the best businesses in the world hire future leaders, how they then properly train those individuals and continually promote a process of continuous improvement to stay one step ahead of the competition. Looking forward to seeing you there!
Winter 2014
New Hires for PCG teams:
Our company has been growing rapidly over the last few months. We would like to introduce Jehanne De Walque and Brad Kennison as our new Accounting Managers & Controllers leading our accounting teams. Susan Burnett joined us as an Advanced Accountant. Our HR department has added Katrina Fehring as a Senior HR Advisor. And last but not least, we would like to welcome Adrienne Robertson in the role of a Bookkeeper, and Andrew LaPorte as a new Accounting Associate.
New Consultant to expand Strategic and Executive Services:
We would like to welcome Susan Jackson as a Senior Analyst/CFO Consultant. With over 20 years of financial and business management experience, she brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise from various roles to deliver proven results. She has performed as a consultant for major hospitals to architectural and engineering firms, helping clients increase revenues, reduce costs and optimize business operations.
Birthdays:
This winter, we celebrated the Birthdays of Veronica, Eric, and Larry. Quite an amount of decadent pastries were consumed! Happy Birthday!
Gift Exchange:
Every year, PCG throws a light-hearted gift exchange during the holiday season. It’s always fun to see the gifts that resurface! Not many turn up more than once, but the record for our office is now three years with a well-aged box of red wine. Our office is a little fearful of tasting it, perhaps that’s why it is continuously re-gifted and never enjoyed!
Marin Business Forum:
The January event was a huge success. Speaker Dean Karnazes captivated the audience with his commitment to physical endurance, and the similarities he found in being a successful entrepreneur and long-distance runner.
Fall/Winter 2014
The second half of 2014 brought many changes to PCG as well as a host of holidays for us to celebrate! We are still fine-tuning and adjusting to our new “living” space in San Rafael and having fun exploring our new local environment.
While we haven’t added anyone new to the PCG team, we still have a lot to celebrate! Elaina, Veronica, Gail, Jehanne, and Eric all had birthdays. Adrienne, Brad, and Jehanne from our accounting team and Katrina from our HR team all celebrated their first anniversary with PCG in November and December. Sarah from our accounting team was promoted to be an Operations Manager and just hit her 4th anniversary with PCG, while Eric was promoted to an Advanced Accountant shortly after hitting his 3rd anniversary with PCG! We are so proud of the amazing core team we are building at PCG who continues to provide excellent accounting, HR, and IT services to our clients.
It wouldn’t be any fun if it was all work and no play… Pacific Crest regularly finds time for team-building events outside of work. Whether we were bowling with families, having pizza parties, happy hours, celebrating the holidays, or goofing off with our annual post-holiday gift exchange – we capped off 2014 in style!
Please join the Marin Business Forum this Spring to hear Robert Eyler, CEO of Marin Economic Forum, give his annual update on the health of our local economy and beyond. Visit www.marinbusinessforum.com for more info.
Summer 2014
The most exciting news to announce is our move from Larkspur Landing to a new office building in downtown San Rafael. We are thrilled with the availability for growth potential and the ability to design the interior space to make it a comfortable new home for PCG. To celebrate this big transition, we hosted an open house summer bash with our community!
In addition, this summer we are pleased to announce the marriage of two people from our accounting department. Sarah Cahill is now Mrs. Sarah Zewan and Jamie Dumont is now Mrs. Jamie Sandeen! We couldn’t be happier for them as they start the next chapter in each of their lives. Over the last few months, we brought several new employee additions to our team… Justin Bain is our new Office Administrative Assistant. Sana Suleiman and Elaina Wu are our newest Accounting Associates. We welcome them with open arms!
To close out the summer, we hosted another Marin Business Forum Event at a new location, Drake’s Landing Community Room in Greenbrae on Sept 18th! We learned the Top 5 Things About Crowdfunding. For more information on upcoming events, visit www.marinbusinessforum.com.
Fall 2013
New Hires:
Our hiring frenzy continues with the addition of our new accounting team member, Dana Hixenbaugh. She is our new staff accountant and will be assisting our amazing accounting team with various projects. Her prior work experience includes the county of Marin and the Pasha Group. She is an experienced accountant who will greatly attribute to the effectiveness of our unstoppable accounting team!
Birthdays:
Summer and early Fall bring in quite the number of Birthdays. We celebrated TJ and Ashley’s Birthdays in August, and are looking forward to celebrating Kathleen and Gail’s Birthdays in September.
Consultant:
We would like to welcome Dave Aguero as our new CFO consultant. He has joined the PCG team to help clients with projects as an Interim CFO. Over the last seven years, Dave has served as a CFO for privately-held companies either in a permanent or an interim role. His technical skills, combined with his business development experience, provide a unique blend that allows him to dig deeper into business problems and construct profitable solutions.
MBF:
Featured speakers Coreen Cordova and Laurie O’Hara lectured on what it takes to become a successful entrepreneur and how to raise capital for company growth. And it was another great success!
Our Website is getting a facelift!
Our Hiring page has just been updated! Not only do we have our internal PCG job openings, but also for our clients. Our home page will be getting a new look, so come visit us soon!
EO Alchemy
TJ and Franka spent 3 days at Entrepreneur Organization Alchemy Conference in SF learning from the most amazing local business professionals and Entrepreneurs. Some of the fun activities included the Beach Blanket Babylon and a boat cruise with the Sea Scouts.
PCG Halloween Lunch Party!
What a great, fun-filled Halloween lunch party. This year we had a whole array of characters show up. From kitty-cat Madonna, Mrs. Potato Head, a Witch, a Doctor, and a whole bunch of bakers, who came armed with delicious creations ready to rock the dessert contest. We started with friendly competition, the Mummy wrap, to work up an appetite. It was a great hit. Who knew how quickly one can be wrapped with toilet paper! Another success came from guessing the number of candies in a massive glass jar. Sarah Cahill will never need to buy tootsie rolls again as she came away from the winner, much to the chagrin of many employees. And last but not least, there was quite the turn-out for beautifully decorated and delicious desserts. There are several high-quality bakers at PCG, and they never cease to amaze us with their skills. Though it was difficult to judge, Carolyn Pettit won our best dessert contest. Her whimsical graveyard brownies complete with a beautifully decorated headstone, green grass, and a pumpkin completely astounded our office.
Summer 2013
Birthdays
New Hires
Employee of the month (May) – Gail
Marin Business Forum – June 2013
PCG’s 10th Year Anniversary!
We had great weather, entertainment and yummy food to be had on Stinson Beach for PCG’s 10-year anniversary celebration. Warm sand between our toes, kites soaring in the air and the amazing smell of barbecue wafting all around us make for a joyful time for everyone!
Spring 2013
We are deep into Spring and there has been a lot of interesting, fun, and productive activity happening around PCG.
Marin Business Forum
Mark your calendar for June 13th at 5 pm for our next Marin Business Forum event. We are excited to have Karen Clark from My Business Presence speak about the hot topic of social media in the world of business and marketing. You will get her expert insight on what to do and not, what platforms work best, and how to establish an online presence while remaining true to your business and personal principles. Please visit www.marinbusinessforum.com for more info and RSVP.
April Employee Of The Month
We have a lot to be grateful for and celebrate this spring. First, we would like to congratulate Ike Nam. He is our new PCG’s April 2013 employee of the month winner. Ike has been a huge support to PCG staff helping out in all the possible ways making sure our technology is working for us. In addition to his outstanding work on internal PCG IT projects and tasks, our clients rave about his excellent work and all the amazing ways he supports them, especially with critical and unexpected IT issues.
April And May Birthdays
We’ve celebrated a few birthdays in April and May with some yummy cupcakes: Jamie, David, Carolyn, Franka and Sarah have all turned a year older and wiser!
Anniversaries – PCG Is Turning 10!!!
Two of our employees, Ashley Brunner and Jamie Dumont, have just celebrated their two-year anniversaries with PCG. We all truly enjoy working with them and appreciate all the extraordinary work they do for PCG and our clients. And even BIGGER NEWS: PCG has turned 10 on Cinco de Mayo!!! We will be celebrating this important milestone with all our friends and families with a big beach party and BBQ in June. Pictures to follow!
Doug Crawford Joining PCG
Doug Crawford, COO of Crimson Consulting and Marketing Group has joined the PCG team as a Senior Advisor. He brings with him expertise in strategic and operational planning and years of experience in organizational development and alignment to our team. More about his background can be viewed at www.pcg-services.com/about/ Since our last news report, we enjoyed our Holiday Party in December when we all cruised 
along the bay while enjoying the merriment and festivities surrounding the annual Light Yacht Parade in Oakland. It was quite a scene observing the decorations on those fancy boats! Another holiday highlight (and a big hit!) was our White Elephant gift exchange. In this humorous, tongue-in-cheek event, we discovered that a few select items are so popular that they are re-gifted every year, year after year. This year’s popular items included a dancing Santa Claus in a bathtub (with new batteries, of course!), and an even further aged box of wine, which now begs the question: “What type of cheese would go well with that one?”
Annual PCG Community Outreach and Donation:
PCG is participating in the Marin County Human Race this year on May 11. The Human Race is a nationwide community fundraising event for nonprofit organizations and is one of the largest collaborative fundraising events in Marin! Over the past 31 years, it has grown into one of the most successful fundraisers for local nonprofits, raising nearly $6 million for local charities since it started. All donations are tax-deductible. We ask you to please contribute whatever you can to this incredibly important cause. We really appreciate your support, whether it is financially or in spirit! Thank you! If you would like to donate to this amazing cause please click the green “Donate Now” button on the right on this webpage: http://www.marinhumanrace.org/goto/CenterforDomesticPeace
Marin Business Forum
In January and March, we proudly sponsored another two successful Marin Business Forum events, both of which were sold out with over 90 attendees. Our January guest speaker was Robert Eyler, Professor of Economics and Director of the Center for Regional Economic Analysis and the Executive MBA program at Sonoma State University Robert spoke offered his perspective on the economic forces shaping the future of Marin County. Our March guest speakers Chuck Greene, Executive Director of the Cedars of Marin, and Joan Capurro, Senior Vice President and Director of Community Relations for the Bank of Marin, discussed the hidden challenges facing non-profits and how for-profit and non-profit can collaborate to help on another. Our next Marin Business Forum meeting is on June 13thand will feature Karen Clark providing training on Ethical Social Media for Entrepreneurs.
Beer Tasting (Did you think we’re all about Financial Services and HR?)
Not every office can boast that they have three incredible craftsmen in the art of brewing beer! PCG Team members David, Erik, and Ike became the leaders of our first beer tasting competition, with beers ranging from sweet and light to a hearty dark brew.
Pizza Lunch w/ Employee of the Month
With the glorious weather of spring finally upon us, we recently hosted a delicious outdoor lunch on our patio. As the weather warms up, we hope to do this more often!
The start of the new season also kicked off by announcing the first Employee of the Month and holding an award ceremony to honor the first recipient! It’s always great to receive recognition for any task, big or small. This month’s well-deserved award goes to Sarah Cahill! Why did we select Sarah? There were many reasons, including that she is a patient and willing helper who readily steps up to help in any project.
Mohammad Malik Joins the PCG Team
In January, we were very pleased to welcome Mohammad Malik to our team! Malik graduated with a Bachelors in Accounting from Cal State East Bay and is experienced in accounting, auditing, and taxes in the Governmental, Non-Profit, Public, and Private Sectors. He is also a big basketball and football fan!
Team Birthdays
We recently celebrated the Birthdays of a few great employees. In January, Eric and Larry were the birthday boys, followed by Dory in February.
Dory’s Engagement
And speaking of Dory…not only did we celebrate her birthday, but are also happy to announce that she is now engaged! Dory Weston is one of our Advanced Accountants. Congrats to her and her fiancé!
Fall 2012
As leaves continue to fall and temperatures sizzle here at the PCG headquarters there is no sign of slowing down: In September we have added three times more new clients to our ever-expanding client list than the previous month, and two more amazing employees, Marie Estorge, Advanced Accountant, and Eric Reinacher, Accounting Associate. Marie Estorge is an experienced accountant with 10+ years in the role of Sr. Accountant. Besides her professional passion for Accounting and numbers, she is a Head Dive Coach at her local High School, a fiction book writer, and an excellent cook judging by all the yummy meals we see her eating during her downtimes at PCG. She joined the Accounting Team led by Ashley Brunner, and team members David Lee and Jamie Dumont. Eric Reinacher is a recent college graduate from UC Davis. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics. In his free time, Eric enjoys playing bass and soccer. He speaks German and Spanish and compliments our team with his intelligence and a great sense of humor. As a part of a continued effort to participate in local events and give back to a community, the Pacific Crest Group team has participated in the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life event on 08/25/2012 and helped raise $2,845.00. Led by Dory Weston, one of our Accounting Associates, PCG had a team walking in the event for 24 hours. Her leadership and inspiration garnered tremendous support for this worthy cause. Thank you to everyone who supported us and thanks you, Dory, for organizing this fun event for our team. On September 20th yet another successful Marin Business Forum event we sponsor took place at the Wood Island Auditorium. Collaborative Entrepreneurship: How Networks of Small Companies Can Do Big Things” was the subject that drew the crowd of 40 attendees.
The presenter, John Stayton, Director and Co-founder of Venture Greenhouse and Assistant Professor MBA in Sustainable Enterprise (Green MBA) for the Dominican University of California offered some valuable insights on startups and tips for building small businesses as part of a collaborative community. Attendees participated in a quick team networking exercise and exchanged ideas and contact information. Afterward, everyone participated in a lottery drawing while enjoying surprisingly warm weather, beverages, tasty appetizers and magnificent views of San Francisco Bay from our deck. Lucky winners received spa gift certificates, etc…For more information about this and upcoming Marin Business Forum events please visit the MBF website:http://marinbusinessforum.com/.
We have also celebrated two PCG team members’ birthdays in the month of September: Kathleen, our Admin. Associate and Gail, our HR Director, were put on a spot and honored by the whole PCG team for everything they do for us with delicious baking creations made as usual by Carolyn Pettit, our baker extraordinaire/HR specialist/Dancing instructor. We all indulged in chocolate and cream, and a wave of sugar high carried us for at least another week and helped us keep up with the high-paced environment of our office. Halloween spirit took our office by storm on October 31st. Chips, salsa, costumes, and playfulness brought a taste of the upcoming Holiday season to our workplace and left us entertained and inspired
. Between the variety of characters that showed up that day we had a tigress, a policewoman with a baton, a guy from Studio 68 with big hair and matching glasses, and a flower child from the ’60s with lots of beads and a flowery dress. All of them have made this experience one to remember for a long time. The holiday season has arrived at the PCG office with a bang!
PCG Raises over $2,845 for San Rafael Relay for Life, August 25th-26th, 2012
Pacific Crest Group was pleased to support the American Cancer Society at this year’s Relay for Life®. PCG had a team walking in the event, led by Dory Weston, one of our Advanced Accountants. Her leadership and inspiration garnered tremendous support for this worthy cause. Thank you to everyone who supported us and thanks you, Dory, for organizing this!
Urgent PCG News Flash: San Rafael Relay for Life, August 25th-26th at College of Marin
Pacific Crest Group is eager to invite you to join us in supporting the American Cancer Society at this year’s Relay for Life®. PCG has a team walking in the event, led by Dory Weston, one of our Advanced Accountants. Her leadership and inspiration to the team have garnered tremendous support for this worthy cause. We would like to reach out to all of you to join us at the Relay for a Life event, or provide support in any way you can. Thank you Dory for organizing this!