Growing up on a ranch and having your own Shetland pony may seem like an idyllic childhood, but for Shannon Zullo, MD, the reality included a lot of hard work and being surrounded by poverty.

An aspiring dermatologist and Mohs surgeon, Dr. Zullo holds the titles of chair, alternate delegate and Resident and Fellow Section representative for the AMA Minority Affairs Section.

Dr. Zullo, who appeared in an episode of the “AMA Prioritizing Equity” video series examining the impact of COVID-19 on Native Americans, is one of the few reservation-born physicians in the U.S. She grew up on a ranch in the Navajo Nation, the largest reservation in the U.S., covering some 25,000 square miles with a population of around 165,000.

As a young girl, it was her job to provide water for the cattle, horses, sheep, goats, ducks, chicken and geese on the ranch. This required her to learn how to drive a stick shift at 12 so she could use the family’s old Ford pickup truck to get water at a windmill-powered pump and haul it out to the livestock.

In addition to watering the animals, Dr. Zullo tended to those needing first aid and medical attention.

“I’ve always wanted to be a doctor since I was a little kid, 5 to 6 years old,” Dr. Zullo said. “I’m told that I used to run around with a medical kit to aid any animals who were injured on our ranch.”

That desire to be a physician came to fruition many years later, as Dr. Zullo was accepted into the University of Arizona’s Pre-Medical Admissions Pathway (P-MAP) program for Arizona students from rural areas who belonged to historically marginalized populations. As a result, she earned a master’s degree in cellular and molecular medicine. She then went on to earn her medical degree from the University of Arizona College of Medicine.

Dr. Zullo is in her final year of dermatology residency at the University of California, San Francisco, and is applying for fellowship in Micrographic Surgery and Dermatologic Oncology.

Dr. Zullo spoke with the AMA about how growing up on the reservation affected her career choice, why COVID-19 hit the Navajo Nation so hard, the need for more Native American physicians and how organized medicine can help.

AMA: How did your life experiences influence your decision to go into medicine in general and into dermatology specifically?

Dr. Zullo: I was born and raised on the reservation in northeast Arizona in a small town called Chinle—which was one of the hardest hit places with COVID-19.

Throughout my childhood and adult life, there have been medical emergencies and inequities that have affected my family directly. During those periods, I can remember feeling a strong sense of helplessness and wanting to learn medicine so that I could support my family and community.

We had an Indian Health Service hospital in town, and that was my only exposure to medicine. I sometimes wonder if my desire to pursue medicine was in part from the desolation and the poverty on the reservation. I saw the doctors who came from other places as being smart, successful, and trustworthy. I respected those traits and wanted to embody those characteristics.

Growing up in a community with lower health literacy, stigmas can develop, especially for patients with skin conditions. I remember a gentleman who had neurofibromatosis in our community, and he was just riddled with neurofibromas. People ostracized him and treated him as if he was contagious for a genetic condition.

In medical school, we did a survey study on acne and acne scarring in members of federally recognized tribes who lived on a reservation. We found higher rates of scarring than in other populations.

On the reservation, we didn’t have access to many specialty options, including dermatology. The Indian Health Service is underfunded and focuses its resources mostly on primary health needs. Out of roughly 12,000 practicing dermatologists, only 31 self-identify as Native American. So, there’s a profound need for Native American dermatologists who understand the patient population and know how best to help them.

Related Coverage

Why we should think of the physician workforce as an ecosystem

AMA: What health care needs are going unmet on reservations? What’s lacking that would be considered basic service?

Dr. Zullo: A lot of the Navajo Nation reservation is very rural, and one of the biggest impacts on health is that roughly 30% of our community doesn’t have running water. Some folks spend days just figuring out where they’re going to haul water from next.

With COVID, we saw that impact because people couldn’t regularly wash their hands.

Chinle is a small tourist town, so we had running water and electricity, but my grandparents—who we went to see almost every weekend to work on their ranch—didn’t have running water. We had to haul water to them in large barrels.

Much of the reservation is also a “food desert.” Nutritious food is hard to come by, and when available, it was incredibly expensive. Growing up, I ate a lot of canned fruits and vegetables because that was what we could afford.

And though I had running water, it came out of the tap yellow. We never drank it. There was a real fear about contamination in the water due to poor infrastructure like old pipes. So, I grew up drinking predominantly soda. To this day, I’m still mostly a seltzer drinker.

Unfortunately, many of these basic health issues still exist. And it’s a big reason why Native Americans have the lowest life expectancy of any racial group in the United States.

AMA: There have been 86,000 cases of COVID-19 reported in Navajo Nation and more than 2,200 deaths. Why was the impact so severe?

Dr. Zullo: I think it goes back to the basic unmet needs: access to water, to healthy food, and to more housing. Many of our homes are multigenerational.

As a young child, I lived with my grandma. There were times when it was my grandma, my great grandma, my aunt, my uncle and his family plus my family—all in a three-bedroom home with only one bathroom.

And that was considered good. Many Navajo families have it worse.

When you can’t wash your hands, take a shower, and don’t have indoor plumbing—you are at a severe disadvantage against a respiratory pandemic. We have roughly 165,000 Navajo people living on the reservation, and 2,200 died. That’s like one in every 75 people. A profound loss of life, especially of our elders and the potential cultural knowledge we have lost.

AMA: Why would having more Native American physicians help?

Dr. Zullo: Native Americans are the most underrepresented group in medicine. There’s about 850,000 physicians in the U.S. and there are only 2,600 who self-recognize as Native American. That means only about 0.3% are physicians. Nearly 3% of the U.S. population, per our last census, self-identified as American Indian or Alaska Native – so that’s a huge disparity.

Every time you meet a Native American physician, there should really be 10 of us.

Unless you grow up in that kind of environment, it’s harder to understand how to best treat or care for the people. These are communities built on trust.

Related Coverage

Q&A: How to support and retain Native American medical students

There was a research study looking at Native American medical student matriculation and found that a high percentage of AI/AN graduates were likely to practice in underserved areas, including reservations—and at a higher rate than their peers.

The important thing is that we need to get the people who come from these places to go into medicine because they’re the ones who are most likely to go back and serve. We need to do more to reduce the largest representation gap in the physician workforce.

AMA: Tell us about your work in organized medicine.

Dr. Zullo: I love being a part of the AMA, because we have the opportunity to work with physicians and medical students from all over the country to tackle our biggest problems—like reservation healthcare.

Also, within the AMA, there are many avenues to make difference—whether it be meaningful policy, programming, communications, or new initiatives.

My leadership philosophy has been motivated by my upbringing. If the corral fence breaks, I can’t complain about it for three months and hope someone else fixes it. It must get done. So, you roll up your sleeves, you think creatively about how to fix it, and you work with others to make it happen. During our governing council meetings, I try to make time for a brainstorm session to find actionable objectives. The ideas have been amazing and we’re working on exciting things.

I am lucky to have an incredible governing council, with leaders from every facet of representation, and many of them having served as national leaders themselves. For my term, our primary focus has been to restrengthen the MAS in a positive way, through solutions, data-driven policy and creating new opportunities for our membership.

I think the sky’s the limit as far as what you can accomplish in organized medicine. To other Native Americans out there – please know that you can truly make a difference. The AMA has been very supportive.

But it’s a labor of love. You must have a reason for why you want to do this. For me, it’s because I’ve seen too much suffering in my community to not do something about it. And if I don’t step up, who’s going to do it? There are only a few of us who can even be in the room.

People ask: “When is our work done?”

For me, my work will be done when my people have running water, access to nutritious food and good health care. When Native Americans are on parity with other racial groups in medicine. I believe in that future, and I’ll keep working at it until we get there.

The post Doctor chief is pushed to offer again to her Navajo neighborhood appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

05.11.23

Sweeping New War On Coal Regulations Announced Today By President Biden’s EPA Will Shutter Power Plants, Drive Up The Cost Of Electricity, And Further Reduce The Electric Grid’s Reliability, All While Relying On Technology And Infrastructure That Don’t Exist Yet And Could Once Again Run Afoul Of The Law

SENATE REPUBLICAN LEADER MITCH McCONNELL (R-KY): “By outsourcing his energy policy to the radical left, President Biden is outsourcing away America’s energy security and independence. Today, the EPA resurrected the devastating climate regulations that liberals have spent more than a decade trying to drop on folks in Kentucky, West Virginia, and the rest of coal country. By imposing unworkable deadlines and unproven technologies not commercially available, this latest version of Democrats’ so-called ‘Clean Power Plan’ poses an existential threat to providers of affordable and reliable American energy. Complying with Washington bureaucrats’ latest wishes requires technology that producers cannot access, costs that they cannot swallow, and pain that lower-income ratepayers cannot stomach. This sequel to a failed Obama-era policy is also the revival of an illegal power grab the judiciary slapped down less than a year ago. The Supreme Court made it clear last April that Congress did not authorize this sort of draconian policy. Then, Democrats tried to give the Administration this sweeping authority as part of their reckless taxing and spending spree, but the provision violated Senate rules and never became law. So now the Biden Administration is trying to ram through the policy unilaterally. The far left is coming back for yet another bite at the apple. The Obama-Biden war on coal has come in many different forms, but the same basic disdain for Middle America keeps showing its face. Democrats’ obsession with Green New Deal social engineering would further compound the pain their historic inflation has already caused. Their agenda is a recipe for soaring energy prices, electricity blackouts, and less national security. Working Americans cannot afford this — and Kentuckians and West Virginians least of all.” (Sen. McConnell, Press Release, 5/11/2023)

SENATE ENVIRONMENT & PUBLIC WORKS COMMITTEE RANKING MEMBER SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO (R-WV): “The Clean Power Plan 2.0 announced today is the Biden administration’s most blatant attempt yet to close down power plants and kill American energy jobs. The EPA has already tried this illegal overreach, which was ultimately overturned by the Supreme Court, but not before it devastated communities in West Virginia and across the country. Whether it’s through policies like the Inflation Reduction Act or an onslaught of executive branch regulations like those announced today, Americans are well aware that the left continues to wage war on the energy sources that actually power this nation. At a time when millions of Americans are struggling to fill up their tanks and pay their utility bills under President Biden, it’s reprehensible that this administration would clamp down even further on domestic energy production while advancing policies meant to increase demand for electricity. I plan to introduce a Congressional Review Act resolution of disapproval to protect workers and families from the disastrous impacts of these latest job-killing regulations.” (Senate EPW Committee Ranking Member, Press Release, 5/11/2023)

SENATE ENERGY & NATURAL RESOURCES COMMITTEE RANKING MEMBER JOHN BARRASSO (R-WY): “Last year, the Supreme Court threw out the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) overreaching mandates on power plant emissions. The Court rightfully confirmed Congress, not the EPA, has the authority to create environmental policy. Nothing has changed since then to give the unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats at the EPA this authority. The EPA’s new proposed rules would kill jobs in Wyoming and raise energy costs for families across the country. We can protect the environment and unleash clean, affordable, and reliable American energy at the same time.” (Sen. Barrasso, Press Release, 5/11/2023)

The Biden Administration Is Imposing An Immense, Sweeping Regulation On Power Plants That Account For 60% Of Electricity Generation In The United States

“The Biden administration is announcing a climate rule that would require most fossil fuel power plants to slash their greenhouse gas pollution 90 percent between 2035 and 2040 — or shut down. The highly anticipated regulation being unveiled Thursday morning is just the latest step in President Joe Biden’s campaign to green the U.S. economy …” (“Biden Rule Tells Power Plants To Cut Climate Pollution By 90 Percent — Or Shut Down,” Politico, 5/11/2023)

• “The draft power plant rule from the Environmental Protection Agency would break new ground by requiring steep pollution cuts from plants burning coal or natural gas, which together provide the lion’s share of the nation’s electricity. To justify the size of those cuts, the agency says fossil fuel plants could capture their greenhouse gas emissions before they hit the atmosphere — a long-debated technology that no power plant in the U.S. uses now. As an alternative, utilities could hasten their decisions to shut down their aging coal plants …” (“Biden Rule Tells Power Plants To Cut Climate Pollution By 90 Percent — Or Shut Down,” Politico, 5/11/2023)

“[T]he scope of the power plant rule is immense. About 60% of the electricity generated in the U.S. last year came from burning fossil fuels at the nation’s 3,400 coal and gas-fired plants, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.” (“In Major Climate Step, EPA Proposes 1st Limits On Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Power Plants,” The Associated Press, 5/11/2023)

Of Course The Rule Will Raise The Cost Of Generating Power, Meaning Higher Electricity Bills, Which Even The EPA Admits Will Be The Result

“[T]he proposed rules would increase costs for power plant operators …” (“E.P.A. Proposes First Limits on Climate Pollution From Existing Power Plants,” The New York Times, 5/11/2023)

“The EPA’s analysis says the proposal would cause retail electricity prices to rise by about 2 percent in 2030 … [EPA Administrator Michael] Regan called that ‘negligible’ …” (The Washington Post, 5/11/2023)

In Advance Of His Reelection Campaign, President Biden Is Rushing To Placate Green New Deal Demands From Climate Zealots To Transform American Energy And The Economy

“The agency has been issuing a raft of new rule proposals just in recent weeks as it attempts to fulfill Biden’s big climate promises before he faces reelection.” (“EPA Plan Would Impose Drastic Cuts On Power Plant Emissions By 2040,” The Washington Post, 4/22/2023)

• “The Biden administration is under pressure to finish this work in a little more than a year, to make it harder to reverse should the president lose reelection.” (The Washington Post, 5/11/2023)

“EPA is rushing to fulfill Biden’s big climate promises before he faces reelection. Last month the agency announced the strictest restrictions ever on emissions for cars and trucks … Later this year, the agency is supposed to finish new limits on the oil and gas industry’s emissions of methane …” (The Washington Post, 5/11/2023)

• “The newest proposal comes as EPA continues along an ambitious regulatory agenda to sharply ramp down the use of oil, natural gas and coal in vehicles and the power sector in order to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030. The agency proposed the nation’s strongest-ever limits on cars and trucks’ greenhouse gas pollution [in April], with the goal of spurring a huge surge in sales of electric vehicles.” (“Biden’s Newest Big Climate Rule Will Rest On Rarely Used Technology,” Politico, 4/24/2023)

Today’s Rule Is The Latest Front In A Decade-Long War On Coal By The Obama And Biden Administrations

NPR: “A climate regulation nearly a decade in the making” (NPR, 5/11/2023)

The New Biden Rule ‘Is One Part Of EPA’s Biden-Era Clampdown On Coal’ With His EPA Administrator Promising, ‘We Will See Some Coal Retirements’

“The new, tighter limits would … push all existing coal-fired plants by 2040 to either close, shift to cleaner fuel or capture their carbon dioxide emissions at the smokestack, the [EPA] said.” (The Washington Post, 5/11/2023)

“[T]he coal industry may have the most to lose under this proposal.” (NPR, 5/11/2023)

• “Coal remains a major industry in West Virginia and preserving coal-fired electricity is a priority for many people there.” (NPR, 5/11/2023)

“The rule is one part of EPA’s Biden-era clampdown on coal …” (“Biden Rule Tells Power Plants To Cut Climate Pollution By 90 Percent — Or Shut Down,” Politico, 5/11/2023)

“[EPA Administrator Michael] Regan, on a call with reporters, said power companies will elect to shutter some coal plants …” (“EPA Issues Plan To Clamp Down On Power Plant Carbon Emissions,” Axios, 5/11/2023)

‘It’s Truly An Onslaught Designed To Shut Down The Coal Fleet Prematurely,’ ‘Solely Based On The EPA’s Desire To End Coal Powered Generation In The United States’

“‘It’s truly an onslaught’ of government regulation ‘designed to shut down the coal fleet prematurely,’ Rich Nolan, president and CEO of the National Mining Association, said in an interview before the rule was announced.” (“In Major Climate Step, EPA Proposes 1st Limits On Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Power Plants,” The Associated Press, 5/11/2023)

NATIONAL MINING ASSOCIATION: “Each one of the rules coming from the Biden administration’s EPA is designed to make it impossible for states and utilities to make decisions based on the merits of what keeps the lights on and electricity inflation low, forcing them to make decisions solely based on the EPA’s desire to end coal powered generation in the United States. The coal fleet continues to perform an outsized role in many states and communities, providing dispatchable fuel diversity and security, and ramping up power supply during periods of surging demand when other sources of power cannot. EPA’s indifference to the repercussions of its decisions on our ability to provide reliable, affordable electricity to Americans is simply reckless especially when other federal officials are calling it a crisis.” (National Mining Association, Press Release, 5/10/2023)

REMINDER: Biden Once Pledged To Have ‘No Coal Plants Here In America’ And His Climate Envoy Echoed, ‘We Will Not Have Coal Plants’ In The U.S.

THEN-SEN. JOE BIDEN (D-DE): “No coal plants here in America…. We’re not supporting clean coal.” (“Biden: ‘No Coal Plants Here In America,’” Politico, 9/23/2008)

JOHN KERRY, U.S. Special Envoy For Climate: “By 2030 in the United States, we won’t have coal…. We will not have coal plants.” (“U.S. ‘Won’t Have Coal’ by 2030, John Kerry Predicts in Glasgow,” Bloomberg Government, 11/09/2021)

OBAMA ADMINISTRATION FLASHBACK: ‘A War On Coal Is Exactly What’s Needed,’ ‘We’re Going To Put A Lot Of Coal Miners … Out Of Business’

HILLARY CLINTON: “We’re going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business.” (“Why Putting Coal Miners Out Of Work Is A Very Bad Thing To Say In West Virginia,” The Washington Post, 5/10/2016)

THEN-SEN. BARACK OBAMA: “So if somebody wants to build a coal fired plant they can, it’s just that it will bankrupt them because they are going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that is being emitted.” (The San Francisco Chronicle, 1/17/2008)

DANIEL P. SCHRAG, Obama White House Climate Adviser: “The one thing the president really needs to do now is to begin the process of shutting down the conventional coal plants. …a war on coal is exactly what’s needed.” (The New York Times, 6/25/2013)

Obama EPA Official: “The Romans used to conquer little villages in the Mediterranean. They’d go into a little Turkish (sic) town somewhere, they’d find the first five guys they saw and they would crucify them. And then you know that town was really easy to manage for the next few years. And so you make examples out of people…” (Forbes, 4/26/2012)

At A Time When Demand For Electricity Is Soaring, The New EPA Rule Will Harm The Reliability Of America’s Electric Grid By Forcing More Power Plants To Shutter

Electricity Use Has Climbed 73% In The Last Four Decades While ‘Widespread Power Outages Have Surged’ In Recent Years

“Carbon emissions from the U.S. power sector are at the same level as in 1984, while electricity use has climbed 73% since then, [Edison Electric Institute President Tom] Kuhn said.” (“In Major Climate Step, EPA Proposes 1st Limits On Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Power Plants,” The Associated Press, 5/11/2023)

“[W]ith that new type of demand for electricity surging, it will put more stress on a grid that has struggled in recent years. Widespread power outages have surged, especially from snowstorms, hurricanes and wildfires. From 2017 to 2021, electricity customers nationwide spent seven hours a year without power, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, up from less than four hours a year from 2013 to 2016.” (The Washington Post, 5/11/2023)

“The Electric Power Supply Association, an industry trade group representing power suppliers, said the new rules come as rising demand, retirements of existing generating units and changing weather patterns are stressing the nation’s electric grid. ‘Aspirational policy is getting ahead of operational reality,’ said EPSA President and Chief Executive Todd Snitchler. ‘If finalized, these aggressive rules will undoubtedly drive up energy costs and lead to a substantial number of power plant retirements.’” (“Biden Administration Targets Power-Plant Emissions in New Climate Initiative,” The Wall Street Journal, 5/11/2023)

But The Biden Rule Will Force Even More Power Plant Shut Downs

“Critics also argue the regulations will force coal and gas-fired power plants to shut down and leave the grid vulnerable to blackouts.” (NPR, 5/11/2023)

“Even if courts nix the upcoming EPA rules, their mere existence could prod utilities to shutter existing natural gas power plants depending on how the agency designs the regulations, said Todd Snitchler, president of the Electric Power Supply Association, a trade group that represents power generators.” (“Biden’s Big Bet To Take On Coal Power,” Politico, 4/26/2023)

Just Last Week, Every Single FERC Commissioner Agreed That Removing Coal Generation Would Make America’s Electric Grid Unreliable

SEN. JOE MANCHIN (D-WV), Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman: “[I]n today’s world and what you all talked about, the energy and the grid system and all that, do any of you believe that it’s possible to eliminate coal today or in the near future and be able to maintain a reliable or a somewhat reliable system? Is coal intricately irreplaceable at this point in time? Chairman Phillips?”
FERC CHAIRMAN WILLIE PHILLIPS: “Senator, we’ve talked about this before, I believe in an all of the above approach. Whatever resources are needed to keep our grid reliable, we have to make sure that they are available.”
…
SEN. MANCHIN: “So if you pulled [coal] off [the energy grid] right now would it give you the certainty that the system would give you the reliability you needed?”
PHILLIPS: “It would not.”
MANCHIN: “Okay. Commissioner Danly?”
FERC COMMISSIONER JAMES DANLY: “Thank you. No, as things stand, coal is required. It makes up—I don’t know, just under a quarter of all the installed capacity in America and if it were—it would be impossible given the locations and the realities of the electric system to replace it.”
SEN. MANCHIN: “Commissioner Clements?”
FERC COMMISSIONER ALLISON CLEMENTS: “Right now, today, no.”
FERC COMMISSIONER MARK CHRISTIE: “Coal is more dependable than gas. And yes, we need to keep coal generation available for the foreseeable future.” (U.S. Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee Hearing, 5/04/2023)

‘It Is Just The Latest Instance Of EPA Failing To Prioritize Reliable Electricity’

NATIONAL RURAL ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE ASSOCIATION (NRECA) CEO JIM MATHESON: “This proposal will further strain America’s electric grid and undermine decades of work to reliably keep the lights on across the nation. And it is just the latest instance of EPA failing to prioritize reliable electricity as a fundamental expectation of American consumers. We’re concerned the proposal could disrupt domestic energy security, force critical always available power plants into early retirement, and make new natural gas plants exceedingly difficult to permit, site, and build.” (National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, Press Release, 5/11/2023)

• MATHESON: “Nine states experienced rolling blackouts last December as the demand for electricity exceeded the available supply. Those situations will become even more frequent if EPA continues to craft rules without any apparent consideration of impacts on electric grid reliability. American families and businesses rightfully expect the lights to stay on at a price they can afford. EPA needs to recognize the impact this proposal will have on the future of reliable energy before it’s too late.” (National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, Press Release, 5/11/2023)

Incredibly, The New EPA Rule Relies On Technology That Is Prohibitively Expensive And In Use Almost Nowhere, And On Infrastructure That Doesn’t Currently Exist

“President Joe Biden’s newest bid to cut the nation’s climate pollution relies on a series of big bets. The upcoming rule from the Environmental Protection Agency is expected to depend on rarely used technology for capturing power plants’ greenhouse gas pollution…. [C]arbon-capturing technology is not yet in place in any active commercial power plant in the U.S., and industry groups argue it’s not ready for wide deployment.” (“Biden’s Big Bet To Take On Coal Power,” Politico, 4/26/2023)

“[Q]uestions remain about whether the technology can be deployed quickly and affordably enough at the nation’s thousands of coal- and gas-burning plants. Carbon capture ran into hurdles and huge cost overruns when power plants tried to use it during the past two decades. And capturing CO2 from plants burning natural gas — a growing part of the electricity mix — poses higher cost challenges than many other pollution sources.” (Politico, 5/11/2023)

Only Two Power Plants In All Of North America Have Installed Carbon Capture Technologies

“Only two commercial-scale coal-fired power plants in North America have installed carbon capture technologies: Petra Nova in Texas and Boundary Dam in Saskatchewan, Canada. Both projects experienced cost overruns and performance issues that caused them to miss their targets …” (“Biden’s Big Bet To Take On Coal Power,” Politico, 4/26/2023)

• “In fact, only one power plant in the world is using carbon capture at scale: the Boundary Dam Power Station near Estevan in Saskatchewan, Canada — just over the North Dakota border.” (Politico, 5/11/2023)

• “In the U.S., only one power plant has ever captured carbon dioxide at scale: the W.A. Parish Generating Station near Houston, which is the site of the Petra Nova project…. Otherwise, the U.S. has more than a dozen proposed carbon capture projects at power plants — including several with a target start date before 2030 — but none have moved to construction, according to the [Global CCS Institute].” (Politico, 5/11/2023)

The Technology Is So Expensive, More Carbon Capture Projects Have Shuttered Than Are Up And Running, While The Existing Ones Have Suffered From Massive Cost Overruns

“Many other attempts in the U.S. to install carbon capture in the power sector failed in the past 15 years, dating back to a 2011 project by American Electric Power Co. in West Virginia called Mountaineer that sought to capture CO2 from a large coal plant. Other failed projects include Southern Co.’s Kemper project, the Texas Clean Energy Project and FutureGen 2.0, which envisioned a low-emissions large coal plant in Illinois.” (Politico, 5/11/2023)

• “The Petra Nova project ran up a roughly $1 billion tab, including nearly $200 million in federal money. The Kemper project’s cost projection skyrocketed to $7.5 billion before the plant switched to natural gas without carbon capture, according to one analysis.” (Politico, 5/11/2023)

“The reason for this project graveyard is relatively simple: CCS is expensive … The challenge for carbon capture developers has been that capturing the CO2 is just the start of the costs. Then comes the expense of transporting the greenhouse gas — typically through a pipeline — to wherever it will be either stored or used. In the power sector, many utilities have cheaper options for electricity.” (Politico, 5/11/2023)

“[E]lectric utilities have complained that any policy that forces them to install carbon capture technology would be far too expensive, driving up energy costs for consumers. A 2021 report by a group of 600 global investors, including BlackRock, State Street Global Advisors and other top shareholders of U.S. investor-owned utilities, said the high costs of carbon capture ‘make it a risky and potentially expensive decarbonization strategy.’” (“E.P.A. to Propose First Controls on Greenhouse Gases From Power Plants,” The New York Times, 4/22/2023)

And Carbon Capture Requires ‘Miles Of Pipeline’ That Don’t Exist And Which Democrats And Environmental Lobbyists Have Made Incredibly Difficult To Build

“Still, a utility industry source said that even if [federal] subsidies bring the costs down, there’s no escaping the fact that there’s little existing pipeline and storage infrastructure for captured carbon in the US.” (CNN, 5/11/2023)

“Operators of many coal-fired plants would need to build miles of pipeline to transport their captured carbon dioxide to storage sites, at a time when Congress has been unable to agree on permitting changes that could speed up such projects. Republicans have also criticized EPA’s slow pace of processing applications for carbon storage wells around the U.S.” (“Biden Rule Tells Power Plants To Cut Climate Pollution By 90 Percent — Or Shut Down,” Politico, 5/11/2023)

Just Last Year, The Supreme Court Reined In The EPA’s Overreach On Regulating Power Plant Emissions And The New Rule Could Already Be On Shaky Legal Ground

“The Supreme Court has loomed over the effort. It ruled last year that the EPA during the Obama administration had exceeded its authority by building the first attempt at such regulations around a new system to push power companies to switch fuels across their fleets, and replace coal with cleaner options.” (“EPA Plan Would Impose Drastic Cuts On Power Plant Emissions By 2040,” The Washington Post, 4/22/2023)

“Less than a year after the Supreme Court settled one battle over EPA’s climate authority, the Biden administration is teeing up round two. EPA is expected to soon propose the strongest-ever restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions from fossil-fuel-fired power plants … The regulation would follow the Obama administration’s signature 2015 Clean Power Plan, which the Supreme Court ruled out of bounds 10 months ago using the ‘major questions’ doctrine, a legal theory that says Congress must explicitly authorize agencies to regulate significant issues …” (“Biden Plans New EPA Power Plant Rule. Will SCOTUS Kill It?,” E&E News, 4/24/2023)

“Jeff Holmstead, who ran EPA’s air office under George W. Bush and is now an attorney at the firm Bracewell, said the rule appears to have ‘serious legal vulnerabilities.’ He pointed to the dearth of carbon capture and storage projects operating in the U.S. ‘I don’t think it would be that hard to say, ‘look, this technology hasn’t been adequately demonstrated yet,’’ Holmstead said.” (“Biden Rule Tells Power Plants To Cut Climate Pollution By 90 Percent — Or Shut Down,” Politico, 5/11/2023)

• “[C]arbon-capturing technology is not yet in place in any active commercial power plant in the U.S., and industry groups argue it’s not ready for wide deployment. That could make the EPA proposal especially vulnerable in the courts, because the Clean Air Act requires the agency to show that the technologies it proposes are ‘adequately demonstrated’ — not something that might work in the future.” (“Biden’s Big Bet To Take On Coal Power,” Politico, 4/26/2023)

• “Only two commercial-scale coal-fired power plants in North America have installed carbon capture technologies … Both projects experienced cost overruns and performance issues that caused them to miss their targets … That means the technology flunks the Clean Air Act’s ‘adequately demonstrated’ test, Bracewell attorney Scott Segal argued.” (“Biden’s Big Bet To Take On Coal Power,” Politico, 4/26/2023)

###
SENATE REPUBLICAN COMMUNICATIONS CENTER

Related Issues:

Regulations,

Energy,

Green New Deal,

EPA

The post Analysis | The Chief Board | THE NEWSROOM appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

ELMONT, NY – Kim Stone needed something “really great” to leave Miami and become president of UBS Arena, home of the New York Islanders.

Oak View Group opened the Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle in October 2021 and the Belmont Park facility the following month with state-of-the-art sustainability ambitions and offered Stone the opportunity to oversee UBS Arena to support its carbon neutrality efforts for all known Scopes 1 and 2 emissions to be achieved by 2024.

All one would have to do is leave the tropics to face the bitter wind chill that life in the Northeast brings.

Stone accepted the position of arena president on July 11 and took over on August 1. The UBS Arena exceeded its self-imposed deadline by running on 100 percent renewable energy in October, and in February announced LEED certification from the US Green Building Council, a globally recognized symbol of sustainability in green building design .

[RELATED: Learn more about NHL Green]

UBS Arena is also a founding member of GOAL (Green Operations & Advanced Leadership), a sustainability movement recognized in the sports and entertainment industry, started by the Oak View Group.

“I saw New York as the Mecca,” Stone said. “This is where it will be the biggest challenge. We’re in a crowded market, which forces you to innovate. It forces you to be creative and step out of your comfort zone. It’s a challenge and I love challenges. It’s probably a hallmark of my career.”

It’s the perfect time for the NHL to celebrate Green Month and raise awareness of sustainability and environmental issues in the hockey ecosystem as the UBS Arena potentially hosts the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time. The Islanders (39-30-9) hold the first Eastern Conference wild card and have a two-point lead over the Florida Panthers, the first team outside of the postseason bubble, with four games remaining in the regular season.

Visitors see the big picture. According to UBS Arena:

* All arena lights are energy-saving LED lights.

* Olympia ice resurfacing machines are used, which are powered by renewable electricity and produce no exhaust fumes.

*Electric shuttles provide round-trip transportation to Emerald car park, half a mile away.

* Water usage has been reduced by 40 percent compared to similar venues with low-flow plumbing to LEED standards.

* Sustainable, local and healthy food is used by sourcing 75 percent of most ingredients within a 300 mile radius depending on seasonality.

“You basically have very little material that’s going anywhere other than recycling and composting,” said Kristen Fulmer, sustainability expert at Oak View Group and lead of the OVG Goal 360 program. “They continuously track their carbon footprint through the GOAL portal. They have a great team that prioritizes sustainability.”

Growing up in Durham, North Carolina, Fulmer’s appreciation for the environment came from some unique sources.

“My parents are basically hippies,” she said. “Growing up, I had to open the blinds in my room at just the right angle to let the sun in. And if I didn’t do it right, I was grounded. I’m not exaggerating.

“I was always so frustrated that doing the right thing for the environment felt like such a challenge. In my career I realized that sustainability in buildings has to be easy for people.”

This challenge led her to study architecture at Virginia Tech and earn her Masters in Sustainable Design from the University of Texas.

Like many women with career advancement plans, however, Fulmer was told “no.”

Stone had similar bumps in her path and said she was often mistaken for serving coffee rather than chairing the meeting, despite having 25 years of experience overseeing green initiatives for the Miami Heat and two at the Chase Center, home of the Golden State Warriors, had San Francisco. She then returned to Heat as Executive Vice President, Human Capital and Special Projects. Heat President Pat Riley, an NBA Hall of Fame coach, helped her learn best practices for dealing with obstacles that might stand in her way.

“I had the microaggressions,” she said. “I had people who took my ideas. But you have a choice at that moment, to either really let it set you back and throw you off course, or just keep going and just keep going and prove over time what you can bring to the table because sometimes some people take longer than others to understand.”

UBS Arena’s green initiatives raise the bar for what former arena president Hank Abate said in May 2021 it should be “like no other building in the country.” OVG is exploring on-site solar generation for renewable energy, and a goal by the end of the year is a zero-waste site, diverting at least 90 percent of its waste from landfill. The Islanders in March enticed fans to take the 31-minute Long Island Rail Road ride from New York Penn Station to Elmont with “31 Days of 31 Giveaways” and a chance to win a signed jersey or a hockey bobblehead Hall of Famer goaltender Billy to promote Smith.

There are also plans to make learning about sustainability fun and get to what Stone calls “that moment of truth.” When you’re about to throw out your trash, you’re not making an easy choice. Take those five extra seconds and make the right choice.”

Fulmer added: “Call it maternal instinct, call it what you will, but I just think we’re generally proactive about the health and well-being of the next generation. That is why we are committed to sustainability. We want to protect the planet.”

The post Islanders dwelling changing into chief in environmental sustainability appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Subscribe on:

Apple Podcasts
Google Podcasts
Soundcloud
Spotify
Overcast
Podcast Feed

Transcript

Shane Hastie: Good day, folks. This is Shane Hastie for the InfoQ Engineering Culture Podcast. Today, I’m sitting down across the miles with Lena Reinhard. Lena was a speaker at the recent QCon San Francisco on Hybrid and Remote: how do we start making change right now? I’m very privileged to be able to sit down and chat and we’ll see where the conversation goes. Lena, a good starting point is who’s Lena?

Introductions

Lena Reinhard: Very happy to be here, first of all, thank you for having me, Shane. I’m Lena Reinhard. I’ve been in the tech industry for quite a while now and I’ve dedicated my career to supporting teams through high change and doing so with globally distributed organizations and teams that are trying to get better of what they’re doing. I used to be software as a service startup co-founder and CEO and VP engineering for quite a while with TravisCI and CircleCI, for example. Now, I work as an executive and leadership coach and organizational consultant, speaker and trainer, and very excited to talk about engineering culture today.

Shane Hastie: Thank you. What does a good engineering culture look like?

What does good engineering culture look like? [01:40]

Lena Reinhard: You’re just going right forward, aren’t you? I like this definition of culture that I heard a couple years ago that culture is the behaviors you reward and punish, and most of all because it makes culture so much more tangible. Good engineering culture I believe first of all has to be aligned with the values of the organization. Then, it’s like engineering sometimes tends to be a little bit of a subculture or operate in different ways from the rest of the business, but there’s this sort of alignment with the greater company values, company direction. I think that’s one key point.

I think honestly, the rest is a little bit up to the people who are working in that engineering team. I don’t think that the culture of a series A startup should be exactly the same as one of a giant corporation. That actually would probably not be a very good sign. I do think there are a couple tenets to what makes a good engineering culture in my perspective comes to, for example, continuous learning and improvement, strong feedback culture, a very strong alignment against solid strategy and vision as well as clear mission to align people on clear goals and expectations, a culture that also cares about people as humans and not just as “resources,” and that’s ultimately a lot of the traits that lead to building high performing teams that are important for just also getting good outcomes when it comes to engineering work. But there’s the science and there’s my perspective, but there’s also just what organizations actually need for where they’re at and where they want to go.

Shane Hastie: A lot of our audience are people who are moving into leadership roles in that technical environment for the first time or considering the move from being an individual contributor, maybe from being a specialist engineer, an architect moving across into that, roles that incorporate at least some people management. My experience is in many organizations, this is done very poorly. We take the best technologists, we make them the worst manager, and we give them no support and training. How do we avoid that?

Supporting new leaders with human skills [03:42]

Lena Reinhard: Oh, I love that question. My background is a little bit unusual in that I’m not an engineer. I dabbled in it a bit, but in any organization I’ve ever worked, I was always the worst engineer on staff. That’s not just because I worked with incredibly smart people, but also because I was just very bad. That also means that I’m coming from a management and people-focused perspective and I never had to make the choice between do I keep being an engineer versus do I switch over into people management.

To your question, how do we fix that issue, I think the first part, even as before how companies set up roles and responsibilities and that is in do organizations truly value “soft skills, people skills,” and do they actually understand how crucial those are to the functioning of an engineering team? Because I think that is the root of a lot of these issues that we’re seeing, for example, with how you described this path of this fictional engineer who actually isn’t very fictional. There’s a lot of those out there in that deck.

I believe that many organizations still think that the only thing it takes is exceptionally good technical skills, and that is to a certain point true, but also once you’re more than, say, five people on your engineering team, that’s not going to be enough anymore because then you need to have communication, coordination, people who facilitate, people who handle change and ambiguity and all that, and those are all soft skills. I believe, first of all, organizations acknowledging that those skills are important, that they’re valuable and that they’re needed for your organization would be the starting point.

Career paths for engineers [05:11]

Then, I think the second more essentially the structural question is how do career paths look like? I have worked on my first career growth framework for an engineering organization in 2018. At the time, there weren’t a lot out there. That’s changed fortunately, and I’m seeing more and more that have a split between an engineer career path that goes from junior over senior staff to principal and then eventually essentially CTO role, and on the parallel track with people management role that starts with a team lead, engineering manager, director, VP. That’s kind of the classic setup and I’m seeing more and more of those, which I think is great. There are still a lot of nuances there, but I do think this acknowledgement that yes, managing people is a distinct skill. It requires distinct experience, it also requires willingness.

For a long time, what you described has been happening in that people essentially had to choose moving from an engineer role to a people manager track because it was the only way to A, get more money, B, get more recognition, and C also move up in the organization. And so, I do think things are trending in the right direction, but the underlying question of how much do we value people’s skills is still not entirely answered everywhere.

Shane Hastie: As a new manager, what are the changes I need to make? How do I find my groove, I think is the term you used earlier on when we were chatting?

Success in a leadership role is very different to success in a technical role [06:31]

Lena Reinhard: One big topic that I see with a lot of engineers I’ve worked with and new managers as well, so my clients now is figuring out how to feel successful about your work because a lot of folks come from coding a lot, doing a lot of technical contributions, maybe collaborating, peer programming, and then suddenly you are in meetings all day, you’re meeting all these business people who have very specific ideas for how things should work. You’re spending a lot of time just talking, chatting, and at the end of the day, you may feel like you got nothing done.

One big factor in that is that what also tends to fall away is the dopamine hits from actually shipping things, checking items off your to-do list, and so even from a neuroscience perspective, there is a factor here where our bodies may not be working in our favor. And so, essentially, you’re dealing with a lot of work now that’s much more ambiguous, a lot of management projects take forever to get done. You may talk weeks, months to see things through.

And so, one of the big things I always encourage folks who are new to these roles, think about what success means for you because one part is of course, you at the end of the day feeling okay about the work you did, feeling like you got things done, feeling okay, I did a decent job. The other part is then, of course, also how do other people view your work, are you moving into the direction that’s expected for you. I found the internal part is easily overlooked.

The couple techniques that I’ve used with folks there is one, just keep a record of what you’re doing because just at the end of the day, seeing here are all the things that I did can at least give you a sense of, okay, I didn’t just sit around all day and do nothing. Another part can also be thinking about what you enjoy about this work. What are the things that you get joy out of? What are the nice moments that you have? Like, “Hey, I was able to help someone with something or I got positive feedback from someone.” Write those down because they’re so easy to forget, but they can make a huge difference in just how you feel about your own work.

Then, the other part, just sort of more the external view is also speak with your manager about what are their expectations and not just expectations at a really abstract high level in the sense of, “Oh, you own delivery for the team,” but what does that actually mean? What are concrete goals that you have? You have something that you can work towards that’s ideally concrete and quantifiable in some way. And so, this whole thing of feeling successful in your role as a new manager, I would also say give yourself time, be patient with yourself, because it’s going to take some adjustment. You’re coming from something that you know how to excel in which is engineering work and you’re moving into territory that’s very unknown for you and that’s going to take some time to get used to to figure out how to actually get good at those things.

At the beginning, a lot of things may feel very awkward or at least not very fulfilling and that doesn’t necessarily have to mean that the role is wrong for you, but it’s just a very different way of working and a different way of seeing the world and thinking about the world. I would also say figure out how much time you’re giving yourself. Usually, I found that between three and six months of adjustment, it works for most people and that they’re starting to get into things and feel like they’re actually getting a grip on the new role and also find some support throughout that. Find a mentor, a sponsor or if there are some great Slack communities out there for engineering managers, or you can find community, just make sure you’re not going through this alone.

Shane Hastie: One of the aspects of that role is communicating with people who probably do think differently, the communicating with business people as opposed to with technologists, how do I adapt to that?

Communicating with people outside engineering [10:04]

Lena Reinhard: That’s something that a lot of engineering leaders struggle with quite a lot as someone who came from the opposite side of that spectrum. I’ve also been the engineering leader who at some point was like, “Well, we’ve got to do this thing because engineering says so and you’ve just got to trust me.” Just obviously not a really great line of argument, but I’ve been there as well. I think one big part honestly is just understand the people that you’re working with and that sounds very basic, but it’s actually going to usually go really long ways. Genuinely try to understand it when they’re asking you questions about typical things like when is this thing going to ship? When can we roll it out to customers? Why is it not done yet? Here is the feedback that we’re getting, what’s happening with us?

A lot of engineering leaders tend to either go into very vague answers. It’s like, “Well, we’re working agile, we’re not doing that” or “we’re not sure yet.” It’s basically not giving people anything specific. Start with genuinely understanding your stakeholders. A big part of that is understand their motivations. Where are they coming from? What are the problems they’re thinking about? What are the challenges they have in their domain from engineering and what are the things they would like to see more of and try to genuinely understand what is on their minds because it’s going to take you from a potentially adversarial relationship to one where you can actually partner. That’s something that I would recommend, spend a lot of time on actually getting to know those people and their concerns.

The second part is also adjust your language. Business people, like many of them, especially if they’re working in tech companies, they actually understand tech pretty decently, at least at a rudimentary level. We’re not talking about the have you tried turning it off and on again level of tech understanding, but they generally know the domain. But usually, the biggest thing they’re looking for is impact in the sense of work is visible, work is usable by customers, work is at least in a state where it can be tried out by their teams and they have something they can potentially show in the sense of demos or at least the slide deck and now it’s like that’s impact, and impact is ultimately of course the thing being shipped as well, but that’s only the last step of that process.

And so, figure out how you can help them first of all understand the impact of engineering work. Learn to think about business metrics. I highly recommend if you can take a basic class in business, business metrics, things that are important there or read a book in that area, do it because it will again help you understand how these folks think, and then adjust. It’s like engineering work is usually any refactoring project, any feature that you’re building, so the ultimate goal is to achieve business value.

It’s so easy to forget that, especially if we’re talking about some maintenance investments or so that we figure out what that business value is. Are you trying to make things more stable? Are you trying to increase reliability, improve visibility within engineering so that things are easier to fix when something goes wrong? Even with these engineering internal investments, think about the impact and convey that, because ultimately that’s the language that we should all be speaking as people in a business anyway. Those are the things that we should be thinking about and use that as sort of a common denominator and a way to talk with the people who are working in different domains and have different backgrounds from you.

Also, honestly, utilize their expertise. There is easily a bit of, I would say many engineering departments have a bit of a special standing in organizations and then it’s usually the highest paid employees, they’re employees that are hard to recruit and retain. They’re really essential for the success of the company and all that, which also means that there is often a bit of a power imbalance between engineering departments and the rest of the organization. But on the flip side, the folks outside of engineering have great expertise. They’re subject matter experts in their respective domains and make use of that. Ask them what they’re seeing in the market, what trends they’re hearing about or what they think would be important.

Just because engineering is a critical function of a tech company doesn’t mean it’s necessarily special, and I do think there’s a great opportunity in making use of everything our colleagues know, especially when they’re not engineers. That ended up being a very long-winded answer, but it’s something that I would love to see a bit more of us just thinking more about impact overall.

Shane Hastie: We’ve all seen the studies that talk about the value of diversity in teams and that diversity of thinking across the broader team.

Different perspectives in teams results in better outcomes and can create tension [14:30]

Lena Reinhard: Different perspectives are also going to lead to more tension. They’re going to lead to more conflict because you’re not just going to have everyone working in unison at all times and thinking in unison, but that kind of tension is also a prerequisite for innovation, for thinking outside the box, for leaving your trotted path. One great example of that is why for most organizations, it makes sense to have a split between a product manager and an engineering manager role because there is some tension already built into how these roles are set up between product managers owning the big picture, the why, and engineering driving the how. There is a tension and that tension though is ideally giving you the best outcomes you can for the business. And so, I think bringing more perspectives into the way that we work and that we ultimately also define what we’re going to prioritize is going to lead to better results.

Shane Hastie: Switching topics, we’re early in 2023. There has been the blood on the floor, the massive layoffs that have been headlined in the last few months. What’s happening? What’s going on in our industry and where are we headed?

Factors influencing the layoffs in tech [15:35]

Lena Reinhard: I think the part in what’s going on is interesting because there’s so many factors that go into this. I wrote a blog post explaining a little bit all the factors that go in. I think it’s about 20 or so overall. It’s a quite complex situation. Also, I have a background in finance and so, these kinds of topics are exceptionally interesting for me. I think one of the biggest factors is VC funding, which is driving and fuelling so much of tech and especially tech growth. We have seen a lot of exceptional growth over the last couple years, a lot of companies with unicorn, so over a billion dollar valuations. For a while, there’s been a bit of a suspicion that some of that may be inflated, but also, money has been very cheap. Interest rates were very, very low. And so, funnelling a lot of money into tech was at the time easy way to get your money into something that would at least likely bring you some profits.

These startup valuations exploded, but at the same time, we’ve also seen a lot of funding that went into startups from like, well, these probably don’t have a super sustainable business model, and they probably got a bit more money than they should have gotten. At the same time, the whole advertising business has been struggling. A lot of companies like Meta or Google, for example, are relying a lot on advertising to drive revenue, but at the same time more privacy protections for consumers have been put in place, which I personally think is a good thing. Then, advertisement spending has been falling as a result of not just that, but among others.

Then, there’s, I think honestly for many companies what we’re seeing now is just that they made bets that didn’t pay off and now employees are paying the price. For example, e-commerce companies really benefited from the pandemic from everyone being at home and shopping from their offline stores being closed. Many bets kind of hoped that the effects that they saw in terms of revenue growth over the last couple of years would last. They hired accordingly, but now that stopped and that also means that some companies over-hired, because of course, and I think that’s in my opinion, one of the biggest factors of them all. We have the pattern matching.

No one in tech wanted to miss out on the potential of things continuing the way that they’ve been going for the last couple years. They didn’t want to be the ones that then would be asked by their investors, “Well, why didn’t you hire more people?” Now that the trend is continuing, and on the flip side now, I do think a big part of the layoffs is also just pattern matching. It’s like essentially founders and executives not wanting to have to answer to their board, why are you not laying off when everyone else is doing it, when everyone else is being cautious and when everyone else is just downsizing? That’s sort of mostly on the macroeconomic side.

The other part is in how companies operate. I think the pattern matching is a big issue that we’re seeing in tech overall. I think you alluded to it earlier as well. It’s also very easy to get rid of employees. That’s at least in the US with, for example, at will employment labour is a very, I would say, flexible cost item in your budgeting sheet and saying, “Okay, we’re just going to lay people off,” is very, say, non-consequential. I do think there’s also part now where a lot of companies are exercising just caution because of a lot of macroeconomic uncertainty. Interest rates have been increasing. There’s still supply chain issues as a fallout of the COVID pandemic and there’s politically still a lot of unrest. There’s still a war in Ukraine. And so, at the moment the questions of how is this year especially going to go from an economic perspective globally, there’s a lot of uncertainty.

The uncertainty in the tech industry will continue for a while [19:08]

To the second part of your question, that was a lot of factors in terms of what to think about and what does it mean for this year, I do think we, in the sense, leaders in tech, people in tech will just deal with a lot more uncertainty for a while. I’m sure we’ll also see more layoffs. I don’t think this has been the end of it. I do also think in terms of if you say, “Hey, I want to keep a bit of an eye out for this. I’m interested in this topic, but I also don’t know where to start.” I have the points that I just laid out in terms of macroeconomic factors. You can keep an eye out for that, take a look at how are interest rate’s developing, what’s happening with VC investments. There are pages where you can see that.

Plus, I have a blog post that I wrote about these economic conditions and you can see all the things that are playing end-to-end, and you can watch out for this just to get a bit of a sense where is tech evolving and especially if you’re in a higher level leadership role, that kind of stuff is important for your work anyway because it will likely impact your company sooner or later.

Shane Hastie: Lena, really good picture of some of the background on the why there, but if I am either laid off or I’m a leader and some of my team are laid off and some aren’t, what do I do?

Ways to address the efficiency push [20:17]

Lena Reinhard: At the moment for a lot of companies, this means thinking about efficiency. There are still a bunch of hiring and growing, I don’t want to negate that, especially in earlier stage companies, it’s still relatively easy-ish to get funding. Things may not change for you if you work for example in a series A or series B startup, especially for later stage companies, thinking about efficiency is a big one and big topic for the next year. What that means is efficiency refers to usually particularly doing what we’re doing, but in a way that’s with the least cost and time and other resources that we have available as possible. It’s efficiency and thinking about that means first of all, just you can start with an assessment of your team. How is your team working in the sense of what money are you spending each month to get things done? What software are you using? What tooling, what do those things cost? What are your processes like, and getting a big picture of your team and how they’re doing and then speaking with your boss about that.

A big component of that for many engineering teams can also be just toil work. What are the things that have to be done somewhat repetitively that you can automate away over time where you can have engineers and their precious time just be spent on other things that are more valuable. I would also recommend speaking with your team about this and essentially workshopping together. There is of course, when you’re having that conversation, I would always advise a little bit of caution and I don’t necessarily want to lead with, well everyone’s doing layoffs, so I’m trying to get us more efficient to avoid that happening here. It’s probably not the best pitch, but being open with your team and saying, “Hey, we want to get better at what we’re doing.” For example, if your company’s just laid off people, that can also be a reason to think about this.

Then, speaking with your team and getting their ideas, what options do they see or opportunities do they see for automation, for reducing cost, for stopping to use some tooling that you don’t need anymore, for improving the way that you’re working overall as a team. I do think that efficiency focus, it’s good practice for any leader anyway. I think especially right now in this current economic situation, it’s even more so. A friend of mine wrote recently that inefficiency is an opportunity for great engineering work. I think that’s especially true now in particular, if you run an infrastructure team or a team that has services that are using certain infrastructure, figure out what that actually costs. Running technology, I think especially in cloud environments, is exceptionally expensive. It may be that through great engineering work, you’re able to actually save a lot of money for your company and also do great engineering work in the process to get you there.

Shane Hastie: Thank you for a interesting and wide-ranging conversation. If people want to take this conversation forward, where do they find you?

Lena Reinhard: Thank you. You can find me on LinkedIn, Lena Reinhardt, as well as on Twitter at least for a couple more weeks. We’ll see how long. I’m @lrnrd. I also have a website, lenareinhard.com, where I write regularly about engineering leadership and management topics and have a newsletter there as well that you can sign up for. It’s a monthly thing with a topic that I talk about. Thank you so much for having me.

Shane Hastie: Thank you so much.

Mentioned

.
From this page you also have access to our recorded show notes. They all have clickable links that will take you directly to that part of the audio.

The post Shifting from Technical Contributor to Individuals Chief with Lena Reinhard appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Subscribe on:

Apple Podcasts
Google Podcasts
Soundcloud
Spotify
Overcast
Podcast Feed

Transcript

Shane Hastie: Good day, folks. This is Shane Hastie for the InfoQ Engineering Culture Podcast. Today, I’m sitting down across the miles with Lena Reinhard. Lena was a speaker at the recent QCon San Francisco on Hybrid and Remote: how do we start making change right now? I’m very privileged to be able to sit down and chat and we’ll see where the conversation goes. Lena, a good starting point is who’s Lena?

Introductions

Lena Reinhard: Very happy to be here, first of all, thank you for having me, Shane. I’m Lena Reinhard. I’ve been in the tech industry for quite a while now and I’ve dedicated my career to supporting teams through high change and doing so with globally distributed organizations and teams that are trying to get better of what they’re doing. I used to be software as a service startup co-founder and CEO and VP engineering for quite a while with TravisCI and CircleCI, for example. Now, I work as an executive and leadership coach and organizational consultant, speaker and trainer, and very excited to talk about engineering culture today.

Shane Hastie: Thank you. What does a good engineering culture look like?

What does good engineering culture look like? [01:40]

Lena Reinhard: You’re just going right forward, aren’t you? I like this definition of culture that I heard a couple years ago that culture is the behaviors you reward and punish, and most of all because it makes culture so much more tangible. Good engineering culture I believe first of all has to be aligned with the values of the organization. Then, it’s like engineering sometimes tends to be a little bit of a subculture or operate in different ways from the rest of the business, but there’s this sort of alignment with the greater company values, company direction. I think that’s one key point.

I think honestly, the rest is a little bit up to the people who are working in that engineering team. I don’t think that the culture of a series A startup should be exactly the same as one of a giant corporation. That actually would probably not be a very good sign. I do think there are a couple tenets to what makes a good engineering culture in my perspective comes to, for example, continuous learning and improvement, strong feedback culture, a very strong alignment against solid strategy and vision as well as clear mission to align people on clear goals and expectations, a culture that also cares about people as humans and not just as “resources,” and that’s ultimately a lot of the traits that lead to building high performing teams that are important for just also getting good outcomes when it comes to engineering work. But there’s the science and there’s my perspective, but there’s also just what organizations actually need for where they’re at and where they want to go.

Shane Hastie: A lot of our audience are people who are moving into leadership roles in that technical environment for the first time or considering the move from being an individual contributor, maybe from being a specialist engineer, an architect moving across into that, roles that incorporate at least some people management. My experience is in many organizations, this is done very poorly. We take the best technologists, we make them the worst manager, and we give them no support and training. How do we avoid that?

Supporting new leaders with human skills [03:42]

Lena Reinhard: Oh, I love that question. My background is a little bit unusual in that I’m not an engineer. I dabbled in it a bit, but in any organization I’ve ever worked, I was always the worst engineer on staff. That’s not just because I worked with incredibly smart people, but also because I was just very bad. That also means that I’m coming from a management and people-focused perspective and I never had to make the choice between do I keep being an engineer versus do I switch over into people management.

To your question, how do we fix that issue, I think the first part, even as before how companies set up roles and responsibilities and that is in do organizations truly value “soft skills, people skills,” and do they actually understand how crucial those are to the functioning of an engineering team? Because I think that is the root of a lot of these issues that we’re seeing, for example, with how you described this path of this fictional engineer who actually isn’t very fictional. There’s a lot of those out there in that deck.

I believe that many organizations still think that the only thing it takes is exceptionally good technical skills, and that is to a certain point true, but also once you’re more than, say, five people on your engineering team, that’s not going to be enough anymore because then you need to have communication, coordination, people who facilitate, people who handle change and ambiguity and all that, and those are all soft skills. I believe, first of all, organizations acknowledging that those skills are important, that they’re valuable and that they’re needed for your organization would be the starting point.

Career paths for engineers [05:11]

Then, I think the second more essentially the structural question is how do career paths look like? I have worked on my first career growth framework for an engineering organization in 2018. At the time, there weren’t a lot out there. That’s changed fortunately, and I’m seeing more and more that have a split between an engineer career path that goes from junior over senior staff to principal and then eventually essentially CTO role, and on the parallel track with people management role that starts with a team lead, engineering manager, director, VP. That’s kind of the classic setup and I’m seeing more and more of those, which I think is great. There are still a lot of nuances there, but I do think this acknowledgement that yes, managing people is a distinct skill. It requires distinct experience, it also requires willingness.

For a long time, what you described has been happening in that people essentially had to choose moving from an engineer role to a people manager track because it was the only way to A, get more money, B, get more recognition, and C also move up in the organization. And so, I do think things are trending in the right direction, but the underlying question of how much do we value people’s skills is still not entirely answered everywhere.

Shane Hastie: As a new manager, what are the changes I need to make? How do I find my groove, I think is the term you used earlier on when we were chatting?

Success in a leadership role is very different to success in a technical role [06:31]

Lena Reinhard: One big topic that I see with a lot of engineers I’ve worked with and new managers as well, so my clients now is figuring out how to feel successful about your work because a lot of folks come from coding a lot, doing a lot of technical contributions, maybe collaborating, peer programming, and then suddenly you are in meetings all day, you’re meeting all these business people who have very specific ideas for how things should work. You’re spending a lot of time just talking, chatting, and at the end of the day, you may feel like you got nothing done.

One big factor in that is that what also tends to fall away is the dopamine hits from actually shipping things, checking items off your to-do list, and so even from a neuroscience perspective, there is a factor here where our bodies may not be working in our favor. And so, essentially, you’re dealing with a lot of work now that’s much more ambiguous, a lot of management projects take forever to get done. You may talk weeks, months to see things through.

And so, one of the big things I always encourage folks who are new to these roles, think about what success means for you because one part is of course, you at the end of the day feeling okay about the work you did, feeling like you got things done, feeling okay, I did a decent job. The other part is then, of course, also how do other people view your work, are you moving into the direction that’s expected for you. I found the internal part is easily overlooked.

The couple techniques that I’ve used with folks there is one, just keep a record of what you’re doing because just at the end of the day, seeing here are all the things that I did can at least give you a sense of, okay, I didn’t just sit around all day and do nothing. Another part can also be thinking about what you enjoy about this work. What are the things that you get joy out of? What are the nice moments that you have? Like, “Hey, I was able to help someone with something or I got positive feedback from someone.” Write those down because they’re so easy to forget, but they can make a huge difference in just how you feel about your own work.

Then, the other part, just sort of more the external view is also speak with your manager about what are their expectations and not just expectations at a really abstract high level in the sense of, “Oh, you own delivery for the team,” but what does that actually mean? What are concrete goals that you have? You have something that you can work towards that’s ideally concrete and quantifiable in some way. And so, this whole thing of feeling successful in your role as a new manager, I would also say give yourself time, be patient with yourself, because it’s going to take some adjustment. You’re coming from something that you know how to excel in which is engineering work and you’re moving into territory that’s very unknown for you and that’s going to take some time to get used to to figure out how to actually get good at those things.

At the beginning, a lot of things may feel very awkward or at least not very fulfilling and that doesn’t necessarily have to mean that the role is wrong for you, but it’s just a very different way of working and a different way of seeing the world and thinking about the world. I would also say figure out how much time you’re giving yourself. Usually, I found that between three and six months of adjustment, it works for most people and that they’re starting to get into things and feel like they’re actually getting a grip on the new role and also find some support throughout that. Find a mentor, a sponsor or if there are some great Slack communities out there for engineering managers, or you can find community, just make sure you’re not going through this alone.

Shane Hastie: One of the aspects of that role is communicating with people who probably do think differently, the communicating with business people as opposed to with technologists, how do I adapt to that?

Communicating with people outside engineering [10:04]

Lena Reinhard: That’s something that a lot of engineering leaders struggle with quite a lot as someone who came from the opposite side of that spectrum. I’ve also been the engineering leader who at some point was like, “Well, we’ve got to do this thing because engineering says so and you’ve just got to trust me.” Just obviously not a really great line of argument, but I’ve been there as well. I think one big part honestly is just understand the people that you’re working with and that sounds very basic, but it’s actually going to usually go really long ways. Genuinely try to understand it when they’re asking you questions about typical things like when is this thing going to ship? When can we roll it out to customers? Why is it not done yet? Here is the feedback that we’re getting, what’s happening with us?

A lot of engineering leaders tend to either go into very vague answers. It’s like, “Well, we’re working agile, we’re not doing that” or “we’re not sure yet.” It’s basically not giving people anything specific. Start with genuinely understanding your stakeholders. A big part of that is understand their motivations. Where are they coming from? What are the problems they’re thinking about? What are the challenges they have in their domain from engineering and what are the things they would like to see more of and try to genuinely understand what is on their minds because it’s going to take you from a potentially adversarial relationship to one where you can actually partner. That’s something that I would recommend, spend a lot of time on actually getting to know those people and their concerns.

The second part is also adjust your language. Business people, like many of them, especially if they’re working in tech companies, they actually understand tech pretty decently, at least at a rudimentary level. We’re not talking about the have you tried turning it off and on again level of tech understanding, but they generally know the domain. But usually, the biggest thing they’re looking for is impact in the sense of work is visible, work is usable by customers, work is at least in a state where it can be tried out by their teams and they have something they can potentially show in the sense of demos or at least the slide deck and now it’s like that’s impact, and impact is ultimately of course the thing being shipped as well, but that’s only the last step of that process.

And so, figure out how you can help them first of all understand the impact of engineering work. Learn to think about business metrics. I highly recommend if you can take a basic class in business, business metrics, things that are important there or read a book in that area, do it because it will again help you understand how these folks think, and then adjust. It’s like engineering work is usually any refactoring project, any feature that you’re building, so the ultimate goal is to achieve business value.

It’s so easy to forget that, especially if we’re talking about some maintenance investments or so that we figure out what that business value is. Are you trying to make things more stable? Are you trying to increase reliability, improve visibility within engineering so that things are easier to fix when something goes wrong? Even with these engineering internal investments, think about the impact and convey that, because ultimately that’s the language that we should all be speaking as people in a business anyway. Those are the things that we should be thinking about and use that as sort of a common denominator and a way to talk with the people who are working in different domains and have different backgrounds from you.

Also, honestly, utilize their expertise. There is easily a bit of, I would say many engineering departments have a bit of a special standing in organizations and then it’s usually the highest paid employees, they’re employees that are hard to recruit and retain. They’re really essential for the success of the company and all that, which also means that there is often a bit of a power imbalance between engineering departments and the rest of the organization. But on the flip side, the folks outside of engineering have great expertise. They’re subject matter experts in their respective domains and make use of that. Ask them what they’re seeing in the market, what trends they’re hearing about or what they think would be important.

Just because engineering is a critical function of a tech company doesn’t mean it’s necessarily special, and I do think there’s a great opportunity in making use of everything our colleagues know, especially when they’re not engineers. That ended up being a very long-winded answer, but it’s something that I would love to see a bit more of us just thinking more about impact overall.

Shane Hastie: We’ve all seen the studies that talk about the value of diversity in teams and that diversity of thinking across the broader team.

Different perspectives in teams results in better outcomes and can create tension [14:30]

Lena Reinhard: Different perspectives are also going to lead to more tension. They’re going to lead to more conflict because you’re not just going to have everyone working in unison at all times and thinking in unison, but that kind of tension is also a prerequisite for innovation, for thinking outside the box, for leaving your trotted path. One great example of that is why for most organizations, it makes sense to have a split between a product manager and an engineering manager role because there is some tension already built into how these roles are set up between product managers owning the big picture, the why, and engineering driving the how. There is a tension and that tension though is ideally giving you the best outcomes you can for the business. And so, I think bringing more perspectives into the way that we work and that we ultimately also define what we’re going to prioritize is going to lead to better results.

Shane Hastie: Switching topics, we’re early in 2023. There has been the blood on the floor, the massive layoffs that have been headlined in the last few months. What’s happening? What’s going on in our industry and where are we headed?

Factors influencing the layoffs in tech [15:35]

Lena Reinhard: I think the part in what’s going on is interesting because there’s so many factors that go into this. I wrote a blog post explaining a little bit all the factors that go in. I think it’s about 20 or so overall. It’s a quite complex situation. Also, I have a background in finance and so, these kinds of topics are exceptionally interesting for me. I think one of the biggest factors is VC funding, which is driving and fuelling so much of tech and especially tech growth. We have seen a lot of exceptional growth over the last couple years, a lot of companies with unicorn, so over a billion dollar valuations. For a while, there’s been a bit of a suspicion that some of that may be inflated, but also, money has been very cheap. Interest rates were very, very low. And so, funnelling a lot of money into tech was at the time easy way to get your money into something that would at least likely bring you some profits.

These startup valuations exploded, but at the same time, we’ve also seen a lot of funding that went into startups from like, well, these probably don’t have a super sustainable business model, and they probably got a bit more money than they should have gotten. At the same time, the whole advertising business has been struggling. A lot of companies like Meta or Google, for example, are relying a lot on advertising to drive revenue, but at the same time more privacy protections for consumers have been put in place, which I personally think is a good thing. Then, advertisement spending has been falling as a result of not just that, but among others.

Then, there’s, I think honestly for many companies what we’re seeing now is just that they made bets that didn’t pay off and now employees are paying the price. For example, e-commerce companies really benefited from the pandemic from everyone being at home and shopping from their offline stores being closed. Many bets kind of hoped that the effects that they saw in terms of revenue growth over the last couple of years would last. They hired accordingly, but now that stopped and that also means that some companies over-hired, because of course, and I think that’s in my opinion, one of the biggest factors of them all. We have the pattern matching.

No one in tech wanted to miss out on the potential of things continuing the way that they’ve been going for the last couple years. They didn’t want to be the ones that then would be asked by their investors, “Well, why didn’t you hire more people?” Now that the trend is continuing, and on the flip side now, I do think a big part of the layoffs is also just pattern matching. It’s like essentially founders and executives not wanting to have to answer to their board, why are you not laying off when everyone else is doing it, when everyone else is being cautious and when everyone else is just downsizing? That’s sort of mostly on the macroeconomic side.

The other part is in how companies operate. I think the pattern matching is a big issue that we’re seeing in tech overall. I think you alluded to it earlier as well. It’s also very easy to get rid of employees. That’s at least in the US with, for example, at will employment labour is a very, I would say, flexible cost item in your budgeting sheet and saying, “Okay, we’re just going to lay people off,” is very, say, non-consequential. I do think there’s also part now where a lot of companies are exercising just caution because of a lot of macroeconomic uncertainty. Interest rates have been increasing. There’s still supply chain issues as a fallout of the COVID pandemic and there’s politically still a lot of unrest. There’s still a war in Ukraine. And so, at the moment the questions of how is this year especially going to go from an economic perspective globally, there’s a lot of uncertainty.

The uncertainty in the tech industry will continue for a while [19:08]

To the second part of your question, that was a lot of factors in terms of what to think about and what does it mean for this year, I do think we, in the sense, leaders in tech, people in tech will just deal with a lot more uncertainty for a while. I’m sure we’ll also see more layoffs. I don’t think this has been the end of it. I do also think in terms of if you say, “Hey, I want to keep a bit of an eye out for this. I’m interested in this topic, but I also don’t know where to start.” I have the points that I just laid out in terms of macroeconomic factors. You can keep an eye out for that, take a look at how are interest rate’s developing, what’s happening with VC investments. There are pages where you can see that.

Plus, I have a blog post that I wrote about these economic conditions and you can see all the things that are playing end-to-end, and you can watch out for this just to get a bit of a sense where is tech evolving and especially if you’re in a higher level leadership role, that kind of stuff is important for your work anyway because it will likely impact your company sooner or later.

Shane Hastie: Lena, really good picture of some of the background on the why there, but if I am either laid off or I’m a leader and some of my team are laid off and some aren’t, what do I do?

Ways to address the efficiency push [20:17]

Lena Reinhard: At the moment for a lot of companies, this means thinking about efficiency. There are still a bunch of hiring and growing, I don’t want to negate that, especially in earlier stage companies, it’s still relatively easy-ish to get funding. Things may not change for you if you work for example in a series A or series B startup, especially for later stage companies, thinking about efficiency is a big one and big topic for the next year. What that means is efficiency refers to usually particularly doing what we’re doing, but in a way that’s with the least cost and time and other resources that we have available as possible. It’s efficiency and thinking about that means first of all, just you can start with an assessment of your team. How is your team working in the sense of what money are you spending each month to get things done? What software are you using? What tooling, what do those things cost? What are your processes like, and getting a big picture of your team and how they’re doing and then speaking with your boss about that.

A big component of that for many engineering teams can also be just toil work. What are the things that have to be done somewhat repetitively that you can automate away over time where you can have engineers and their precious time just be spent on other things that are more valuable. I would also recommend speaking with your team about this and essentially workshopping together. There is of course, when you’re having that conversation, I would always advise a little bit of caution and I don’t necessarily want to lead with, well everyone’s doing layoffs, so I’m trying to get us more efficient to avoid that happening here. It’s probably not the best pitch, but being open with your team and saying, “Hey, we want to get better at what we’re doing.” For example, if your company’s just laid off people, that can also be a reason to think about this.

Then, speaking with your team and getting their ideas, what options do they see or opportunities do they see for automation, for reducing cost, for stopping to use some tooling that you don’t need anymore, for improving the way that you’re working overall as a team. I do think that efficiency focus, it’s good practice for any leader anyway. I think especially right now in this current economic situation, it’s even more so. A friend of mine wrote recently that inefficiency is an opportunity for great engineering work. I think that’s especially true now in particular, if you run an infrastructure team or a team that has services that are using certain infrastructure, figure out what that actually costs. Running technology, I think especially in cloud environments, is exceptionally expensive. It may be that through great engineering work, you’re able to actually save a lot of money for your company and also do great engineering work in the process to get you there.

Shane Hastie: Thank you for a interesting and wide-ranging conversation. If people want to take this conversation forward, where do they find you?

Lena Reinhard: Thank you. You can find me on LinkedIn, Lena Reinhardt, as well as on Twitter at least for a couple more weeks. We’ll see how long. I’m @lrnrd. I also have a website, lenareinhard.com, where I write regularly about engineering leadership and management topics and have a newsletter there as well that you can sign up for. It’s a monthly thing with a topic that I talk about. Thank you so much for having me.

Shane Hastie: Thank you so much.

Mentioned

.
From this page you also have access to our recorded show notes. They all have clickable links that will take you directly to that part of the audio.

The post Shifting from Technical Contributor to Individuals Chief with Lena Reinhard appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

For 40 years, Hayden’s Market was a downtown and community center for residents of Marin City, the unincorporated neighborhood across the freeway from Sausalito.

The grocery and liquor store was a standalone building, and the parking lot was as busy as any 1960s drive-in movie theater. It was chaired by Daniel and Bea Arthur Hayden along with their daughter Nita Hayden Vasquez, who ran Hayden’s until the day it closed to make way for a residential and retail development called Marin City USA.

Hayden Vasquez died January 11 in Tampa, Florida, where she had lived with her daughter, Sheri Murphy. Hayden Vasquez died of natural causes after suffering from dementia, Murphy said. she was 80

“Hayden’s was a family business, and my mother was a pioneer as one of the first black women businesswomen in Marin City,” Murphy said. “She was loving and gave back to the community. When people were short on cash, she let them slide. She was always lovely but also strong and independent.”

According to Marin City archivist and historian Felecia Gaston, one of the most important aspects of Hayden’s Market was what went on outside. People drove up Chevrolet Caprices and the other great American cars of the ’60s and ’70s and either sat on the hood or the trunk or set up a chart table and folding chairs.

“It was called Front. It was a place where people would gather to socialize, play cards and dominoes,” said Gaston, author of A Grand New Start… This Is Home: The Story of World War II Marinship and the Legacy of Marin City.

“There was a great deal of respect and community pride on the front lines. Mothers would send children there with a message for their husbands, telling them to come home.”

The other way to find someone was to call Hayden Vasquez at the store.

“I know everyone,” she told a Chronicle reporter when the store closed in 1995. “From babies to grandmothers.”

Nita Louise Hayden was born on March 11, 1942 in Baton Rouge, La. A year later, her parents moved her to California to follow a large migration of black Americans who left the South to work in the munitions effort during World War II. Marin City had just been built, a collection of small wooden houses owned by the Marin Housing Authority, where the Haydens moved in. Daniel Hayden got a job as a sixth-grade teacher at Patrick Henry Elementary School in San Francisco and was soon elected president of the Marin City Tenants Council. He was also active in the NAACP.

According to Gaston’s research for her book, there was a full-service grocery store in Marin City called Brice Brothers that was run by an Italian family. It changed hands and names several times and was known as the Marin City Market when the Haydens bought it in 1956. They renamed it Hayden’s Department Store to reflect the range of items.

In the early 1960s, the temporary wartime shelters were replaced by a half-dozen high-rise and low-rise structures called the Marin City Projects. The new housing opportunities attracted black families, and those with money for a down payment bought so-called “pole homes,” built on telephone poles set into the hillside as foundation pillars, Gaston said. The Haydens lived up the hill from their shop in a stilt house.

Hayden’s was a shopping center until 1964, when Daniel Hayden leased land to construct a detached building, which he renamed Hayden’s Marin City Market.

“He owned the building but not the land, which was a thousand times more valuable,” Murphy said. “He made numerous attempts to buy the land under the store, but he was turned down.”

The Hayden children all eventually moved on, including Nita, who worked at the store while attending Tamalpais High School and San Francisco State College. She then married and moved to Texas to start a family. But she came home when her father died in 1982 to take over the business and run it for her mother, who had taken over the ownership.

“She was an example of black excellence,” Marin City resident Ronnie Jones wrote in a Facebook post following the death of Hayden Vasquez. “She brought honor to people and I’m sure she’s had a lot of losses, but she never stopped helping people. She did things discreetly and I don’t think we always appreciate what people do, but she gave back right in front of our eyes the whole time.”

Lynda Huff, a Marin City resident who shopped at Hayden’s from the day it opened to the day it closed, called Nita “very, very caring” as she worked the front desk. “I saw her teaching the kids how to count their money. I know my son Daryll’s math improved after he learned how to pay Nita for candy.”

The kids came after school, the plumbers, welders, locksmiths and retired postal workers were there between 10am and 3pm. They were able to set up their gaming tables in the parking lot without being pressured to come in and buy anything. Hayden’s would even supply tables if required.

“It was the place to hang out,” Huff said. “Nita didn’t let anyone disrespect the retired men.”

In 1984, Hayden married Jesus Vasquez, an appliance dealer in Vallejo. They lived together in Marin City until they bought a house in Vallejo in the mid ’80s.

She commuted to Marin City and ran Hayden’s until the land underneath was reclaimed, along with the adjacent Sausalito Flea Market and a few other small retailers. A 45-acre lot has been demolished and leveled to make way for Marin City USA, a $100 million project designed to transform the Hayden’s-served area into a middle-class city. It had been in the planning for years and Hayden Vasquez expected to be there.

“I’ve been sitting here for 34 years waiting for development,” she said at the time. “This should be a temporary location. I’m still waiting to be part of the new center. … I am very bitter. (The developers) drive me out. They deny me my livelihood.”

After the store closed, Hayden Vasquez worked in retail for another 10 years before retiring in 2003.

“I’m sure she transferred the same skills and what she learned from running a business to her other jobs,” her daughter said. “She was a sociable person, very sociable, and that made her a good salesperson.”

On her 80th birthday, March 11, a memorial service was held at the San Rafael Yacht Club. Resolutions were presented on behalf of US Rep. Jared Huffman, State Senate Majority Leader Mike McGuire, Rep. Damon Connolly and Marin County Secretary Stephanie Moulton-Peters. Gaston presented the family with a plaque on behalf of the Marin City Historical and Preservation Society.

“In recognition of Nita Hayden Vasquez,” it read. “Your energy, spirit and guidance will stay with us forever.”

Survivors include her daughter Murphy; sisters Bea Stephens of Oakland and Flo Hamilton of Sacramento; and brother Daniel Hayden of Vallejo.

Reach Sam Whiting: swhiting@sfchronicle.com

The post Nita Hayden Vasquez, Marin Metropolis storekeeper and neighborhood chief, dies appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

David’s appointment to market leader is a natural progression of our acquisition of T3 Advisors.

Tweet this

“Over the last year, Savills has amplified its technology and life science advisory services in NorthAmerica and globally. san francisco remains one of the top markets worldwide for those critical sectors,” said Savills North America President David Lipson. “David’s appointment to market leader is a natural progression of our acquisition of T3 Advisors. His expertise in representing technology clients and his strong business acumen position us for continued success and growth in the market.”

Bergeron is an experienced business builder and leader, most recently serving as president of T3 Advisors, a top real estate and workplace advisory firm, prior to T3’s acquisition by Savills last year. He was named managing partner in 2011 before relocating from Boston to Silicon Valley, where he founded T3 West, successfully extending the reach of T3 to be bi-coastal, supporting technology and life science clients domestically and internationally.

In addition to his new responsibilities as the san francisco market leader, Bergeron will continue advising and supporting his clients. With a successful track record in serving high-growth and publicly-traded companies, Bergeron has a reputation among leading venture capital investors and tech executives nationally as one of the top commercial real estate advisors supporting their ecosystem. His client roster includes notable brands, such as LinkedIn, Discord, SentinelOne, Take-Two Interactive, and TripActions.

“The companies based here in the San Francisco Bay Area are among the largest and most impactful in the world. This is the home of innovation, and now more than ever, real estate and workplace are being reinvented,” said Bergeron. “The end product will result in happier, healthier, and more successful employees and companies, utilizing and activating real estate in ways we’ve never seen before. I couldn’t be more excited to lead this team during this time and in this market. The future is bright, and our impact will be profound for the clients we partner with in connecting their real estate strategies with business successes and beyond.”

According to recent Savills research, San Francisco’s leasing activity in Q1 2022 totaled 1.5 million square feet (msf), an improvement from 0.4 msf in Q1 2021, showing an increase in office demand. As companies continue to redefine how they add value to their workforce, leveraging the benefits of in-person collaboration, knowledge transfer and building culture, the physical office continues to have a huge role to play.

About Savills Inc.

Savills helps organizations find the right solutions that ensure employee success. Sharply skilled and fiercely dedicated, the firm’s integrated teams of consultants and brokers are experts in better real estate. With services in tenant representation, workforce and incentives strategy, workplace strategy and occupant experience, project management, and capital markets, Savills has elevated the potential of workplaces around the corner, and around the world, for 160 years and counting.

For more information, please visit Savills.us and follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

SOURCE Savills

The post Savills Appoints David Bergeron Market Chief in San Francisco appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

SAN FRANCISCO, March 16, 2022–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Yelp Inc. (NYSE: YELP), the company that connects people with great local businesses, today announced the appointment of Chris Terrill, former chief executive officer of ANGI Homeservices ( now Angi Inc.) and HomeAdvisor.com, to its Board of Directors, effective immediately.

Terrill is a tenured internet executive who has a strong record of building highly successful businesses, including ANGI Homeservices, which grew to a multi-billion-dollar public company by the time of his departure.

“Chris brings extensive experience in building online marketplaces that connect consumers with local service professionals,” said Jeremy Stoppelman, Yelp’s co-founder and chief executive officer. “His perspective will bring tremendous value as we continue to differentiate the services product experience for users and businesses on Yelp.”

Terrill has served as executive co-chairman of Z-Work Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company investing in the work technology business, since February 2021. He previously served as chief executive officer and a director of ANGI Homeservices (now Angi Inc. ), a digital marketplace for home services, from September 2017 to November 2018. Terrill served as chief executive officer of HomeAdvisor.com, a wholly-owned subsidiary of IAC that merged with Angie’s List in September 2017 to form ANGI Homeservices, beginning in May 2011. Prior to joining HomeAdvisor, Terrill held senior marketing roles at Nutrisystem.com, Blockbuster.com and Match.com. He holds a BS from the University of Texas at Austin and an MBA from the University of Houston.

Terrill joins Yelp’s Board of Directors following Brian Sharples’ decision to step down at the end of his current term on June 2, 2022, after serving more than three years on the Yelp Board and Audit Committee.

“We are pleased to welcome Chris to the Yelp board. His expertise, energy and enthusiasm for connecting people with great local service businesses will serve us well as we continue to execute our strategy and build long-term shareholder value,” said Diane Irvine, chair of the Yelp Board of Directors. “On behalf of the Board, I’d also like to extend my sincere appreciation to Brian for the expertise, valuable perspectives and commitment he has brought to the Yelp Board. We are thankful for his many contributions and wish him well in all future endeavors .”

Story continues

About Yelp

Yelp Inc. (www.yelp.com) connects people with great local businesses. With trusted local business information, photos, and review content, Yelp provides a one-stop local platform for consumers to discover, connect, and transact with local businesses of all sizes by making it easy to request a quote, join a waitlist, and make a reservation, appointment, or purchase. Yelp was founded in San Francisco in July 2004.

Yelp intends to make future announcements of material financial and other information through its Investor Relations website. Yelp will also, from time to time, disclose this information through press releases, filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, conference calls, or webcasts, as required by applicable law.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220316005982/en/

Contacts

Investor Relations Contact:
Kate Krieger
ir@yelp.com

Press contact:
Amber Albrecht
press@yelp.com

The post Yelp Appoints House Providers Chief Chris Terrill to its Board of Administrators appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Yelp Inc. (NYSE: YELP), the company that connects people with great local businesses, announced today the appointment of Chris Terrill, former chief executive officer of ANGI Homeservices (now Angi Inc.) and HomeAdvisor.com, to its Board of Directors, effective immediately.

Terrill is a tenured internet executive who has a strong record of building highly successful businesses, including ANGI Homeservices, which grew to a multi-billion-dollar public company by the time of his departure.

“Chris brings extensive experience in building online marketplaces that connect consumers with local service professionals,” said Jeremy Stoppelman, Yelp’s co-founder and chief executive officer. “His perspective will bring tremendous value as we continue to differentiate the services product experience for users and businesses on Yelp.”

Terrill has served as executive co-chairman of Z-Work Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company investing in the work technology business, since February 2021. He previously served as chief executive officer and a director of ANGI Homeservices (now Angi Inc. ), a digital marketplace for home services, from September 2017 to November 2018. Terrill served as chief executive officer of HomeAdvisor.com, a wholly-owned subsidiary of IAC that merged with Angie’s List in September 2017 to form ANGI Homeservices, beginning in May 2011. Prior to joining HomeAdvisor, Terrill held senior marketing roles at Nutrisystem.com, Blockbuster.com and Match.com. He holds a BS from the University of Texas at Austin and an MBA from the University of Houston.

Terrill joins Yelp’s Board of Directors following Brian Sharples’ decision to step down at the end of his current term on June 2, 2022, after serving more than three years on the Yelp Board and Audit Committee.

“We are pleased to welcome Chris to the Yelp board. His expertise, energy and enthusiasm for connecting people with great local service businesses will serve us well as we continue to execute our strategy and build long-term shareholder value,” said Diane Irvine, chair of the Yelp Board of Directors. “On behalf of the Board, I’d also like to extend my sincere appreciation to Brian for the expertise, valuable perspectives and commitment he has brought to the Yelp Board. We are grateful for his many contributions and wish him well in all future endeavors.”

About Yelp

Yelp Inc. (www.yelp.com) connects people with great local businesses. With trusted local business information, photos, and review content, Yelp provides a one-stop local platform for consumers to discover, connect, and transact with local businesses of all sizes by making it easy to request a quote, join a waitlist, and make a reservation, appointment, or purchase. Yelp was founded in San Francisco in July 2004.

Yelp intends to make future announcements of material financial and other information through its Investor Relations website. Yelp will also, from time to time, disclose this information through press releases, filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, conference calls, or webcasts, as required by applicable law.

The post Yelp Appoints Dwelling Companies Chief Chris Terrill to its Board of Administrators appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Mar 16, 2022–

Yelp Inc. (NYSE: YELP), the company that connects people with great local businesses, announced today the appointment of Chris Terrill, former chief executive officer of ANGI Homeservices (now Angi Inc.) and HomeAdvisor.com, to its Board of Directors , effective immediately.

Terrill is a tenured internet executive who has a strong record of building highly successful businesses, including ANGI Homeservices, which grew to a multi-billion-dollar public company by the time of his departure.

“Chris brings extensive experience in building online marketplaces that connect consumers with local service professionals,” said Jeremy Stoppelman, Yelp’s co-founder and chief executive officer. “His perspective will bring tremendous value as we continue to differentiate the services product experience for users and businesses on Yelp.”

Terrill has served as executive co-chairman of Z-Work Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company investing in the work technology business, since February 2021. He previously served as chief executive officer and a director of ANGI Homeservices (now Angi Inc. ), a digital marketplace for home services, from September 2017 to November 2018. Terrill served as chief executive officer of HomeAdvisor.com, a wholly-owned subsidiary of IAC that merged with Angie’s List in September 2017 to form ANGI Homeservices, beginning in May 2011. Prior to joining HomeAdvisor, Terrill held senior marketing roles at Nutrisystem.com, Blockbuster.com and Match.com. He holds a BS from the University of Texas at Austin and an MBA from the University of Houston.

Terrill joins Yelp’s Board of Directors following Brian Sharples’ decision to step down at the end of his current term on June 2, 2022, after serving more than three years on the Yelp Board and Audit Committee.

“We are pleased to welcome Chris to the Yelp board. His expertise, energy and enthusiasm for connecting people with great local service businesses will serve us well as we continue to execute our strategy and build long-term shareholder value,” said Diane Irvine, chair of the Yelp Board of Directors. “On behalf of the Board, I’d also like to extend my sincere appreciation to Brian for the expertise, valuable perspectives and commitment he has brought to the Yelp Board. We are grateful for his many contributions and wish him well in all future endeavors.”

About Yelp

Yelp Inc. ( www.yelp.com ) connects people with great local businesses. With trusted local business information, photos, and review content, Yelp provides a one-stop local platform for consumers to discover, connect, and transact with local businesses of all sizes by making it easy to request a quote, join a waitlist, and make a reservation, appointment, or purchase. Yelp was founded in San Francisco in July 2004.

Yelp intends to make future announcements of material financial and other information through its Investor Relations website. Yelp will also, from time to time, disclose this information through press releases, filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, conference calls, or webcasts, as required by applicable law.

View source version on businesswire.com:https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220316005982/en/

CONTACT: Investor Relations Contact:

Kate Krieger

ir@yelp.com Press Contact:

Amber Albrecht

press@yelp.com

KEYWORD: UNITED STATES NORTH AMERICA CALIFORNIA

INDUSTRY KEYWORD: ONLINE RETAIL INTERNET OTHER RETAIL WINE & SPIRITS OTHER CONSTRUCTION & PROPERTY TECHNOLOGY FOOD/BEVERAGE CONSTRUCTION & PROPERTY RETAIL ADVERTISING COMMUNICATIONS HOME GOODS

SOURCE: Yelp Inc.

Copyright Business Wire 2022.

PUB: 03/16/2022 04:05 PM / DISC: 03/16/2022 04:06 PM

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220316005982/en

Copyright Business Wire 2022.

The post Yelp Appoints Residence Providers Chief Chris Terrill to its Board of Administrators | Enterprise appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.