"THRED Talks" - 2025 Speakers

 

 

The San Mateo County Economic Development Association (SAMCEDA) is pleased to announce the five amazing and powerful speakers for the upcoming 72nd Annual Meeting featuring "THRED Talks" - Weaving Our Region Together:

Rommel Angeles
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Associate Vice President - Network Engineering
for Northern California and Nevada, Verizon

Rommel Angeles is an engineer and a leader at Verizon. He is currently the Associate Vice President leading the Verizon Team for the Northern California/Nevada region, a team of 170+ engineers that design, build, and maintain the Wireless Network in this area.

With 23+ years of extensive experience at Verizon, Rommel has worked and led various groups in the realms of Network System Performance, Project Management, Construction, Real Estate, and Operations in different parts of the country including California, Minnesota, and New York. 

Outside of work, Rommel enjoys travel, the outdoors with activities such as running, cycling, hiking, and climbing, and spending quality time with his family and two children.  

Olivia Asuncion
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Architect and Accessibility Advocate

Olivia Mae M. Asuncion strongly believes that our design decisions have the potential to create physical symbols that tear down social barriers and inequalities.

Growing up with a disability in a small town in the Philippines where accessibility was not a priority, Asuncion developed a unique perspective of space. At a very young age, she understood the impact that the design of the built environment had on inclusivity and social equity. Moving to the States, she further recognized the opportunities that came with accessibility and how physical spaces hold great power in affecting the human experience, thus inspiring Asuncion to pursue a career in architecture.

Asuncion has oriented her career path towards building communities and advocating for inclusive design. She started her professional career at Equity Community Builders, helping Bay Area non-profit organizations with their construction, project, and property management needs, including the Ed Roberts Campus, a universally designed building in Berkeley that hosts several disability organizations. She later served the public sector as an architect at Shah Kawasaki Architects in Oakland, California, working on public safety buildings and governmental office spaces within Bay Area communities. Olivia now works primarily on K-12 educational facilities throughout Northern California as a Project Architect at Quattrocchi Kwok Architects. In 2023, Asuncion was appointed by President Biden as a Public member of the U.S. Access Board.

Asuncion is also passionate about improving architecture through environmental design research. A notable project titled “Accessible Evacuation: Improving Fire Safety and Building Evacuation for People with Disabilities,” assesses the efficacy and accessibility of existing evacuation protocols and building safety codes and theorizing solutions for more inclusive and safe building designs. This research was presented in various symposia, and won First Place for the Student Best Design Award at the Environmental Design Research Association’s 46th Annual Conference. She has also collaborated with University of Oregon professors on the post-occupancy evaluation of the Ed Roberts Campus project, quantifying the success of the building’s universal design features. Her latest research achievement is a Fulbright research project where Asuncion traveled back to the Philippines to assess the accessibility of elementary schools.

An experienced lecturer and Young Architect leader, Asuncion shares her knowledge and passion to university students, design professionals, and local communities to encourage future generations of architects to prioritize inclusivity in the profession, thus creating a more diverse and equitable world. She is a 2024 San Francisco Business Times' 40 Under 40 honoree and has recently received the 2025 AIA National Young Architects Award. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Architecture from the University of California at Berkeley and her Master of Architecture degree from the University of Oregon.
 

Evan Engstrom 
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Senior Manager, Creator Public Policy, YouTube

Evan Engstrom leads YouTube's creator public policy work, ensuring that policymakers around the world understand the importance of the creator economy and keep the interests of creators in mind when crafting laws and regulations.

Prior to joining YouTube, Evan led Engine Advocacy, the startup community's voice in Washington DC, and was an IP litigator at Farella Braun + Martel.
 

Luz Urrutia
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Chief Executive Officer, Accion Opportunity Fund

Luz Urrutia is the CEO of Accion Opportunity Fund, the nation's leading non-profit that provides small businesses with access to capital, educational resources, personalized coaching, and thriving networks. Luz joined Opportunity Fund as CEO in 2017 with the goal of continuing to build a more responsible and affordable financial system. In her role, she is leading efforts to scale the non-profit Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI), deepening its impact and expanding its reach nationwide. As the nation’s top non-profit small business lender—with a lifetime $1 billion deployed in small business loans —Luz is focused on attracting capital and philanthropic funds to expand nationally, aiming to quadruple the organization’s impact by 2025.

Under Luz's leadership, in March 2020, Opportunity Fund and Accion, The US Network, joined forces to establish Accion Opportunity Fund, the first organization focused on a national microlending strategy to meet the credit and business advising needs of small businesses – developing new products, establishing new partnerships, promoting research and financial education, and leveraging digital technologies and data analytics to support mission-driven lending.

Luz spent her career in banking and financial services, particularly in underserved markets, and has won numerous awards for her leadership in the field. She began her career at Wachovia, where she spent 18 years, before founding El Banco de Nuestra Comunidad, a community bank based in Atlanta, Georgia serving the underbanked Latina/o consumers and small businesses. Luz served as President and Chief Operating Officer from 2001 - 2013. As VP of Retail Sales and Services at Oportun in California, from 2013-2016, Luz's team expanded Oportun's footprint across five states. In 2016, Luz joined Dollar Financial Group as CEO for the Americas to help transform the organization into a responsible consumer finance lender for underserved communities.

Luz served on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's Consumer Advisory Board, the Consumer Advisory Council of the Federal Reserve Bank, and on the Board of the Financial Health Network. Currently, she is a Board member for the Silicon Valley Community Foundation and a member of the Community Advisory Council for the San Francisco Federal Reserve. In 2021, she was named one of 50 Over 50: Investments by Forbes. She received the Latino Leadership Award by the Silicon Valley Business Journal. Luz received a B.S., magna cum laude, in Business Administration and Finance and an M.B.A., both from Georgia State University. Luz resides in Mountain View, California.
 

James Wagstaffe
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Partner, Adamski Moroski Madden Cumberland & Green

James (Jim) M. Wagstaffe handles a diverse range of litigation matters. His practice focuses on complex litigation, professional and governmental representation, will and trust disputes, legal ethics, and First Amendment matters.

Jim is also the author of The Wagstaffe Group Practice Guide: Federal Civil Procedure Before Trial, published by Lexis Nexis. Jim currently serves as a member Chair of the Federal Judicial Center Foundation Board, appointed by the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.

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To learn more about "THRED Talks,"
please click here.