If you need a restaurant or bar recommendation for your next trip to Santa Barbara, Chad Barron is the guy you should ask. A district manager for the Santa Barbara-based Nevins Adams Lewbel Schell real estate investment firm, Barron is also immersed in the local food and beverage scene. He’s a volunteer organizer of the Santa Barbara Beer Festival, keeps an eye on the latest restaurant openings, and enjoys experimenting in the kitchen. The Beer Festival, which has grown from a small event five years ago to a major annual happening each October at Elings Park, benefits the park as well as the youth programs of the Santa Barbara Grunions Rugby Club. A former rugby athlete, Chad and his co-organizers hosted 2,000 people at the 2012 event. “I cannot believe how much it has grown, from us hoping to break even with 700 participants the first year, to selling out a week before the event this year. The brewers are great to work with, and it’s a lot of fun to see everyone have a good time,” Chad said. Don’t ask him to tell you what his favorite local brewery is, though. There are too many high-quality local contenders to select just one. “I would say it’s a really tough competition between Telegraph, Islands and the Brewhouse,” he conceded. The Brewhouse, a local favorite for happy hour and its wide-ranging dinner menu, is also on his short list of recommended restaurants – along with Cajun flavors at The Palace and locavore-inspired Julienne. When it comes to his own kitchen, Chad is always willing to try new things. His signature dish combines walnuts, bacon, and Brussels sprouts. The local Farmer’s Market is the source for many of his kitchen inspirations, from fresh citrus for experimental...

A Dos Pueblos High School program that targets students at risk of dropping out of high school has proven its success, graduating 100 percent of the students who participated from 2009-2012. As a result, The Academy at Dos Pueblos High School  is expanding, and the 32 students currently participating in the focused, supportive education experience will be joined by a second cohort of sophomores in Fall 2013. More often than not, their school life was being made challenging by difficult home lives, lack of support for their studies and sometimes conflict.  Of the 32 students who were part of the Academy’s first class, most admitted they were at risk of leaving school altogether if they stayed on a traditional track, said Kelly Choi, Academy Director. Others were likely to have become involved with gangs or drugs. “The idea was to embrace these kids and not let them fall off the radar. They need a connection here at school to make them interested in staying at school,” Choi said. The 32 Academy students stay with their classmates for all of their classes, and have the same teachers for their core classes (math, English, science and social studies) during all three years of the program. The idea of sticking with the same group of 32 for three years is unique in a high school setting, where students typically bounce from group to group in classes, clubs, sports teams, and social settings.  The Academy’s “school family” brings support and accountability, which the students may not have at home. And it requires mediating past personality conflicts so that the group can stay cohesive, a valuable life skill. For the recently graduated seniors, it was the part of the program “that they hated the most in the beginning, but...

They call the coastal California city of Goleta “the Goodland.” The opportunity to reside in apartments like The Towbes Group’s Encina Meadows are one reason why. With views of the beautiful Santa Ynez Mountains, Encina Meadows is a peaceful place to live. Residents told us that they love the nicely landscaped property, which includes mature trees, plenty of shade and green grass. Most apartment balconies face the A recent upgrade to the community amenities revamped the pool and Jacuzzi area, community center (available by reservation for special events and parties) and the gym. Residents can now enjoy that view of the mountains while BBQing on one of several gas grills available poolside.mountain range, and many residents have extended the greenery to flowers and mini-gardens on their individual patios. Nearby, a variety of restaurants, from sushi to Indian cuisine to traditional American fare, are within walking distance. Groceries, drug stores, banks, coffee shops and other conveniences are just a block away, and a movie theatre and public library are also close. With near-perfect weather and awesome area beaches and parks, residents of Encina Meadows have plenty of opportunities to enjoy the outdoors. And they don’t have to go far – the community pool is a popular spot for reading, relaxing and swimming, even into the fall and winter months. Residents also told us that they love the attentive service delivered by Community Manger Nadra Ehrman and her staff, who make maintenance requests and other resident needs their No. 1 priority. With friendly neighbors and such a pleasant place to call home, it’s no wonder Encina Meadows residents enjoy the Goodland life. Ehrman, her front office team, and Encina Meadows residents participated in a photo shoot for a “Your People. Your Places. Our Priority” print ad....

James Beane is one of those rare individuals who can navigate the worlds of back end technical parlance and simple, user-friendly explanations of computing concepts with equal ease. For Yardi’s Manager of Cloud Services, communication is the most important aspect of IT. James’ job description includes answering questions from clients about how Yardi’s Application Service Provider team can make their lives easier and their businesses more efficient. He’s an expert on disaster recovery and business continuity, key processes that provide peace of mind for companies with invaluable business data stored on remote servers. Yardi has opened communication pathways between ASP and clients in recent years, making it easier for executives and administrators to pick up the phone and reach out to James or one of his colleagues on the ASP team and get their hosting questions answered. “We’ve cleared channels of communication with our ASP Hotline, for our hosted clients that have outages, ‘We cannot access Voyager; The report isn’t processing.’ We’ve implemented things like that so our clients can pick up the batline and say ‘I need help,’ and get the same service level that they would from an internal IT team,” James explained. Yardi has also greatly expanded off-site hosting services for clients that take much of the technology heavy lifting off the table for companies of all sizes. Handing hosting responsibility over to the industry leading software developer and application service provider makes good business sense. “Over the years, we’ve spent a lot of time supporting clients’ environments, with 3,000-some clients hosted and 11,000 network devices run,” James noted. “We can help our clients take the guesswork out of it and focus on what they can do really well, which is manage their properties.” Just past his ten year service mark...

For the last few years, Jay Shobe has had a technology to do list that would seem overwhelming by any standards. Yardi’s Vice President of Technology reeled it off for us, almost like it was a set list for a rock show. “Mobility – and that includes Apple, and Android. JQuery and HTML5, for multiple browsers, so IE, Firefox, Chrome, Mac. Multiple screen sizes, from a monster desktop to an iPad to an iPad mini to a phone. Sharepoint. Business intelligence. Cube design.  Data warehousing.” He paused to take a breath. “It’s been an incredible run of technology over the last two to three years. Way more than anything I had ever seen. And as always with new technology, I’m looking forward to seeing things really consolidate, and seeing all of these new technologies move forward into our different verticals.” Jay started at Yardi as a teenager back in 1985, stuffing envelopes, copying computer disks and running errands. After he graduated from Santa Barbara High and headed to Baylor University in Texas to study history, he worked fulltime at Yardi while he was home for the summer. In 1989, he moved back to Santa Barbara and began working at Yardi in client service support. The desire to try programming hit him a few years later. “I think all programmers ultimately have to do their own learning. In programming, things change constantly. It doesn’t matter what you learned yesterday. You’ve got to figure out a way to adapt and learn new technologies,” Jay said. He claims to have not been much of a student in college, but when company founder and CEO Anant Yardi gave him his first programming job to complete, he threw himself into learning how to write code for the Windows-based Enterprise...

Pathways to the world of property management are as unique as the people who travel them. For Leslie Dabi, an information systems manager for EAH Housing, a nonprofit affordable housing developer and management company, her road into the real estate realm began in college. While studying French and international relations at UC Davis, Leslie took a part-time job at her own apartment complex. She quickly learned about the unique challenges associated with property management for student housing. “We would do about 90 move outs and move-ins over a 2 day period during our turnover time – it was crazy!” recalled the Northern California native. “I remember working 18 hour days.” After graduating from UC Davis, Leslie had originally planned to pursue a law degree. But after taking the LSATs and waiting for her applications to various law schools to be processed, another onsite position in property management came calling her name. Ultimately, she changed her mind about a lawyer lifestyle and decided to commit to a career in the real estate industry. At EAH, a nonprofit company managing 9,300 units of affordable housing in California and the Hawaii islands, she has branched into new directions. In addition to handling technology project management, database administration, and software system integrations, Leslie provides onsite and offsite training for EAH staff, and oversees the Yardi & HUD/EIV Help Desk staff. The people-focused housing corporation is committed to caring for those who live in its properties – who bridge all walks of life from seniors, families, students, people with disabilities, frail elderly and the formerly homeless – and fosters professional development among its employees as well. “I can still relate to the onsite staff, because I worked in their positions, and I know what they go through,” Leslie noted....

Sean Spinks has worked in a diverse range of industries – including the restaurant and catering business, as a college-level instructor for ministry students, and even cleaning carpets. All of these job experiences have given him a unique perspective on customer service, an area in which he excels. Sean, an employee in Yardi’s Raleigh, N.C. office, was recognized during CSD Week in November for his exemplary efforts on behalf of Yardi residential and commercial clients. But a trophy on his desk doesn’t mean mission accomplished for this Texas native. “Always be growing, always be getting better at what you do. Never think you’ve arrived. Yes, I was awarded a Customer Service Week award, but as soon as I get the statue I plan to put a note under it to say: ‘This isn’t the end,’ to remind myself, you have to do this every day. You can’t win an award once and be done with it. You have to keep asking, what can I do to be better at this than I am now?” A supportive environment for such personal growth and learning is one of the reasons that Sean loves his job at Yardi, where he has worked since February 2011. After stints on both the frontline residential and commercial teams, he’s now working on implementations for large Yardi Voyager clients, including a company using Yardi’s new Voyager plugin for single family home property management. “It’s been the best job I’ve ever had.  I truly enjoy every single day. I also enjoy time with my family, but I actually look forward to going to work,” Sean told us. “Yardi asks: what can we do to better you and help you become the most you can be? In turn, that helps the clients. It’s...

Whether she’s hiking an icy trail in Yosemite, troubleshooting an accounting software issue for a Yardi client, or hanging out with rock stars, Pam Alexander is equally at home. Her unflappable and understanding nature shines through in any situation. An eight-year Yardi employee who currently serves in multiple roles as a client services manager, Pam is the kind of person who is great to have on your team, whether the day’s activity is zip lining in Mexico, correcting a general ledger imbalance, or riding an elephant in India. No matter where she happens to be in the world, Pam embraces life to the fullest. The California native has a long list of things she loves about her job, starting with the people she works with, from her team members around the globe to upper management. Pam’s work puts her in contact with Yardi staff in multiple countries and offices on a daily basis. In addition to her work managing the Santa Barbara PAYScan team, she manages the financial portion of the Voyager product, working with development and QA to ensure clients’ needs and wishes are incorporated into software changes.  Troubleshooting high-level accounting glitches and overseeing the Pune client services and residential case teams is another aspect of her work. With experience elsewhere in the software industry, Pam notes that one thing that sets Yardi Systems apart is the company’s willingness to listen and respond to its clients. “Customer service here is client based. We want them to be happy. We always try to accommodate them and be responsive to their needs, to make sure they have what they need to get their job done,” she said.  “To me it’s important to get the clients voice over to development, and I appreciate that I am...

Dawn Bolin isn’t someone to shy away from a challenge. After 20 years as an accounting manager for The Ezralow Company of Calabasas, Calif., she asked her employer to entrust her with a major new challenge – overseeing the transition of the multi-vertical property management firm from Yardi Enterprise to Yardi Voyager. As an accountant, Dawn suspected that her expertise on the financial side would be vital to a successful transition to the new software platform and way of working. And she was right. Along the way, she made a major leap into a new area of expertise – technology – and has never looked back. Six years later, she will start her 27th year with Ezralow this January.  Dawn’s responsibilities as the company’s Yardi Database Administrator have added many new facets to her job, and she tells us that she loves the challenge. “Things are constantly changing, and that keeps my mind busy. I like to learn new things,” said the Orange County native. When a technical glitch occurs, she’s excited about the opportunity to figure out how to fix it – and tries to avoid calling her Yardi account manager until she’s exhausted troubleshooting efforts. “All the Yardi people are great. They are extremely patient,” she told us. Dawn attends the Yardi Advanced Solutions Conference twice a year to get the latest updates on updates, new products, and more efficient work processes. And she’s focused the company’s current technology efforts on creating more efficient workflows and moving to mobile devices. “Our (property) sites have to log in to so many different websites to do their job. We’d rather them log into one and have it all be interfaced, so we’ve eliminated the pieces that are scattered and combined them all into one,”...

Whether he’s your friendly North Carolina neighbor or the Senior Technical Account Manager who made implementation of your RentCafe property marketing website a breeze, Aaron Wells is the kind of guy who everybody enjoys getting to know. His good-natured outlook is on display all year long, whether he’s cruising around his rural farm on the tractor, hanging out on the couch with his family and potbellied pig (one of many animals who call the Wells’ farm home) or dressed up as a RentCafe coffee cup for Halloween. Aaron showed extreme team spirit when he and wife Terra created his cardboard and cloth costume, which effectively branded his loyalty to the RentCafe product. A Yardi account manager since 2007, he has enjoyed implementing new clients on  RentCafe, which helps market multifamily properties to new renters and provide existing residents with better customer service. “The ultimate goal is to get the word out about their properties and being in new prospect traffic,” said Wells, who has worked with the  RentCafe implementation team since 2009. He enjoys the friendly and fun atmosphere of the Raleigh office and the ever-changing nature of the software business. “Everyone at Yardi is really cool, and always has been,” he told us. Wells fits neatly in the cool category as well. A Raleigh native, he and Terra bought their farm outside the city seven years ago to get away from the city life. She’s a veterinarian, so their home has become a refuge for animals – there are horses, chickens, dogs, cats, pigs and a duck in residence. All are rescues of some sort, except for one new puppy. Niblet, the house pig, was a potbellied pet pig who grew bigger than his owner expected. But even at his current 80 pounds,...

After 11 years in the utility billing industry, Stephen Hennessey is thrilled that he still has the same client base. After all, his clients have become people he cares about. “I enjoy working with them on a daily basis,” said Stephen, who was part of the ista Multifamily Services Group (MSG) acquired by Yardi in May 2012.  “The property managers and clients have become my really good friends.” Making good friends is something that comes easily to Stephen, who often hosts up to 70 guests for Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve or July 4 at his Newport Beach home. And speaking of home, we found out a little known fact about Stephen that’s quite fascinating – he has lived on the same street for his entire life, though not in the same house. He bought the place across the street from his childhood home, a convenient location that allows him to look after his elderly mother. It’s also close to the beach, one of his favorite spots to hang out, and he has put much time and effort into the property, including creating a backyard oasis with a giant koi pond. His kitchen is a regular gathering spot for his friends, who get together to host foodie parties and potlucks created around unique culinary themes. You might think that living on the same street for so long would narrow your outlook on life, but that’s definitely not true in Stephen’s case. He’s branched out with international travel adventures (tropical beaches are a favorite), is constantly experimenting with new dishes in the kitchen, and recently succeeded in taking on a new passion – fundraising for a good cause. Yardi’s Orange County office is the new home base for Stephen and two of his MSG colleagues. Led by...

The evening of the photo shoot could not have been more perfect if it were Photoshopped: bright blue skies, golden sun, and a crisp breeze signaled the official arrival of autumn in southeast. The photography team easily made our way to The Lofts at Perimeter Center, a Worthing Company property conveniently located at the junction between I-285 and GA 400. The Lofts rest just moments from the buzzing shopping malls and fine dining of one of Atlanta’s hottest extensions. Tucked away in a green residential enclave, the community balances a hip, urban vibe with natural beauty. Lush, vibrant landscaping complements the community’s sleek contemporary architecture. It looked like it would be a fun place to call home, a little oasis in the bustle of the city. Inside, the clubhouse hopped with residents. A group jogged together on the treadmills in the upstairs gym. Two young ladies worked at the computer stations near the community lounge. Unlike many clubhouses that prove to be a selling point more than an actual place to congregate, The Lofts residents take advantage of the amenities and social atmosphere. It’s no surprise, really. The upscale décor of the clubhouse transforms the space into a lounge that’s perfect for gathering with friends. Upbeat music and friendly staff added to the relaxed, club-style atmosphere. Yardi Systems photographer Nicole Goodness-Landfried and I were soon greeted by Leigh Scofield and Judy Allen, Worthing Company property managers. Both ensured that we had everything we needed to get started. They also accommodated our models, residents of The Lofts, who were excited to get started—dolled up and glamorous with bright smiles to boot—but they were a bit camera shy. “Anyone up for some wine?” Judy asked. There were a few sheepish smiles before the unanimous “yes!” from...

Maritza Martinez, Chief Purchasing Officer and Maintenance Coordinator of Westland Real Estate Group, Inc. in Los Angeles, has a smart and simple outlook on property maintenance. It’s about fixing things, certainly, and fixing them fast. But maintenance first and foremost is about great customer service. “That’s my main concern – I always want to make sure the tenants are happy,” said Martinez, who started at Westland nine years ago in a purchasing position for the maintenance department. Two years later, she was promoted to her current role, in which she supervises and coordinates the maintenance crews working on Westland’s multifamily and commercial properties as well as 10 mobile home parks. With 46 apartment buildings in LA County that account for 2400 units, as well as 40 commercial shopping centers, the Westland crews stay very busy responding to 200 to 300 calls for service in the average week. They also work on remodels and upgrades to the apartment units during tenancy turnovers. To make sure that residents can always reach someone to address their maintenance request, no matter what time of night or day, Westland uses a hotline system that bounces to an on-call cell phone between 5:30 p.m. and 8 a.m. An on call customer service representative is assigned to monitor the overnight calls and dispatch maintenance technicians to deal with any emergencies. Maintenance requests are also accepted through the on-site property managers and the company’s website, but Martinez told us that the telephone hotline is still the primary way services requests are submitted. In the future, she sees things moving to a web-based environment so that tracking will be easier. (Yardi’s Maintenance Mobile App is one easy way for technicians to view and respond to assigned work orders while on the go, and...

Cindy Frank is a Renaissance woman – who writes romance novels. A technologist, published author and artist, her diverse professional and personal interests keep her constantly busy at work and on the weekend. As a staff assistant in the Tucson Housing and Community Development Department, Cindy found the perfect role for her background. She earned her doctorate from the University of Arizona in higher education, but the focus of her advanced studies was technology in the workplace.  (She had previously earned a masters’ degree in information systems from UA.) “My interest is primarily at the intersection of technology and people. This place is ideal for me because we have a lot of social services people, and they’re not always comfortable with technology. That’s my forte – the intersection of people and technology,” she told us in a recent interview. She’s responsible for overseeing the use of Yardi Voyager by the City of Tucson to manage its public housing and Section 8 housing programs, assessing new technologies like mobile apps, and other IT-related job duties. Outside of work, Cindy has several unique hobbies. She makes stained glass, expressing her artistic side. And she is an electronically published author of seven romances under a pen name. We promised to keep the moniker confidential, but we can say that you can find her works through publisher Ellora’s Cave, one of the first e-publishers to focus on romance. They accepted her first book right away with only minor revisions. A lifelong reader, dedicating free time to writing books on the weekends has become Cindy’s second job. A typical novel takes three to four months to complete if she sticks to a regular writing schedule. Cindy tells us she enjoys science fiction as well as romance and has written...

Margaret Spalding’s clients know her as the Yardi application specialist who helps make life easier, and as someone who will always follow up with the answer to their question or problem. Her coworkers know her as a strong member of the Yardi team in Glen Head, NY, who not only inspires client loyalty but has been known to bring some fantastic home baked cakes and cookies into the office. At home, Margaret is content to simply be Mom to her three boys, Matthew, Devin and Lucas, aged 7, 6, and 4, who along with husband Michael are her first priority. A New York native, one of Margaret’s formative life experiences as a young adult was spending a year volunteering for So Others Might Eat, a non-profit that ranks as one of the top Washington D.C.-area charities helping the homeless and low-income populations. Her work for SOME involved activity planning at a Single Room Occupancy home, where low-income residents from all walks of life had their own bedrooms but shared communal space for cooking, dining, living and bathing. The work and the residents she met, ranging from addicts in recovery to seniors on fixed incomes, opened Margaret’s eyes to what she appreciated most about her own life. “I went in to it expecting to learn to appreciate the stuff that I had. It turned out that I already appreciated the stuff, and more than anything I learned to appreciate family and support that I have,” she said. Drawing from that lesson for her own kids, Margaret and Michael have created a supportive home life that involves family togetherness, including travel and camping adventures, as well as community activities like Cub Scouts and religion class. All three of the Spalding boys are very different, noted their...

Nice neighbors make for better apartment living experiences.  For CEO Doug Hignell, creating a welcoming and caring environment at The Hignell Companies’ apartment residences in Chico, Calif. was a longstanding desire. “Relationships are my passion: both with God and with people. My driving purpose centers on ‘creating caring communities that transform lives’, both personally and through The Hignell Companies,” Hignell said. The Hignell Companies is a Yardi client, using Yardi products to manage its condominium portfolio, multifamily properties, and more. Hignell’s desire to comfort and connect led to establishing a non-profit arm of the family-owned property management, development, maintenance and construction firm founded by his father, Fred Hignell Jr, and partner Floyd Strange in 1948. The effort takes some cues from Apartment Life’s CARES Team ministry, which was generous in assisting Hignell as he started Creating Caring Communities. The focus for Creating Caring Communities, just as its name states, is on creating community. Today, Creating Caring Communities has seven teams who live on site in Hignell apartment communities that range from 224 units to 88 units in size. In exchange for a rent-free unit, the teams (married couples, families, or single adults) are tasked with hosting an event for complex apartment residents each month, connecting with their neighbors on a daily basis, and bringing people together in a social and neighborly way. Teams spend a combined 15 to 20 hours each week working with their community, and are asked to commit to a two year service period. Their rent and event expenses are generated by each apartment community via a per-door fee. “We are a religious non-profit. Our heart is about building community, but it is also loving on people, making them know they are of value and worth. If we can an opportunity...

Jim Young has taken his industry-leading commercial real estate technology conference, Realcomm, all over the globe to learn from the latest innovators. Now, the company is sending a mission to the final frontier – space. In February 2013, a Russian Soyuz rocket will blast off for the International Space Station carrying a new round of science projects from around the globe, and a Realcomm and CALIT2–funded, high-school student designed experiment will be among them. “Big ideas really do come out of the space industry, and those technologies that are being used in the space station probably will make their way to buildings over the next 10 to 15 years, a good example of that is Solar/LED lighting systems” noted Young. “Given that the ISS is the ‘most intelligent building in the universe,’ this fits very well with the mission and vision of Realcomm. “ But the real impetus behind this educational venture in outer space was motivated by a concerned dad’s desire to improve the education of his two daughters – and that of other American kids, too. During his first Realcomm international intelligent buildings tour in 2004, a trip to a classroom in China pushed Young to take a hard look at the U.S. education system, where it was falling short, and seek out opportunities for innovation and elevation that Realcomm and its community could fund. Over the years, the Realcomm community has donated significant amount of dollars to math and science. The students who will devise and create the space experiment are part of Better Education for Women in Science and Engineering (BE Wise), part of the San Diego Science Alliance. Young’s oldest daughter Grace, 14, is a participant in the program, which pushes young women to see math and science as...

Kate Good’s energy and enthusiasm are infectious. Whether she’s talking about apartment branding, leasing strategy, or cute shoes, the veteran multifamily motivator captures her audience with humor, charm and solid market-tested knowledge. As an independent consultant and a member of the Apartment All Stars, a team of multifamily experts that delivers industry insight and inspiration on a national tour and via webinars, Good is in demand for her 23 years of expertise. She gave us a few minutes of her valuable time recently to chat about multifamily trends. And stay tuned for a big announcement involving the All Stars’ next big thing in the coming weeks, she hinted during our interview. Good began her career as a leasing professional with Trammell Crow, and started her consultancy in 1997. Today, she speaks to over 18,000 apartment industry professionals annually at conferences, seminars, trainings, retreats, awards and other industry events, sharing the lessons that she’s learned while assisting her clients. Good works with all varieties of properties, from distressed assets with lagging vacancy rates to new construction (one of her favorite project types). She is passionate about working with apartment industry clients to help them stay motivated, be better at their jobs, lease up their properties, retain residents and raise rents. “She is without a doubt the most entertaining speaker I’ve ever seen in the industry and certainly one of the most informative,” said Will Johnson, publisher of Professional Publishing, Inc. Rave reviews from her speaking engagements are common, with audiences say they walk away energized, excited, and ready to work. Despite having months of travel on her calendar each year for speaking engagements and consultant gigs, Good’s outlook is perpetually upbeat and optimistic, and her audiences feed off that energy. “My audience is sophisticated. I’m...

Remon Amboy isn’t just committed to his work at Yardi as Director of ASP – he has shed blood for the company. Repeatedly. A 23-year-employee in Santa Barbara, Remon began his Yardi career as a part-time temp who answered phones for his first few months (he was also attending school at the University of California at Santa Barbara at the time). Fast forward two decades, and he’s now in charge of 10,000 devices, has helped Yardi open 12 data centers around the world and oversees 70 employees. Those data centers, though, can be a little dangerous. That’s where Remon has managed to cut himself while racking servers and completing other equipment set-up tasks, quickly dashing off to the first aid kit to keep his blood off any equipment. Who knew IT had a sharp side? A native of the Philippines who moved to the U.S. as a teen and attended high school in the Bay Area, Remon’s philosophy of work is simple but smart: Do the job at hand, and do it well, and other opportunities will likely follow. “The formula in this company for success was for me, and for others as well, do the job that you’re doing and do it well. If you prove yourself to this company, opportunity will be there. Do your job well, and do it efficiently and good things will happen,” he said. He jokes that he earned a master’s and PhD at Yardi University. At UCSB, he earned his bachelor’s degree in political science. Creating opportunity has worked well for Remon at Yardi Systems. His first official job here was in the now-phased out MLS department, where he helped create regular real estate listing digests for regional MLS’. Pre-photo scanners, the work was repetitive and involved...