Oto, Lauren
Lauren is the Vice President of Communications & Membership at the California Asian Pacific Chamber of Commerce.
Kushida, Pat Fong
Pat is the President/CEO of the Sacramento Asian-Pacific Chamber of Commerce (SACC) serving in this capacity since 1998, and President/CEO of the California Asian Pacific Chamber of Commerce (CAPCC) formed in 2010.This combined entity represents the largest ethnic chamber in California today.
Pat is a known as a visionary, entrepreneurial leader who has applied these skills to help build programs that strengthen California’s ethnically diverse business community and create economic development opportunities for this community to prosper. Through her leadership, CAPCC has established two federal centers that help minority small businesses. The Sacramento Export Center, funded by the Department of Commerce’s Minority Business Development Agency serving the southwest region, and the Small Business Transportation Resource Center funded by the Department of Transportation serving California, Arizona, Hawaii and Nevada.
Pat has established relationships that link the most prominent API business organization to opportunities that provide advocacy, education and outreach to a significant portion of this state’s demographics, the over 600,000 Asian Pacific owned businesses in California. Through her efforts, the Chamber has developed partnerships throughout the State with over 53 community-based organizations. She created a separate Foundation to house each chamber’s economic and workforce development, leadership, and education programs. Through this effort, the chamber won a significant contract with Covered California to sign up over 50,000 API business in California.
Pat’s strength is forming collaborations with many community-based organizations on issues related to regional economic development to advance her community’s interests. She has advocated on behalf of the chamber at the local, state and federal levels, and developed successful ongoing fund development programs to ensure chamber viability. Most recently, she formed the Sacramento Inclusive Development Collaborative (Sac IEDC), which is a group of regional chambers and local P-Bids that advocate for the diverse and underserved small business community in the Sacramento Region.
Pat firmly believes in giving back to her community and serves on numerous boards and commissions.Pat is a Senior Fellow, American Leadership Forum; Advisory Board Member, Sac State’s Carlsen Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship; Advisory Board Member, Sac State’s College of Business Advisory Council; Board Member, Align Capital Region Board; and Member, Aggie Square Joint Advisory Board Committee.
Prior to her work in the non-profit arena, Pat worked in procurement management for major retail corporations for 15 years. Pat graduated from California State University, Sacramento in 1985 with a B.S. in Business Administration, concentration, Marketing, and a minor in Communications.