Board of Governors

Sean Elsbernd ’97 served as Chief of Staff for former San Francisco Mayor London Breed from July 2018 to January 2025. He previously served for more than eight years as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Initially appointed to that position in 2004 at age 28, he later won two elections to represent District 7 on the Board. He was also State Director for U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein from 2012 to 2018. He received a BA from CMC in 1997 and a JD from Hastings College of the Law (now UC Law San Francisco) in 2000.

Eric Figueroa ’92, P’21 is a Consultant for Renee Public Management Group. From April 2019 to January 2023, he served as City Manager for the City of Martinez. He was also Assistant City Manager for the City of San Ramon; Public Affairs Manager for the League of California Cities; and Assistant to the City Manager for the City of San Leandro. He earned a BA in Government and Economics from CMC in 1992 and an MBA from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business in 1998.

Robert Hertzberg is a former California Senate Majority Leader and Speaker of the Assembly. During his career, he has focused on promoting future-oriented solutions to the state’s challenges.  He has chaired the Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation and California Forward, co-founded the Think Long Committee for California, worked to develop renewal energy innovations, and, after voters approved term limits, co-founded a training program for new state legislators. He earned a BA in English from the University of Redlands in 1976 and a JD from Hastings College of the Law (now UC Law San Francisco) in 1979.

Kirk Hoiberg ’92 is Principal and Co-founder of Trinitas Partners, Pomona Farming, and Mahi Pono, which are focused on large-scale agriculture in California and Hawaii. Prior to founding these companies, he was a Senior Managing Director for CB Richard Ellis, a Senior Associate for McKinsey & Co, and President of MixStar Inc. He earned a BA from Claremont McKenna College in 1992 and an MBA from Harvard Business School in 2000.

Ashwin Navin ’99 is Co-founder and CEO of Samba TV.  A leading entrepreneur in the media technology industry, he was the Co-founder and President of BitTorrent, Inc. before founding Samba TV in 2008. He has also served as a board member and investor for Invisible Commerce; an investor and advisor for vidIQ; co-founder of i/o Ventures; and an advisor for OpenDNS, following stints with Goldman Sachs, Epoch Partners, Merrill Lynch, and Yahoo! He earned a BA from Claremont McKenna College in 1999.

Robert W. Howard ’55 is a Real Estate Consultant for Howard & Howard, Inc. He was a founding board member and Chairman of the Discovery Science Center (Discovery Cube) in Orange County, a board member of the Balboa Bay Club and Resort, and a board member and former Chairman of Homeword, a national Christian organization devoted to preserving the family. He served in the Army Security Agency, ending his duty with a rank of Captain. Bob earned a BA in Business Administration from Claremont McKenna College in 1955.

Suzanne Boriolo O’Bannon ’84 is Chief Financial Officer of Trammell Crow Residential, where she has worked for more than two decades. Prior to her time at TCR, she was the Vice President of Bank of the West and Vice President of Citigroup.  She earned a BA from Claremont McKenna College in 1984 and an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management.

Scott W. Ochoa ’93 has served as City Manager for the City of Ontario since 2017. Before assuming his current position, Ochoa was City Manager for the Cities of Monrovia and Glendale. He also served as an adjunct instructor and lecturer at USC’s Price School of Public Policy. He earned a BA from Claremont McKenna College in 1993 and his MPA from USC in 1996 with an emphasis on public sector entrepreneurship.

Henry A. Olsen III ’83 has been a Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center since 2013. From 2019–2023, he was an opinion columnist for The Washington Post. He is author of The Four Faces of the Republican Party, co-authored with Dante Scala (2015), and The Working Class Republican: Ronald Reagan and the Return of Blue-Collar Conservatism (2017). He formerly served in leadership positions with the American Enterprise Institute, the Manhattan Institute; and the Commonwealth Foundation for Public Policy Alternatives. He earned a BA from Claremont McKenna College in 1983 and a JD from the University of Chicago in 1990.

Lisa Pitney ’88 is Vice President of Government Relations for The Walt Disney Company, where she has worked since 1996. She has served as a board member for many organizations, including the Valley Industry and Commerce Association, the Central City Association of Los Angeles, the Motion Picture Association of America, the Valley Economic Alliance, the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, and Public Affairs Council of the California Chamber of Commerce. She earned a BA from Claremont McKenna College in 1988 and an MPP from Harvard University.

Sunil Rajaraman is the Founder of Hamlet, a technology company that uses AI to summarize and make accessible public information at the local level. He has diverse business experiences, including co-founder and CEO of Scripted.com, Vice President of Marketing for GoodRX, Chief Marketing Officer for Metromile, Senior Consultant for Navigant Consulting, and Entrepreneur-in-Residence for Foundation Capital. He is also a contributing writer for Forbes. He earned a BA from Claremont McKenna College in 2001 and an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management in 2008. 

Richard “RJ” Romero ’89 is President of Oremor Management and Investment Company, which owns a variety of automotive businesses including the Oremor Automotive Group. He is a Board member of the Southern California Toyota Dealers Association, the California New Car Dealers Association, and the Toyota National Dealer Council. Romero is also a member of the CMC Board of Trustees. He earned his BA in Economics from Claremont McKenna College in 1989.

Christopher E. Skinnell ’99 is a partner at Nielsen Merksamer Parrinello Gross & Leoni, LLP.  His practice areas include elections, state and local initiatives and referenda, redistricting and voting rights, campaign finance, and general constitutional and government law issues. He received a BA in Government and Legal Studies from Claremont McKenna College in 1999 and a JD from the University of Chicago Law School in 2003.

Jacinth K. Sohi ’11 is an Angel Investor who has worked in the technology sector for companies such as Google and Uber, where she was one the earliest employees. She has also helped build and scale operations at other start-up ventures such as Blackbird and Found. Sohi serves as President of the American Mock Trial Association and President of the Rose Institute Alumni Society. She earned a BA from Claremont McKenna College in 2011.

Christopher J. Townsend ’82 is the founder and President of Townsend Public Affairs, which maintains offices in California and Washington, D.C.  He has served on the California Film Commission and on the Speaker’s Commission on State and Local Government Finance. Townsend was also a Coro Fellow and a Truman Scholar. He earned a BA in political science from Claremont McKenna College in 1982 and an MPA from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.

Scott L. Woolley ’92 is the founding editor of LAReported, a start-up non-profit local newsmagazine covering Los Angeles County. He was formerly the West Coast Bureau Chief for Forbes Magazine and a contributing editor for Fortune.com. He has also worked as a freelance writer and editor. Woolley is author of The Network: The Battle for the Airwaves and the Birth of the Communications Age (2017). He earned a BA from Claremont McKenna College in 1992 and an MPP from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government in 1996.

Darryl R. Wold ’63 is a retired attorney whose practice emphasized political law, including campaign finance, election, conflict of interest, and redistricting issues.  He served as a commissioner of the Federal Election Commission from 1998 to 2002, including terms as chairman in 2000 and vice chairman in 1999.  He also was of counsel to Reed & Davidson LLP and an assistant to the speaker of the California State Assembly. He earned a B.A. (cum laude) from CMC in 1963 and an LL.B. from Stanford University in 1966.