SFMade Board »
Mark Dwight
Founder
SFMade was conceived by Mark Dwight, a San Francisco entrepreneur, business owner and resident. Mark is the founder and owner of Rickshaw Bagworks, which he started in 2007. The company recently began manufacturing and shipping its first products from its San Francisco factory located in the historic Dogpatch neighborhood. Rickshaw sells directly to consumers via its own web site, and select specialty retailers. Prior to founding Rickshaw, Dwight was CEO of Timbuk2 Designs, another San Francisco-based bag manufacturing company.
Dwight is a Bay Area native, with 20 years experience in high-technology and consumer marketing, product development, and manufacturing operations. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce. Dwight is also involved in the efforts to create a Community Benefits District in the Mission/Potrero district. Dwight formerly served on the board of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition and on the Backstreets Business Advisory Board at City Hall. He remains an active participant and supporter of the SFBC citywide initiatives. Dwight has a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering (’82) and an MBA (’89), both from Stanford University. Dwight lives in the SOMA district of San Francisco.
Alicia Esterkamp Allbin
Alicia Esterkamp Allbin is a Principal and Partner with Pacific Waterfront Partners, LLC . Most recently, Alicia was responsible for the entitlements, marketing/public relations and leasing of the historic renovation and redevelopment of Piers 1 1/2, 3 & 5 on San Francisco’s waterfront. With The Piers over 90% leased, Esterkamp successfully secured a high credit, successful tenant mix, including Bloomberg LP, Geolo Capital, Renaissance Technologies, La Mar Cebicheria Peruana, The Plant Café Organic and Lafitte Restaurant. The Piers have been awarded with the 2006 San Francisco Business Times Deal of the Year for Best Historic Renovation, the 2007 California Preservation Foundation Preservation Design Award and the 2009 San Francisco Beautiful Award.
Before joining the firm in 2002, Alicia worked as a consultant performing expansion, feasibility analysis, design and scoping services for Bay Area non-profit clients. She also worked as a management and marketing consultant to several firms in Brazil and Chile. Alicia has her M.B.A. in management and marketing from the University of San Francisco and a Bachelor’s degree from American University in Washington D.C. She is a board member of San Francisco Architectural Heritage and the Nancy Karp Dance Group; she is a founding member of the Destination Embarcadero organization. She serves on the San Francisco Visitor and Convention Center’s Consumer Promotion Bureau and the Mayor’s Embarcadero Transportation Committee.
Lynette Cayson
Lynette Cayson is the founder and President of Cayson Culinary Designs in San Francisco. Founded in 1992, Cayson Culinary Designs is an established company that designs and manufactures chef clothing & restaurant uniforms, and is renowned for offering outstanding quality and customer service. Cayson Culinary Designs works with over 1,500 customers nation-wide including many of the top restaurants across the country. In 2003, Lynette opened a sewing factory in San Francisco, allowing Cayson Culinary Designs to accommodate shorter lead-times, customized orders, and special fabric and embroidery requests.
With over 30 years of textile design and production experience, including 9 years of international production management at Esprit de Corp., Lynette is a seasoned entrepreneur committed to local manufacturing and urban economic development in San Francisco.
Maureen Futtner
With 20 years of experience in media and communications, Maureen leads P.R. for the People,
a San Francisco firm specializing in helping nonprofits and small businesses tell their stories.
Her clients run the gamut, from statewide economic development organizations to neighborhood
pop-up shops. Maureen is also on the faculty of San Francisco State University’s College of
Extended Learning, teaching Marketing and Communications for Nonprofits.
Peter Goetze
Peter Goetze is a Senior Vice President for First Bank. As the Regional Manager for Northern California, he oversees the branches and coordinates the marketing and sales activities for the region. He is a member of the Bank’s Community Reinvestment Act Committee and has been a recipient of First Bank’s Community First Award for volunteerism foe seven consecutive years. Prior to joining First Bank, Peter had management positions with Cal Fed Bank and Great Western Bank. He is a past President of the Golden Gate Business Association and currently serves as the President of the Asian Women’s Resource Center. Peter serves on the marketing committee for Working Solutions and volunteers with Strive For, a nonprofit that promotes mentoring for foster children. He lives and works in San Francisco.
Gary Groff
Gary Groff is a Vice President at New Resource Bank. Gary came to New Resource because it allows him to combine his lifelong environmentalism with his banking expertise. He has more than 10 years of banking experience—as well as a commitment to socially responsible banking and community involvement. Gary manages New Resource Bank’s small business lending program, their retail branch as well as their residential solar program. He currently serves on San Francisco Baykeeper’s finance committee and is a volunteer advisor for Pacific Community Ventures. He’s also an active member with The Surfrider Foundation. Gary lives and works here in San Francisco with his wife and son.
Rob Glenn
Rob Glenn is a Senior Vice President with Bank of America in their Business Banking division. He manages the relationships for commercial clients in the San Francisco Bay Area. For 11 years, Rob has advised clients on commercial lending, equipment finance, treasury management and trade solutions. Since 2003 he has worked closely with hundreds of local San Francisco companies and continues to do so today. Before joining Bank of America, Rob was in Business Development at Sun Microsystems in Menlo Park. In this role, he was responsible for driving sales of Sun products in data centers throughout North America and the Asia Pacific regions. Rob has a business degree from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. He was a member of Bank of America’s Executive Council and Associate Talent Council
programs. Rob has volunteered time with The San Francisco Food Bank, Glide Memorial Church and the Boys and Girls Club of San Francisco.
Jeff Gustafson
Jeff Gustafson is the Chief Financial Officer and a co-founder of Vetrazzo, LLC. Vetrazzo,
located in the Bay Area, is a manufacturer of recycled glass surface material for the countertop
and furniture markets. Jeff is responsible for all finance, accounting, legal and human resource
aspects of the business. In addition, he collaborates with other members of the management
team on business strategy, leveraging his 15 years of experience in funding and advising
entrepreneurial companies.
Prior to Vetrazzo, Jeff was a Senior Vice President in Investment Banking at JPMorgan (and
Hambrecht & Quist, a predecessor entity). While at JPMorgan, Jeff completed private and
public transactions, and sponsored venture investments for more than 50 companies in the
manufacturing, consumer, healthcare, media, services and technology industries. Before
joining JPMorgan, Jeff was a Senior Consultant with Coopers & Lybrand’s Financial Advisory
Services Group where he specialized in business valuations and mergers and acquisitions.
Jeff received a B.A. (magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa) in Economics and Business from
the University of California, Los Angeles and an M.B.A. from Stanford’s Graduate School of
Business. He is a Certified Public Accountant.
Robin McRoskey-Azevedo
President/Owner McRoskey Mattress Company
Robin McRoskey-Azevedo, company president and owner of the company that bears her family name follows in the footsteps of her grandfather, Edward McRoskey, the company’s founder. Much like her grandfather did back in 1899; Ms. McRoskey-Azevedo has led the company, makers of classic mattresses and box springs, into a brand new century.
As a woman in a predominantly male industry, she has successfully transformed a manufacturing-driven company into a retail marketing-driven company, building the McRoskey brand from coast-to-coast with company owned retail showrooms, design trade showroom distribution and a healthy phone order business.
In her early years, she worked for a variety of companies including an equipment manufacturer, a financial services firm and an insurance company. She took a hiatus for several years to raise her son, and then started gradually getting involved in the family business. In 1993, she officially took over McRoskey Mattress Company as President, and continues to lead this company steeped in rich history, into the bright future of tomorrow.
Robin McRoskey-Azevedo lives in San Francisco, CA. Her singular goal is to make sure that Americans sleep well, on a McRoskey of course. She is active in local San Francisco business, civic and church communities. She attended UC Berkeley, is a Rotarian, is a board member of the Stonestown Family YMCA , the Peninsula Executive Association (PEA), the San Francisco Silent Film Festival and is a friend of KCSM.
Maggie Mui
Maggie Mui is senior vice president and San Francisco market regional president of Wells Fargo & Company. In her role, Maggie is responsible for $3.8 billion in deposits, 400 team members, and 20 Wells Fargo stores located in the heart of San Francisco financial district and surrounding neighborhood. Maggie also leads small business strategy and implementation for the San Francisco Bay Area region. Prior to her current role, Maggie was the Director of Specialized Solutions, leading small business, consumer credit, and investments, acquisition, cross-sell, and retention initiatives for the San Francisco Bay Area region. Mui is an active member in the community, serving on the Board of Directors at San Francisco General Hospital Foundation, Self-Help for the Elderly and, Asian Business League of San Francisco and Chinese Culture Foundation. In addition, she serves on the Advisory Board of the San Francisco Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Maggie has been enshrined in the San Francisco Business Times “Forever Influential Honor Roll”. In 2009 Maggie was honored with the 2009 National Asian Pacific American Corporate Achievement Award.
Scott Smith
Scott C. Smith is a partner with the law firm of Hanson Bridgett LLP. Scott practices in
the area of corporate, tax and real estate law. Scott has significant experience counseling
corporations, partnerships, limited liability companies and nonprofits in connection with all
aspects of operations. He works with private and public companies on equity financings, debt
transactions, securities matters, mergers and acquisitions and general business matters. Scott
also represents emerging companies in connection with entity formation issues, licensing and
other technology related matters. He works with venture capital funds, private equity funds,
hedge funds and real estate funds in connection with fund formations, investment activities,
corporate governance and compliance, and fund restructurings, as well as large institutional
investors in connection with their investment activities. Scott regularly advises clients regarding
federal and state tax matters and his work often involves a complex tax planning component.
Scott has developed a substantial practice in the “green” or “sustainable business” area as well,
acting as outside general counsel to such firms as TBL Capital, Good Capital, Mindful Investors
and Investors Circle, and legal counsel to New Resource Bank and Kiva. org.
Kate Sofis
Kate is SFMade’s founding Executive Director. Kate Sofis’ experience integrates a rich
background in entrepreneurship, business management, operations and supply chain strategy,
and urban economic development with a specialty in artisan/craft manufacturing industries.
Throughout her career, she has worked with companies who design, manufacture, and
distribute products in a wide range of industries, including ceramics, tile and stone, cement,
wood and metal furniture, fabric and sewn products, and glass products.
Kate’s hand’s-on small business experience includes serving as COO of VIDA, a local design/
producer of artisan furniture and other sustainably-harvested wood products for the commercial
market. As Statewide Director of Business Advising at San Francisco-based non-profit Pacific
Community Ventures, Kate led a California-wide small business economic development
practice, helping more than 200 companies grow and provide quality jobs to more than 2500
Californians. Kate has also helped to develop a small business development strategy for the
industrial East End of London, UK, and led a World Bank-funded project to create Algeria’s first
high technology business park and small business incubator.
Kate volunteers as Project Director for the establishment of a new business improvement
district centered in the light industrial/mixed-use neighborhoods of San Francisco. She also
serves on the Board of Directors of City Carshare and as Mayoral appointee to the Eastern
Neighborhoods Citizens Advisory Committee. Kate holds an M.S. in City Design and Social
Policy from the London School of Economics, and an A.B. in Economics from Harvard
University.
Malaika Thorne
Malaika is Sustainability Program Manager for the corporate operations group at Recology. Her work centers on innovative business practices and technology-based projects to increase landfill diversion, recycling and organics processing. Her focus is recovering and processing non-traditional organic materials found in the waste stream and opportunities in renewable energy generation. Malaika is member of the 2011 Leadership San Francisco class, a city-wide leadership training program affiliated to the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce. She earned a Bachelors degree from Brown University and a Masters in Business Administration from the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she was a member of the Entrepreneurship and Innovation cohort. At Sloan she coauthored a study on metrics for sustainable manufacturing for General Motors and is author of a chapter in The Business of Sustainability to be published in fall 2011.
Wenli Wang
Wenli Wang started her public accounting career with Moss Adams in 1995. As a tax professional, Wenli is committed to providing effective tax planning and consulting services to closely held businesses and their
owners in the Distribution and Manufacturing industries and high net worth individuals. She has a solid technical understanding of tax laws, procedures and compliance related issues and is capable of providing a wide range of tax services, including tax compliance, state and local tax planning including California enterprise zone credits, tax entity selection, tax accounting method consultation, and individual income tax planning. Wenli believes in providing proactive services to her clients. She keeps her clients up to date with abreast of the issues facing them. Through frequent and regular interactions with her clients, she has been able to build and maintain many solid long-term professional relationships.