Wish Upon a Wedding’s OC/LA Chapter has announced it’s 2012 Shining Stars! Jake Kloberdanz, Liese Gardner, and Jeff Black will be honored this year at the Blissful Wishes Ball for their inspirational and altruistic work in the wedding and hospitality business.
Jake Kloberdanz is CEO and Co-Founder of ONEHOPE Wine, a national cause brand that donates half of their profits to partner nonprofits benefitting a variety of causes. Jake was named Business Week’s Top 25 Under 25, Ernst and Young’s 2009 Entrepreneur of the Year and Orange County’s Top 40 under 40. Jake was also recently featured as a TEDx speaker and is an active member of the Young Entrepreneur Council.
Jake has successfully raised over $10M in financing since starting ONEHOPE Wine in 2007 and helped grow sales by over 100% over the last 5 years. ONEHOPE has successfully worked with hundreds of nonprofit partners and donated over $750,000, becoming one of the most recognizable cause brands in the world. Jake’s company was recently ranked No. 952 on Inc. Magazine’s 500|5000 – an annual exclusive list of America’s fastest-growing private companies and was one of the four national finalists for the “Stay Classy Award” for Best Philanthropic Business.
ONEHOPE Wine is now a subsidiary of ONEHOPE Inc. – a cause branding, distribution and sales platform that includes, ONEHOPE Wine, Hope At Home, ONEHOPE Weddings, ONEHOPE Coffee & Tea, and the ONEHOPE Foundation.
In addition to serving as CEO of ONEHOPE Wine, Jake is also helping to develop technology in the e-commerce and online fundraising space. He is a founder and serves on the board of directors for Booshaka, a leading provider of tools, data, and analytics for engagement on Facebook. He also sits on the board of the ONEHOPE Foundation, ShowStoppers, and a land investment fund focused primarily on vineyard estates.
Jake has been profiled in numerous outlets including, Leaders magazine, as an expert in integrating cause into a culture or brand to empower companies with a higher purpose. His business model theory, known as Cause-Centric Commerce, defines turning impact into a long term and sustainable one by helping build cause into companies’ and individual’s everyday business model, culture and lifestyle. He has also been featured in Entrepreneur magazine, Business Week, and Forbes as an expert in cause branding and fundraising.
Jake Kloberdanz received his Bachelors Degree in business from University of California, Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. He was a two-time National Champion Rugby Player and Division 1 football player for the Cal Bears. In addition to being a 3 year Scholar Athlete at UC Berkeley, he was also an extremely active member in the alpha beta chapter of Sigma Chi.
In addition to the achievements above, Jake was nominated for San Francisco’s 2010 Man of the Year, selected to fly on the “Medal of Honor” flight with surviving medal of honor winners where he got the privilege to meet President Barak Obama and has completed the AIDS/Lifecycle 545 mile bike ride numerous times. Jake continues to be active in the community through volunteering over 5,000 hours of his time in the past 7 years.
To see Jake’s inspirational TEDx talk, click here. Congratulations Jake!
Liese Gardner, founder of Mecca, a Communications Destination, based in Los Angeles has been nominated for a 2012 OC/LA Shining Star award. Mecca is a national public relations and marketing firm specializing in the wedding and event industry that has implemented many creative, successful campaigns for the nation’s top event professionals and organizations employing branding, social media, community outreach, media interface and more.
Liese is actively involved in the events industry as Director of Business Development and Editorial Director of Event Solutions magazine and in the wedding industry as a board member of the non-profit Wedding Industry Professionals Association (WIPA). As Director of Education of WIPA for the past two years, Liese’s goal has been to find and nurture speakers and topics that inspire, motivate and educate attendees in their professional and personal lives.
This year she also volunteered to work on a three-month public relations project with the non-profit organization Event Pros Take Action (EPTA) and the work they are doing in New Orleans. In her spare time, Liese enjoys writing about inspirational wedding and event professionals and their work on her blog Fuel: The Passions that Drive Us.
An impressive philanthropic resume and a wealth of experience in the industry are just a couple of reasons Liese was chosen as a Shining Star nominee. The program seeks professionals who belong to organizations that will help support and facilitate Wish Upon a Wedding’s PR mission by promoting the Blissful Wishes Ball, creating good will within the organization and maintaining active relationships for future PR and fundraising efforts.
We asked Liese to describe how she feels about Wish Upon a Wedding and this is what she said: “A wedding is so much more than a union of two people. It is a moment that universally transcends the day-to-day events and marks a moment in time as being truly special. It’s why we smile at a bride and groom even though we might not even know them. New beginnings, hope and love; these are what we cherish in life. Through its work, Wish Upon a Wedding fulfills this natural longing, not only between two people who have overcome obstacles to come together but to all of us lucky enough to be able to take some part in the inspired work accomplished by this wonderful organization and the lives it touches.”
Congratulations Liese!
The OC/LA Wish Upon a Wedding Chapter‘s third Shining Star, Jeff Black, was recently appointed as the President and CEO of Classic Party Rentals, the nation’s largest event rental company. Jeff came to Classic from Aramark Uniform Services where he worked for the past 17 years in a variety of key leadership positions and most recently as the VP of Customer Care and General Manager of Aramark Japan. Jeff’s customer centric vision and his philosophy of creating a strong culture that begins with integrity and emphasizes building great teams was a key draw for Classic Party Rentals.
With senior leadership experience in operations and sales, Jeff is known as a change agent and collaborative leader who rallies people through a well-communicated vision, strategic discipline, teamwork style and flawless execution. He is a hands on leader who has driven bold work by listening to the market and client base, as well as his internal teams. In addition, Jeff is a tireless competitor who will work relentlessly to ensure Classic Party Rentalss continues to improve and innovate on its extensive products and services.
Jeff leads a large group of highly tenured and dedicated event professionals throughout the United States. Classic Party Rentals is the nation’s premier special event rental company, serving close to forty locations including Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Miami, Atlanta, and Dallas. Recognized as a premier rental company in the country, Classic’s high-profile event roster includes major sporting events, brand promotion tours, Hollywood awards shows and movie premieres, celebrity weddings, charity events and personal life celebration events.
Congratulations Jeff and good luck in your new leadership role!
The third annual OC/LA Blissful Wishes Ball is titled: A Luxe Moderne Evening and will be held on October 10, 2012 at Vibiana in Los Angeles. To purchase tickets for this amazing gala, click here.
The 2012 Gala Sponsors:
By Rayce Public Relations and Social Media Marketing
(A Luxury Wedding and Special Events PR and Marketing Firm)
We believe in creative marketing and new business development with
a foundation deeply rooted in consistency. Great ideas mean little without
organized implementation and follow through. At Rayce PR and Marketing
we create, implement and succeed!
