Board of Directors

COTIFA Board of Directors and Officers

From L-R: President Para Anderson, Vice-President Emily Roberts, Secretary Joel Barretto, Treasurer Mike Pestano, Board Member Jun Jao, Board Member Maria Amor Torres, Board Member Alma Lim

We Proudly Present Our Founding Board of Directors and Officers


Board Advisor
Archimedes C. Gomez
Trade Representative
Philippine Trade & Investment Center
3250 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 602,
Los Angeles, CA 90010
Tel No.: (213) 822-4479 or (213) 572-7204
Email: ptic-la@earthlink.net.

Mr. Archimedes C. Gomez currently serves as the Trade Representative of the Philippine Trade and Investment Center (PTIC) in Los Angeles - an international arm of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) of the Republic of the Philippines. PTIC Los Angeles, which opened in July 2007, is likewise an attached agency to the Consulate.

Prior to his posting in the U.S., TR Gomez served as a Commercial Attaché in China for 5½ years. During said stint, he facilitated the increase in export of both traditional and non-traditional products from the Philippines to China. He was also instrumental in organizing and registering the Philippines-China Chamber of Commerce – one of the 19 accredited Chambers of Commerce in China and the only one with office outside of Beijing.

Prior to DTI, TR Gomez worked with Land Bank of the Philippines for 11 years holding the position of Bank Executive Officer. Among his responsibilities was to evaluate and determine the feasibility of agribusiness loans prior to its approval by the Bank’s top management.

Mr. Gomez graduated with the degree of B.S. Agricultural Engineering and is a Registered Professional Agricultural Engineer. He also holds a Master in Business Administration degree from Ateneo de Manila University and a Master in Applied Business Economics degree from the University of Asia & the Pacific. Both Universities are recognized institutions of higher learning in the Philippines.

President
Paraluman Anderson

Paraluman Anderson or Para as known to her colleagues and business associates is co-principal with her husband Gary Anderson in Mindoro Corp., an 11-year old business consultancy firm that has been helping companies in marketing, marketing research, sales projection, financial modeling as well as finding product distribution in the U.S. and overseas.

Currently, Para is helping companies such as AgriNurture, Inc. (ANI) establish a distribution relationship with U.S. food wholesale distributors. Among Mindoro Corp.’s clients are a Philippine-based fruit and coconut products company wishing to export food products to the U.S., a company that developed eco-friendly ‘spray and wipe’ waterless car wash, a start-up with an innovative Facebook online book publishing app, and a biotechnology company that developed a breakthrough, platform, non-toxic drug for preventing and treating auto-immune diseases including dengue hemorrhagic fever.

Para is the current President of the Filipino-American Chamber of Commerce of Orange County (FACCOC) whose membership comprises mostly of Fil-Am business owners.

Vice President
Em Salinas-Roberts

Em Salinas Roberts has established Team Empower and Partners with his husband Danny Roberts who currently serves as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the company. The company is an accredited partner of World Financial Group (WFG), a multibillion dollar company, whose main objective is to help protect and build wealth for families. It provides financial investments and insurance to individuals. In addition to Los Angeles, the company has a branch in Las Vegas, Orange County and Canada.

Em currently mentors approximately 50 financial services associates generating proposals of US$100,000 per annum.

Prior to shifting to financial advising, Em has been actively involved in the real estate business for 26 years employed approximately 25 people, mostly Filipino-Americans. However, due to the slump in real estate business, she decided to shift and established the Team Empower and Partners.

Em is also an active leader of the Filipino-American community serving in various capacities representing the interest of Filipino-Americans in Southern California. She is a Co-founder and Co-Chair of the Pilipino Chamber of Commerce of Southern California.

Secretary
Joel Barretto, CFP®

Joel Barretto CFP® has been helping people manage, optimize and protect their hard earned wealth since 1991. He founded his company, Abacus Financial Network (AFN) in 1999, specializing in comprehensive retirement and estate planning.

Joel earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Business Management at San Beda College, Manila, Philippines. He also earned his designation as a Certified Financial Planner® (CFP®) after completing the Personal Financial Planning Certificate Program at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) in 2005.

Often invited to speak on important financial planning issues, Joel provides continuing education credit to Certified Public Accountants (CPA) and holds public seminars, symposia and lectures from time to time.

Aside from his extensive knowledge and experience in the world of finance, what sets Joel apart is his ability to listen and understand people’s financial goals and objectives, thereby allowing him to communicate tailored solutions at a level that the average lay person can appreciate and understand.

With a passion for entrepreneurship, Joel mentors up and coming entrepreneurs on growing their start-up companies. He is a 2nd degree black belt in the martial art of Kempo and enjoys performing and directing stage musicals for community fund raising projects.

Treasurer
Mike Pestano

Mike Pestano is an entrepreneur, Internet and social media marketer, health educator, blogger, and business coach. Currently he is the owner of MaxNet Marketing and Consulting Services and Director of Business Development of MIH Marketing. Over the past 24 years he has managed, owned, and operated different businesses in diverse industries like insurance brokerage, E-commerce online stores, Chevron Canada gas station and convenience stores, held various executive and managerial positions as well as corporate sales trainer for GNC Canada, GNC USA, and Carmax West Coast. He has a background in management, marketing, finance, and information administration technology from Brookhaven College in Dallas, Texas, Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines, and Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada.

He has also completed the Dale Carnegie Course in Public Speaking as well as the Canadian Securities Course, Canadian Investment Funds Course, Caltex Philippines Service Station Management Program, and the Chevron Canada Service Station Management Program.

Mike was actively involved in the All Ateneo Alumni Association in British Columbia, Canada holding positions as vice-president, treasurer, and athletics director before he moved to the United States. He was also actively involved in several church and community groups in Vancouver, British Columbia, and Toronto, Ontario. Here in the United States he is the Vice President of the Ateneo de Manila Alumni Association of California and is also a member of the One La Salle Alumni Association of Southern California. He is also the current treasurer for both the Filipino American Chamber of Commerce of Orange County and the newly formed Council on Trade and Investment for Filipino Americans.

Mike's other specialties are nutritional supplement consultant for investment firms Dematteo Moness LLC and Guidepoint Global Consultants.

Board Member

Alma Sy

Alma Sy is a serial entrepreneur who has created many successful businesses in the consumer products and services industry in the Philippines and the United States. Ms. Sy is currently a manufacturer’s rep for Serene Health Products, a manufacturer of the world’s lowest cost and safest point of use water treatment used to create drinking water. Most recently she was the founder and general manager of Nevada Electronics Sales and Service, a high volume Las Vegas television repair and installation business authorized by the world’s top major manufacturers.

In the Philippines, Ms. Sy was a distributor for consumer products with major brands such as Natures Spring and Frito Lay. In the BtoB space, she was a wholesale distributor of commodities of sugar, flour, cooking oil and other baking goods. She was the major distributor of plastic grocery bags and resealable food containers used and sold by Gaisano and other retailers in the Philippines.

Alma is a graduate of University of San Carlos with a major in Business Administration. She is a resident of Orange County, California.

Board Member
Rodolfo “Jun” Jao

Rodolfo Agana Jao, Jr..."Jun" as his family and friends call him, was born in Indiana. He is the seventh of nine kids to parents Dr. Rodolfo and Mrs. Tessie Agana Jao (the former child star of Sampaguita Pictures). Jun has a Bachelor of Science degree from Indiana University, Bloomington, with a major in Public Affairs and a minor in Business

Management. After graduation, Jun moved to the Philippines and worked for the former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Jose de Venecia, Jr., as his Executive Assistant and Chief-of-Staff.

He was heavily involved in the Presidential bid of Speaker De Venecia in 1998, where unfortunately he lost to then Vice-President Estrada. Seven years in the political arena was enough for Jun. He recently moved to Irvine, CA, where he now works for the Hays Companies as a Producer in their Employee Benefits Division. He is responsible for business development and marketing their CA operations. When Jun is not traveling on business, he enjoys spending time with his family and friends, playing golf and exercising.

Board Member
Maria Leonora Torres

Maria Leonora Torres is a former Asian beauty titlist who has embraced a can-do-it attitude since her teen age days being the eldest in the brood of four (4)

She moved to the US in 2006 and established her business – the Exotifit for International – in 2009. She has also established a foundation arm of her Exotifit company which she calls Exotifit for Humanity. The mission of both companies is to promote health, fitness, wellness and beauty through exercise, right diet and right cosmetics.

Her main interest in joining the mission is to bring into mainstream US the Filipino indigenous therapeutic massage known as “hilot” and introduce indigenous products from the Philippines as source of its cosmetics. She is also contemplating on establishing an Exotifit Intenational exercise club in the Philippines.

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