Gratitude to my Mentors

In 1998, Bill taught me managerial accounting when I pursued my undergraduate degree in Accounting and Management Information Systems at SJSU.  I surprised him in several ways and he hired me to be his teaching assistant after I passed his class with perfect scores in all of his quizzes and exams.

Bill’s class was one of the most memorable classes as he used to work as CFO and corporate controller before he started his teaching career.  Bill emphasized business ethics and encouraged all students to keep that in mind before we joined the workforce.  Bill devoted the past 20 years to teaching honors programs at SJSU and raised many finance / accounting professionals in Silicon Valley.  I continue to reach out to him for coaching.

In addition, Bill is a very good racquetball player.  We played against each other 20 years ago and recently he still won a couple of games when we played at City Sport gym at San Jose. Bill set the tone for my accounting and finance career at the very beginning of my American Dream.  I was determined to be like him, to live an ethical and honorable life and to do something good and useful to make a difference in this world.

I first met Dave was at a racquetball tournament about 10 years ago.  We struck up an immediate affinity, and we have actively continued our friendship to the present day.  Dave and his son John Ellis both coached me how to play better racquetball.  In addition, Dave and I played mixed doubles together in several racquetball tournaments at the “A” level and even won at least two of them.

At my wedding to Owen, Dave conducted the ceremony with his wife Pat together.  After that, we have had lots of stimulating discussions on a great variety of subjects and Dave continues to provide tips to both Owen and I so we can play better.  Dave and Pat devoted the past 20 years or more to the racquetball community.  Dave has been the key person who has nurtured countless junior champions at State, National, and International levels.  Dave has created a phenomenon for the City of Stockton, California where most of the world famous junior champions were raised by the Ellis family.  Dave has been the USA National Racquetball Team Coach for the past 15 years.  He is truly an inspiration to all the players around the world.

I first got to know Andy was through BECA (Bay Area Ethics and Compliance Association) event when he was a guest speaker and a promoter for help