CALIFORNIA & WESTERN STATES
Chapter Leadership
Chapter Executives
Chairman of the Executive Committee
Mr. Mark R. Lomele
Sr. Vice President & CFO, Recology
Mark Lomele served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Recology from 1996 to 2018. From September 1988 to July 1996 Mark served as Recology’s Corporate Controller.
Mark also served as a member of Recology’s ESOP’s Administrative Committee, starting in 1991 and served as its Chair from February 1995 to December 2017. He is a former chair of the ESOP Association. Mark holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Business Administration from the University of San Francisco and began his career as a Certified Public Accountant.
President
James J. Bonham
President & CEO, The ESOP Association
James Bonham serves as the President of the Employee Ownership Foundation and the President & CEO of The ESOP Association. He is a recognized expert in public policy, government advocacy, and executive leadership, with more than 25 years of experience as a high level government official, advisor, advocate, and business leader.
Before joining the Foundation, James served for eight years as Chairman of the highly regarded Federal Public Policy and Government Relations practice at Manatt, Phelps, & Phillips, LLP, a nationally recognized law and business consulting firm. In his practice, Bonham advised national trade associations, non-profits, and Fortune 100 businesses.
During more than a decade of public service, he held multiple senior staff positions in both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives where he was frequently cited in the media as one of the 50 most influential aides of either political party.
Bonham has served in leadership positions for several non-profits. In addition to the EOF, he is currently serving or has served on the Board of Directors for the California State Society, the National Maritime Heritage Foundation, the Robert T. Matsui Foundation, and Per Scholas.
His passion for shared capitalism springs from a family commitment to employee ownership: His grandfather had a personal and professional relationship with James Cash (J.C.) Penney, based partly on a shared business philosophy. One of their beliefs was granting a form of ownership to employees in the small mercantile businesses they ran. Bonham is proud to carry on today his family tradition of expanding employee ownership.
Chapter Officers
Sr. Vice President, Fiduciary Trust Group
TI-Trust, Inc.
Partner
McDermott, Will & Emery, LLP
Associate Professor of Management
University of Hartford
Owner
J. Randall Bishop Consulting Services
Chairman of the Board of Directors
Ali Jamshidi
VP of Finance & CFO, CTL Engineering, Inc.
Ali Jamshidi is the Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer at CTL Engineering Inc., in Columbus, OH. He has worked at CTL, which is 100% employee owned, since 1985.
Ali has been very active in The ESOP Association and has served in multiple leadership positions. On the Board of Directors, he has served as Secretary/Treasurer and Vice Chair; as Vice Chair, he presided over a special committee tasked with evaluating and updating The Association’s strategic plan.
He has been the Board Liaison to the Executive Committee of the State and Regional Chapter Council, the Committee Chair of the Board of Governors, and the President of TEA’s Ohio/Kentucky Chapter.
Ali also has held leadership roles for the Employee Ownership Foundation, where he has been a member of the Board of Trustees and has served on the Executive Committee. He also serves on the boards of other ESOP companies.
Membership Committee
Chairman of the Board of Directors
Ali Jamshidi
VP of Finance & CFO, CTL Engineering, Inc.
Ali Jamshidi is the Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer at CTL Engineering Inc., in Columbus, OH. He has worked at CTL, which is 100% employee owned, since 1985.
Ali has been very active in The ESOP Association and has served in multiple leadership positions. On the Board of Directors, he has served as Secretary/Treasurer and Vice Chair; as Vice Chair, he presided over a special committee tasked with evaluating and updating The Association’s strategic plan.
He has been the Board Liaison to the Executive Committee of the State and Regional Chapter Council, the Committee Chair of the Board of Governors, and the President of TEA’s Ohio/Kentucky Chapter.
Ali also has held leadership roles for the Employee Ownership Foundation, where he has been a member of the Board of Trustees and has served on the Executive Committee. He also serves on the boards of other ESOP companies.
David Fitz-Gerald
Chair of the Employee Ownership Foundation
Vice President and CFO
Carris Reels, Inc.
Karen L. Ellis
Chair, The ESOP Association Board of Directors
EVP, Human Resources
Superior Farms/Transhumance Holding Company Inc.
Karen Ellis is the Executive Vice President of Human Resources at Superior Farms/Transhumance Holding Co., which is a100% employee-owned company since 1991 with its corporate office located in Sacramento, CA. Ellis also serves as a member of the Board of Directors and began her career at Superior Farms in1996.
Ellis has served on TEA’s Board for many years, most recently as Vice-Chair of the Association for the past two years and Secretary-Treasurer prior to that. Ellis has also served on the EC of the SRCC and as Chapter President of the California and Western States chapter. She also serves as a Trustee to the Employee Ownership Foundation and a member of the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees.