Our Team

Jaime “Jim” Hernandez

President

As the President of Strategic Business Communications, Inc. Jim brings an extensive background in sales and marketing strategy, having worked with over 30 different businesses, in 31 countries, as a motivational speaker, consultant, and trainer. Jim has worked with everything from Fortune 500 companies to small businesses and is a Speaker for Vistage International where he speaks on Strategic Planning to CEO’s. His success has placed him on the National Advisory Board with MYM, participated on the board of directors of international companies, and acted as a guest lecturer on Sales and Marketing at the University of San Diego. Jim is fluent in three languages (English, Spanish, and Portuguese), and has been able to work implementing measurable results-driven strategic business plans in many cultures.

His responsibilities include a wide variety of areas from managing and running his own growing business at SBC, to the task of helping other companies grow and develop their own businesses throughout the world. In his role as President and CEO, he has been a finalist for CEO of the Year in San Diego, and SBC has been recognized on the INC 5000 list, and recently received a Premier Partner Award from American Honda (Top 1.5% supplier).

Jim is an Alumnus of the University of Victoria where he graduated with a degree in Sociology. He is heavily involved in his community. This involvement includes, 30+ years in Kiwanis where he is a two-time Distinguished President and Hixson Award winner, Chair of his church’s finance committee, an Past President of the Executive Association, and Award-Winning Toastmaster.

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Olga O’Brien

Director of Client Services

Olga is a graduate of the University of California Santa Barbara with a bachelor’s degree in Global Studies and Spanish. As a top sales person from Nordstrom’s Department Store she brings extensive customer service and organizational skills to SBC. Olga’s fluency in English, Russian, and Spanish helps her coordinate the logistics for over 300 events in the United States and 33 other countries.

Her responsibilities include site selection and reservations, managing travel logistics and communications with all participants, purchasing/ordering materials for the client and coordinating all of our shipping logistics for all of our training events each year. Olga manages the productions of tens of thousands of workbooks annually, the coordination of audio-visual equipment, and the production and fulfillment of awards and gifts to thousands of participants.

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Brita De Angelo

Accounts Manager

Brita is a graduate from California State University, Fresno and Crafton Hills College where she earned degrees in History and Interpersonal Communications. While attending Crafton Hills College, she led and developed the public speech and debate team. Because of her perseverance through College she was awarded a Medal of Distinction and membership on the Dean’s list. Since college, Brita’s experience includes a position on the USS Missouri tours in Pearl Harbor, HI, where she led groups of up to 50 and VIP’s for the one-hour tours in respect of this important American memorial site. Her experience in leadership, organization, and paying close attention to detail are a great fit on our events team at SBC. Brita also has the hotel experience we need from the exclusive Westgate Hotel in San Diego where she managed customer service and made sure the details required by their distinguished guests were fulfilled. Having this type of high level customer attention allows Brita to fit right in with our mission statement to OOZE at SBC.

Her responsibilities include managing all of the onsite event coordination for 300 plus events each year. The details she handles for the 1000’s of participants involves all of the food and beverage details; schedules; room and audio visual set-up; plus communication with, and between all hotel staff and the on-site coordinator; and then ensuring all of the event costs are within budget. Her high levels of expertise from the hotel and tourism industries really help our team deliver the service and costing our clients would expect. Lastly one of the great skills in contract negotiations and communicating the details needed for SBC clients helps her be successful at producing the Perfect results we expect for each client.

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Jorge Escobar

Marketing & Business Development Coordinator

Graduated with excellence from the University of Pikeville with a bachelor of Science in Communications and a deep passion for the intersection of technology, social media and business. Focusing on social media strategies to increase brand awareness, marketing campaigns, public relations and customer relation management improvement. Jorge is also a Certified Flight Instructor and a Commercial Pilot who possesses all the FAA licences including instrument rating.

Jorge supports the efforts of the President and coordinates all aspects of support in our Research department. This position is accountable for all aspects of project management and office administration, including leading staff, and development of projects. Responsibilities include managing the development of seminar materials, developing marketing pieces, managing social media, and coordinating the development of the online survey tool.

Hobbies are flying planes, photography, working with social media, and playing soccer.

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Candice Punzalan

Meeting & Event Logistics Coordinator

Candice is a graduate of UCLA where she received her B.A. in English Literature and was an active member of the Bruin Marketing organization in which she gained a deeper interest in public relations and event planning. Her professional experience in managing corporate events, marketing and communications come from working with companies such as E! & Style Networks, The Angellotti Company, and leading national PR firms. Within each role, she oversaw communications and logistics for events, which resulted in national recognition for clients throughout top-tier media.

Her experience is a true asset to her role in managing the overall logistics of pre- and post-event communications, along with maintaining the Perfect Standard we uphold for audio-visual equipment and materials for events. Her primary responsibilities include creating confirmation letters with accurate information for seminars, overseeing attendance for events, shipping materials to venues, and creating certificates upon completion of each event. In addition, she leads our logistics in making sure that everything needed for each event arrives perfectly and on time.

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Linh Balteff

Accounting and Operations Manager

Linh is a graduate from San Diego State University where she received her degree in Communications and a minor in Psychology. She has been in accounting and operations for eight years and has been with SBC since June 2016.

Her responsibilities include managing all the day-to-day accounting activities, HR, producing financials, generating financial reports for clients, payroll, IT management, and miscellaneous database management duties.

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Cheryl J. Hernandez

Business Development

Cheryl brings more than 20 years of experience in customer service, business development, training, and consulting to our team at SBC. Her previous corporate experience comes from working with Disney, Rogers AT&T, and Sony, while her community experience includes Kiwanis, Girl Scouts San Diego, the Catholic Diocese of San Diego, and St. Michaels Church and School. She brings vitality, professionalism and a mindset of service to her work having delivered corporate sales, call center, sales, and customer handling skills training, as well as managed corporate events all over the United States and Canada.

Cheryl’s role at SBC is to build awareness about SBC’s unique capabilities among prospective Corporate and Government clients locally, national, and internationally. Her Disney foundation fits right in with SBC’s mission of Optimizing every Opportunity with Zealous Enthusiasm, it is her responsibility in Business Development that we provide detailed communication as to how our team can provide products and services that will exceed client expectations, with our Perfect Standard and our Zero-Defect Performance Strategy.

A graduate of Willamette University Cheryl completed her degree in Political Science and Speech Communication. She is an active member in her community with the Girl Scout Council of San Diego where she received the Volunteer of Excellence Award and Outstanding Troop Leader Awards and now serves on the Board Development Committee and Promise Circle. Cheryl and her family were also the Kiwanis District – Kiwanis Family of the Year. In addition she volunteers at St Michaels School, Boy Scouts, and supports the One Small Voice Foundation.

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Jacob Smyth

Event Assistant

Jacob has had experience as a retail sales person, production assistant, Audio Video tech lead, teacher, Head chef, and a restaurant manager. These all come together to guide him to do what he likes to do best at work – problem solve and troubleshoot while thinking of different methods and approaches to achieve higher productivity.

Some examples of work he does is;

Research and customization of equipment, to tailor meet the client’s presentation goals.
Implementation of various software for app and materials deployment on Apple products.
Repair and maintenance of audio video equipment.
Inventory tracking, using a barcode system.
On-site technical support at events and meetings

Jacob has lived in the USA, Canada, China and Japan, with plans of adding more countries to that list. His hobbies include bicycling, playing music, cooking food, and traveling.

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Lola Castelo

Administrative Assistant

Born and raised on Kauai, Lola graduated cum laude from the Maryland Institute College of Art with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Art History, Theory, & Criticism with a concentration in Curatorial Studies. She has experience providing administrative support in art museums and galleries throughout the country including the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. and the Baltimore Museum of Art. Lola’s expertise: she is a quick study and always strives for perfection. Her professional experience includes providing excellent customer service, planning private events and banquets, and designing graphic art for print and the web.

As an ambassador for SBC, her responsibilities include maintaining complex registration for business seminars, serving as a travel liaison for clients, strategizing event planning details, managing company databases, creating summary reports and meeting evaluations, producing expense reports for accounting, and assisting with office management duties.

In her free time, Lola is a visual artist, makeup artist, and avid video gamer who attends conventions.

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Melissa Leigh

Meeting Planner

Melissa is a graduate of the University of Michigan where she received her B.S. in Cognitive Science. Through the college’s tutoring club, Melissa taught ESL to local Spanish speakers. It was through school that she discovered her love for Psychopathology and computer science. Melissa’s passion for psychology led her to work with several mental health nonprofits, some of which include the International Bipolar Foundation and the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). Within these organizations, Melissa was heavily involved in coordinating at every stage of planning for both small and large scale (greater than 100 guests) fundraiser galas, luncheons and receptions. Her experience includes printing of save the dates, invitations, programs, sponsorship, in-kind donation acquisition, event marketing, creation and execution of run of show documents— all event related correspondence ranging from donors, sponsors, speakers, vendors and lastly post-event wrap-up.

Melissa’s primary responsibilities at SBC include but are not limited to: searching and contacting numerous hotels to ensure that we find the best hotel to hold each of our many training events around the United States, ensure meetings are implemented according to multiple timelines, monitoring event financials, and reviewing and negotiating event-related contracts to make certain that the client’s needs and SBC’s perfect standards are met.

In her free time, Melissa enjoys spending time with her family and friends, yoga, hiking, and traveling—even if it’s just a weekend getaway!

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Kristina Overman

Meeting Planner

Kristina graduated from the University of San Diego with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration. While at school she was a member of Alpha Delta Pi and served on their Executive Board as the Director of Social Enrichment. She worked with local businesses to plan, book and execute a variety of events for the sorority. Through her time there she developed a love for event planning and enhanced her organization, leadership and people skills.

Her past experience also includes organizing and executing executive retreats for HCNA. This involved contacting local businesses to book group events, reaching out to the attendees and keeping them informed through marketing strategies, collecting money and timely payment of local business partners. She did similar work for Gaslamp Event Management as head coordinator of the Annual Del Mar Racing Kickoff Party.

Currently, Kristina is a part of our event team as a Meeting Planner Assistant. She searches for the best venue for each event, reviews all banquet details to ensure all the client’s needs are met, and works diligently with the venue to ensure that every event stays within budget. Her communication and people skills help her when speaking with the numerous hotels we work with to ensure the client receives the best service possible and a perfect event.

In her spare time, Kristina loves being able to travel and explore new countries. She is constantly looking to try new things and bring those experiences with her. Some of her favorites are cooking, being outdoors and spending time with loved ones.

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Claudia Arteaga

International Language Expert

Claudia is a Venezuelan-born trilingual translator and proof-reader with 20 years of experience. She graduated from Universidad Central de Venezuela with a Bachelor’s Degree in Translation.

For many years, Claudia has worked with big companies as a translator, proof-reader and writer of original content. Claudia is an advocate for the cause of the Salton Sea restauration. Over the last two years, she has been a liaison in Mexico between the Sea to Sea Project group (seawater importation project) and several Mexican government agencies.

In her free time she likes to take long walks on the beach with her beloved rescue dog Kublai Khan and she is also a plastic artist and photography model. Claudia is also a globe-trotter who has lived in several countries. Currently she is settled down in Baja California, Mexico.

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