Name: David Evans
Title: President
Company: Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts
Location: Las Vegas
Years in Nevada: 7
Years with Company: 4 months
Type of Business: Postsecondary education Biggest Business Challenge: Building our local student base; currently 77 percent of our business is from students who live outside Nevada.
If you could start over and choose a different profession, what would it be?
Over the years I have asked myself this question, and I cannot think of anything I would rather do than what I am doing in my life at this time.
How do you spend your time when you’re not working?
Spending time with my family is the most important thing to me. I am also a huge football fan of high school, college and professional football teams. My favorite teams are the Dallas Cowboys and Notre Dame’s Fighting Irish.
Little-known fact about yourself: I am a distant cousin of Abraham Lincoln.
Best Business Advice: It is important to surround yourself with people who challenge you to be great and you should dare to impress them daily. I live by the motto “high performance, low profile.”
What would you like your legacy to be? That I influenced people to change their lives for the better.
What is your favorite type of food to prepare? I enjoy Mexican food.
Name Douglas T. Geinzer
Title President/CEO
Company Recruiting Nevada
Type of Business
Recruiting Nevada operates a network of employment Web sites to recruit professionals to the state of Nevada, such as nurses, teachers, doctors and engineers.
Location : Las Vegas
Years in Nevada: 13 Years
Years with Company :12 Years
Biggest Business Challenge:
Forecasting the future of technology and its application to recruitment advertising. Applying that knowledge to the development of a user-friendly platform for both employers and jobseekers to find each other.
If you could start over and choose a different profession, what would it be?
That is a difficult question, because I truly love what I do. I have built a successful business around a passion of mine. I also have a passion for outdoor recreational activities such as hiking, biking and kayaking. If I were able to build a successful business around that, it might be a good profession for me.
How do you spend your time when you’re not working?
I spend as much of my time on the water as possible. I live on one of the only man-made lakes in Las Vegas and enjoy boating, sailing and kayaking. Traveling is also a passion of mine, allowing me to spend more time on the water, scuba diving or surfing in exotic destinations.
Little-known fact about yourself:
I have college degrees in Criminology, Spanish and Pre-Law. I rarely use any of the education that I paid for, but constantly leverage the experience I earned in the United States Army as a Personnel Administrative Section Non-Commissioned Officer, where I oversaw human resources for a 660-person company.
Best Business Advice:
Always do your best and never compromise who you are.
What would you like your legacy to be?
An innovator and entrepreneur who solved many of Nevada’s critical shortages of key professionals, allowing the state to grow and prosper through diversification and economic development.
Name William Oakley
Title Regional President – Southern Nevada
Company 1st National Bank of Nevada
Type of Business Financial services
Location Las Vegas
Years in Nevada 2
Years with Company 5
Biggest Business Challenge:
Hiring dedicated, knowledgeable bankers. I prefer to hire lenders who can make an immediate positive impact to the bottom line. As such, I look for lenders with local market knowledge and an existing customer base. To the credit of the other banks in town, they have done an excellent job recognizing and compensating their talented assets. Market factors make it difficult to hire dedicated, knowledgeable lenders.
If you could start over and choose a different profession, what would it be?
Real estate developer.
How do you spend your time when you’re not working?
I enjoy time with my wife of 13 years and our kids. Currently, I’m the sole golfer in the family. However, I am hopeful that someday we will fill our own foursome.
Little-known fact about yourself:
I once appeared in a movie with Brooke Shields.
Best Business Advice:
Buy low, sell high, and leave a little squeal in the pig.
What would you like your legacy to be?
I would like to be remembered as an honest community leader who was respected by his peers, customers and employees.
How have technological changes affected your bank?
We continually improve and change all aspects of our technology. Drivers for change include customers’ needs, competition, security (fraud prevention), our growth and regulatory changes. We are currently testing a remote deposit product that will allow customers to deposit checks by scanning them at their business locations.