Richard "Rich" Ellis

Born a native of California, Rich grew up in southern California on the west side of Los Angeles. During his early years he enjoyed life close to the beach and during a time when things were much less complicated than today. After finishing high school, Rich enlisted in the US Navy and spent 4 years as a technician serving in a unique organization developed for Inshore UnderSea Warfare. Married while in the service, Rich enjoyed seeing his two children grow and develop as he himself grew with them.

After leaving the service, Rich continued his education, eventually receiving degrees in both Business Administration and History. He did this attending school at night and working for a small start up company named Xerox. That little company grew and Rich's business career grew with it. Over the years, he made four moves from LA to Santa Barbara/San Luis Obispo to Orange County to Rochester, New York and finally to the Bay Area. But after 21 years, it was time to move on, so he joined another small company named Sun Microsystems where he spent the next 15 years in various executive positions responsible for Government Support, Logistics and Program Development. During his years at Sun, he traveled the world on the company's behalf managing executive relationships with some of the largest companies in the world. As life would have it, there would be one more stop in his career and that would be at another well known Bay Area company, Cisco Systems where he spent the final two years of this high tech career again managing executive relationships between Cisco and its major suppliers on a global basis.

In 2004 Rich moved back to the San Luis Obispo county area to a small 11 acre ranch he purchased while at Sun to tend his vineyards and make wine.

What did 40 years in high tech teach him? Well, a few key points about people and life, number one being that honesty and integrity are keys to success and that character counts in everything we do and who we are. It is critical that we treat people as we would want to be treated, that we are fair and honest in every thing we do.

Hobbies: farming, wine making and most of all wine drinking. I am passionate about my wines and the grapes that I grow and always looking to make both of them better.

Involvement: Currently on the Board of Directors, Independent Grape Growers of Paso Robles Area (IGGPRA)

Past involvement: When living and working in the Santa Barbara/San Luis Obispo area Rich worked with the local community development groups to help educate young people on techniques for entering the employment market and at CMC with individuals re-entering the job market after serving their time.

A long time real estate investor, Rich finally decided that what was a hobby and investment plan needed a bit more attention and that meant seriously working real estate on a more formal basis. This decision was helped by his wife who is also an agent so in 2005 he decided to jump in with both feet. Limited professional RE career but extensive business and life experience focused on managing relationships for the benefit of both parties.

Attributes:

            years of experience, largely business but also in RE investing

integrity, honesty and commitment

sales philosophy, as a agent the goal is to unite the seller/buyer in a manner that allows them to achieve their goals. In effect Rich is a facilitator, negotiator and problem solver.