On July 1, 35-year-old Michael Marion became the executive director and associate vice provost of Drexel University Sacramento. Marion replaces Dr. Sandra Kirschenmann, who will officially retire on Sept. 1.

You can dismiss someone from the conference room, but you may still have to face him or her in the living room.

It may seem that landing that New York Times interview, getting featured on the front page of AOL or winning a $135,000 business contest means that, as a business owner, you are set for life. In truth, it’s just the beginning.

Left unchecked, underachievers can drag down an entire team’s performance, and that goes double when the problem staffer is family.

Walk into any coffee shop and it’s obvious that the place we call “the office” has changed. Many of the people sitting at tables are likely mixing laptops with lattes as they browse email and write reports. Some may be pitching a sale over coffee.

Bright orange walls and ergonomic chairs. A black conference table flanked by a half-dozen scruffy-chic men (zip-front sweaters, double-pierced ears, turn-of-the-millennium tattoos) and three times as many digital devices (nobody brought just one). 

About a decade ago, as a financial analyst for Intel, I lived in the suburbs of Santa Clara and frequently traveled to Folsom. It was a good job, especially for a kid straight out of college — decent pay, strong company and the lure of glittering stock options.

So I left.

No agency is safe. No office off limits. Boardrooms will be infiltrated.   Communication barriers will crumble for the sake of collaboration. As the old guard inches toward that horizon called retirement, Sacramento’s young power players are taking center stage.