Kipp Blewett, 46, is a principal partner and co-founder of Rubicon Partners Inc. He is also a member of the board of directors for the Downtown Sacramento Partnership.

The arts may be underfunded in the Capital Region, but creativity abounds. Among Sacramento’s prime talents, a number of product designers stand out for their vision, craft and ingenuity.

John Shirley, 63 was hired as Sacramento’s city manager in September 2011. Previously, he served as executive director of the California Redevelopment Association. As city manager, he overseas a $1 billion city budget and a staff of nearly 4,000. 

 Since late 2010, following the completion of a multimillion-dollar remodel, management at Enotria Restaurant & Wine Bar has been in pursuit of creating Sacramento’s ideal dining experience.

With our August cover story, “Closing Remarks,” Comstock’s celebrated Brice Harris’ announced retirement as chancellor of the Los Rios Community College District and his 21-year career in that discipline.

Apparently, retirement didn’t take.

Early business success often brings challenges. In the case of ol’ Republic Brewery, the biggest challenge is meeting consumer demand.

While Bill Carey is amply appreciative of Highway 50 patrons looking to reconnect with his former establishment, the German-style St. Pauli Inn, he is just as quick to point out that his Forester Pub & Grill is not a Continental restaurant.

Mike Wiley, 59, began his career at the Sacramento Regional Transit District as a service planner in 1978. In 2007, he was named general manager and CEO. He also serves on the executive committee of the California Transit Association.

Jonathan Rewers, 33, serves as chairman of the Sacramento Parks Commission. In the June elections, Rewers garnered 25 percent of the vote in his quest to unseat Kevin Johnson as mayor of Sacramento. He is now a candidate for the City Charter Commission. 

When I sit down at Juno’s for one of the best burgers of my life, Chef Helms starts by telling me he doesn’t want to be a namedropper. The fact that he mentored under legendary French Chef Jean Luc Chassereau of The Cookery and Reda Bellarbi Saleha of Aioli Bodga Espanola is not the point. 

Jim Hartley’s morning commute is more scenic than most. The 18-mile route follows residential streets devoid of traffic lights and includes a view over the American River from the Hazel Avenue bridge.

Celebrating 30 “wonderful years of life,” this year, Carina Lampkin has been cooking since landing her first job at an Auburn restaurant more than a decade ago. 

Alexander Gonzalez, 66, stands in front of the climbing wall at The WELL gym at Sacramento State. Gonzalez has served as campus president since 2003 and has no plans to retire. 

For more than 40 years, Brice Harris has sat front row in the nation’s community college system. First as a part-time faculty member at a small campus in Kansas City, later as president of Fresno City College and since 1996 as chancellor of Los Rios Community College District. He has spent his career working within multi-college systems. This month, he retires.

Kim Parker, 46, is the executive vice president of the California Employers Association. A nonprofit, the CEA provides human resource solutions for small to medium-sized businesses throughout the state. Parker is also president of the national Employers Association of America. 

Jot Condie, 46, the California Restaurant Association in 1998 as its chief lobbyist. In 2004 he was promoted to president and CEO. 

Bill Mueller, 47, is CEO and managing partner at Valley Vision. One of four partners in the regional Next Economy initiative, Valley Vision serves as the project manager of the Capital Region’s latest economic development effort.

Jeff Michael, 42, is the director of the Business Forecasting Center at the University of the Pacific. 

Ronald Fong, 52, has served as president and CEO of the California Growers Association since 2008. The CGA is a nonprofit, statewide trade association representing more than 500 retail members operating 6,000 food stores and 200 supply companies in California and Nevada. 

Sanjay Varshney, 44, is dean of College Administration at Sacramento State. Last month, in conjunction with the Chartered Financial Analyst Society of Sacramento, he published the seventh issue of the Sacramento Business Review. It offers a look at emerging economic trends and forecasts for 2012 in the Sacramento region, comprised of Sacramento, El Dorado, Placer and Yolo counties. 

Steven Hansen, 32, is a senior regional manager at California-based biotechnology company Genentech Inc. He is a neighborhood representative for the Downtown Sacramento Partnership board of directors and was one of 15 city residents selected to serve on the Sacramento Redistricting Citizens Advisory Committee. Last November, Hansen announced his run to become Sacramento’s first openly gay council member in the newly aligned District 6.

Bradley J. Hudson, 53, was hired as the Sacramento County executive in mid-August. With more than 25 years of administrative experience in civic government, he most recently served as the city manager of Riverside.

Not unlike most Capital Region developers, New Faze Development has been through some very serious and trying financial scenarios during the past four years. The North Sacramento-based company has abandoned projects, lost properties and seen its lenders go out of business.

There is a distinction between being pro business and being pro small business, at least according to Marty Keller. He hopes to use this distinction to unify a mostly silent force of 3.5 million small-business owners and give them a voice — and perhaps the ability — to dramatically reshape the California Legislature in 2012.

It was recently reported by the U.S. Department of Labor that worker productivity was down for the second quarter in a row. This downward trend does not surprise George Grinzewitsch, Jr.

While institutions of higher learning across the state are reeling from budget cuts, tuition hikes, course reductions and faculty and student unrest, Chancellor Linda Katehi has calmly put together a business plan for expansion and prosperity at UC Davis.

A  job well done will pay off in your  retirement plan.

If you’re in the sleep business or, more specifically, work for Sleep Train Mattress Centers or one of its two West Coast subsidiaries, that’s your mantra.

Michele Skupic has been around the title insurance business long enough to recognize a turning tide.

Ben Ilfeld thinks a down economy coupled with a decline in print advertising is just what the doctor ordered. He and four other co-founders used the scenario to launch the Sacramento Press online in late 2008.

According to Mark Jansen, Blue Diamond Growers is a 100-year-old brand that is just now reaching its potential. It’s this goal of establishing the Blue Diamond brand as the world’s No. 1 producer of almonds and almond-related products that lured the lifelong Midwesterner to California with his family late last summer.

In 2002 Michael Walter was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, but to his wife, Beth, the diagnosis just didn’t seem to fit the symptoms. So she Googled “ALS brain-related disease” — frontotemporal degeneration popped up.

It’s a Capital Region paradox. The bad news for home builders is that very few new homes are going up. The good news for existing-home sales is that very few new homes are going up.

Like other businesses, The Golden 1 Credit Union has absorbed its share of economic blows since 2008. But the largest credit union in California has long prided its fiscally conservative approach to finance.

More than 40 years ago, Brice Harris entered education leadership and vowed never to use money — or lack thereof — as an excuse for the performance of the higher-learning institutions he served. However, he now insists the California Community Colleges System cannot adequately serve the student population without more state funding.

Perseverance. If nothing else, you have to give Gerry Kamilos credit for that.

Matina Kolokotronis was on maternity leave from a local law firm when she got the phone call that changed her career. The caller said: “Hello, this is Geoff Petrie with the Sacramento Kings. I understand that you’re Greek and that you’re a lawyer. We just drafted a Greek player by the name of Peja Stojakovic, and we need some help with his contract.”

Given the current economics of local government, one might think it’s the perfect time to flee to the private sector. Not so for Ray Kerridge.

As mayor of Folsom, Jeff Starsky says it’s his job to keep people thinking positive and keep consumer confidence high. As far as his city is concerned, he seems to be doing a good job.

Although she can’t recall an aha moment that launched her interest, Julia Burrows says she has been passionate about all things green and sustainable as long as she can remember.

It was the end of 2008 when the economic dominoes began to fall: Lehman Brothers was upside-down, housing crashed, the stock market swooned, banks faltered and the domestic car industry all but went belly up. It wasn’t the best of times to be a high-end American steakhouse.

After a quarter-century of leadership at UC Davis, Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef will step down. Appointed as UC Davis’ fifth chancellor in 1994, he is one of the nation’s longest-serving university administrators. He came to the campus in 1984, first serving as the executive vice chancellor, and will bow out at the end of the campus’s centennial year on June 30. As part of the celebration, the chancellor sat down with Comstock’s to reflect upon the colorful history of the campus once known as University Farm and the lasting contributions it has on the Capital Region.