Candidate for
City Council; City of Burlingame

I Believe in the Power and Importance of Innovation

In my experience serving our country as a diplomat overseas, and more recently as a businessman investing in small companies and helping them grow big, I know that individuals working together can accomplish great things. But almost always when this happens, it is not by following convention and the status quo, but through innovation, collaboration, and harvesting the best ideas from wherever they may spring. Bringing people together to solve tough problems has been the hallmark of my work and what I like doing -- and what I want to do on the City Council.

I have been involved in lots of programs that accomplished what people thought could not be done. Three years ago, over the course of just 5 months, four colleagues and I helped launch a new non-profit aimed at eradicating malaria and organized an international summit on malaria hosted by the President. In business, I have been a part of many winning teams and breakthrough strategies. Here in Burlingame, I was the only elected or appointed official who served on the Safeway Working Group, which, through the talents of the members drawn from our community, our merchants, and Safeway, has come up with a compromise proposal to this decade-long impasse. Finally.

In none of these cases would following the status quo or business-as-usual approaches have worked. A fresh approach and independent thinking were required.

Burlingame also faces challenges, although we are still comfortable: our tax base relies on auto dealers and hotels, neither of which is flourishing, our downtown has empty storefronts, and our industrial base is tired. We can do a lot more to rebuild our economic base, with innovation, new energy, and fresh ideas. That's what I would bring to the Council.

I hope you will give me a chance to make Burlingame work better for you. Please vote for me by mail or on November 3.