"Leadership is the capacity to
translate vision into reality."

~ Warren Bennis

President's Message

Geraldine Larson

Dear FACCOC Sponsors, Members, and Friends,

Welcome to the Filipino American Chamber of Commerce of Orange County (FACCOC)! I am excited and honored to be your President for the next two years.

My sincere gratitude to our outgoing President, Joseph L. Joseph, and our dedicated Board of Directors for your extraordinary leadership during a turbulent time for everyone. From the beginning of the pandemic, we didn’t miss a beat and moved our meetings online, including our Secrets of Success, one of our Signature programs, and continued our networking activities.

Like many Chambers, we experienced a substantial decrease in membership and unfortunately, some of our fellow business owners were not able to pivot during the pandemic and had to close their businesses. It is with this in mind that we are committed to making the Chamber even stronger and provide the platform to help business owners start, grow, and elevate their businesses to be able to overcome future challenges.

I would like to thank our sponsors for supporting us and allowing us to provide the programs that are important to our members and our communities. I would like to especially thank our major sponsor, US Bank, for their unwavering support for over a decade; we would not be able to achieve our objectives without you.

I would also like to thank the representatives of the other ethnic Chambers and our strategic partners, SBDC, SBA, and the Coalition of Filipino American Chambers of Commerce (COFACC) for sharing your resources with us. Collaboration and partnership are key components of our plans for the next two years and your organization is a vital part.

Lastly, I want to congratulate the incoming Board of Directors! We have some aggressive goals and I know that as a team, we can accomplish great things.

As we close out 2022, let’s all celebrate our accomplishments and enjoy the upcoming holiday season with our loved ones, then get ready to “Elevate” ourselves, our businesses, our communities, and FACCOC in 2023! Together we can be Unstoppable!

 

Sincerely,

Geraldine (Gigi) Larson
President 2023-2024