Summary: Every leader knows that great teams don't happen by accident. Drawing on her experience as a covert CIA Case Officer, U.S. diplomat, and executive coach, Kimberly Kearney reveals the frameworks behind elite operational teams that operate under the highest levels and unforgiving conditions. She'll explore how leaders across industries can apply these same principles to drive collaboration, resilience, and peak performance in any organization. 

Bio: Kimberly Kearney is a former covert CIA Case Officer, diplomat, and Silicon Valley-based executive advisor who specializes in helping leaders navigate high-stakes environments with clarity and purpose. She is a credentialed executive coach with 15 years of experience tackling critical national security and policy challenges across multiple continents, and she brings crisis-tested insights to leaders facing complex organizational and leadership challenges. Her deep background in clandestine human operations includes understanding human behavior, managing risk under pressure, and driving outcomes in ambiguous environments; perspectives that help inform her methodologies and work with senior leaders and their teams in Big Tech, biopharma, start-ups and entrepreneurship, adventure sport, CIA, Special Operations, and more. Kimberly is based in San Jose where she and her husband are raising their three young children. 

Marie will be moving from 30 hours/week to 40 on September 1, while continuing to work from home on Fridays. Her schedule will be 7:30 am to 4:00 pm Mon-Th, and 7 am to 1 pm on Fridays.

Leslee will be shifting to a Monday–Thursday schedule on Sept. 1, and the Gordon House will be closed on Fridays. 

Lisa will continue to work from 1:00–3:30 pm on Mondays and 9 am to 3 pm Tuesday–Thursday.

Follow the Penguin: Help Build Peace
Rotarians Bill Baron, Kimberly and Michael Mulcahy, and Ron Zraick joined philanthropist Diane Brandenburg on August 19th to launch the public campaign to raise the final $200,000 needed for the $1.5M project.

A penguin represents Antarctica in the 18' monument but is an NHL rival of our Sharks, so Sharkie stopped by for a bit of hazing.

The penguin will be visiting various venues in San Jose, including the Gordon House (now) and the 9/19 Rotary Collaborative Impact Summit at the McEnery Convention Center, to raise awareness of this peace-promoting project. 

Click here to contribute to the campaign to build peace.

2026-27 Community Grants application window is open until September 30.

Sponsored by Tom Bondi

Jose Castillo is a local entrepreneur, owning and operating barbershops in San Jose for nearly a decade and currently working day to day in commercial real estate at Ritchie Commercial. Where he enjoys helping people find opportunities to lease, buy, and sell commercial properties. He holds an Associate of Science in Business Administration from Evergreen Valley College and Bachelor of Arts in Economics from San Jose State University.
In his free time he enjoys spending time with his family; his wife and five-year-old daughter. They are expecting their second child in October, a baby boy. Some hobbies he enjoys are mountain/road cycling, boxing, and lifting. He tries to keep as active as possible, along his busy schedule. On a relaxing trip to Hawaii Big Island earlier this year he was inspired by the IRONMAN 70.3. He has now decided that in the future when time allows, he will train for an Ironman.