California Financial Educators Council: About, Mission, Advisory Board
The California Financial Educators Council℠ is committed to helping people across the Golden State gain access to financial education programming that helps them work toward financial wellness. To this end, we provide complimentary resources, advocacy campaigns, and local personal support to build scalable financial wellness initiatives.
The mission of the California Financial Educators Council℠ is to build sustainable, scalable economic empowerment programs that have a real impact on people’s lives at the community level.
State Chapter Details & Affiliation with National Council
The California Financial Educators Council℠ is a chapter of the National Financial Educators Council®. The National chapter is well-qualified to support our initiatives here across the state of California. They bring:
Accreditation
As an IACET Accredited Provider, the NFEC offers IACET CEUs for its learning events that comply with the ANSI/IACET Continuing Education and Training Standard.
Social Impact
As a Certified B Corporation, the NFEC meets the highest standards for socially responsible commerce, using the power of business to build more sustainable economies.
Standards
The NFEC set industry standards for the financial education industry and materials are developed with the highest educational outcomes in mind.
Advisory Board
The California Financial Educators Council Advisory Board members come from diverse backgrounds, yet share one similar goal – to help push the financial wellness movement forward. Board members serve in a variety of roles to support the Leadership Team to develop leading educational resources, expand our business, and create positive social change.
Larry Dicke
CalChamber of Commerce, Chief Financial Officer, Retired 2022
Veselina Dinova
Haas School of Business UC Berkeley, Executive MBA Professor
Trevor Stoll
National Financial Educators Council, Director of Operations
Carolyn Campbell
Emerging Capital Partners, Managing Partner and COO
Sonja Strzoda
Financial Services Executive & Nonprofit Board Professional
Sam X Renick
Internationally Recognized Financial Literacy Pioneer
Rodney Balbuena
Managing Director, SageView Advisory Group
James Chang
President and CEO of Pasadena Federal Credit Union
Larry Dicke
CalChamber of Commerce, Chief Financial Officer, Retired 2022
Larry is board certified and has in-depth experience in large public, private and not-for-profit business organizations with various and increasing responsibilities. Including accounting, purchasing, operations, customer service, international, marketing, timely, complete, and accurate reporting of financial results, evaluating capital expenditures, negotiating operating and capital leases, developing compensation and benefit plans, and negotiating working capital and medium-term financing and cyber security. During his career he was the leader or participated in Domestic and International Acquisition Teams.
Larry retired from CalChamber on April 30, 2022. He started there as vice president of finance on June 1, 2002. Larry was appointed executive vice president and chief financial officer in March 2007. In January 2012 Larry was chosen to lead CalChamber’s compliance business. The compliance business includes membership, products, and training. The members have access to best software as service (HRCalifornia) for providing answers to questions on California employment laws and a Helpline for answers to confidential questions. The products sold by this business include employment compliance tools, required state, federal and local employment posters and pamphlets, reference guides, and an online employee handbook creator. Training includes the best online sexual harassment prevention course in the country, compliance seminars and webinars.
Before coming to the CalChamber, he worked for Blue Diamond Growers in Sacramento as vice president of finance and chief financial officer. During his employment with Blue Diamond, he added responsibilities for human resources and information systems and added the responsibilities of corporate secretary.
Dicke was a founding member and past president of the Greater Sacramento Area Chapter of Financial Executives International. He was an adjunct professor for the Graduate School of Management at the University of California, Davis; served as chief financial officer for the California State Protocol Foundation; and was a member of the California Governor and First Lady’s Conference Board of Directors. He is a former president of the Sacramento Area Commerce and Trade Organization (SACTO) and once served on the board of the Sacramento Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce.
Dicke was born and raised in Chicago, graduating from Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois with a B.S. in accounting. He passed the CPA exam in Illinois and earned his MBA from the University of Chicago and has a CERT Certificate in Cybersecurity Oversight. He is a member of the National Association of Corporate Directors, Financial Executives International and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. He was Sacramento area CFO of the Year for Nonprofits in 2014.
Veselina Dinova
Haas School of Business UC Berkeley, Executive MBA Professor
Veselina Dinova is faculty at Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley, where she teaches finance, accounting, financial information analysis and stock valuation focused courses with the graduate and executive MBA programs. Her mission is to educate the future corporate leaders on how to build and grow companies that make the world a better place for all their stakeholders. She has won numerous awards for teaching excellence.
Veselina has researched and analyzed the financial performance and corporate governance of publicly traded companies from a wide range of industries. She cares deeply about education and enjoys working with and learning from her students with vastly diverse backgrounds, opinions and aspirations. She is passionate about innovation and has mentored startups at SkyDeck, the premier accelerator at UC Berkeley.
Prior to becoming faculty at Haas, Veselina was in corporate treasury at multinational corporations where she had a wide range of responsibilities: portfolio management of fixed income and equity investments, bank and investment managers’ relationships, corporate cash forecasting, SEC reporting, internal audit compliance.
Veselina is originally from Bulgaria and came to the US to pursue her MBA degree at Thunderbird School of Global Management in Arizona. She is a CFA charter-holder and a member of the CFA Society of San Francisco. She is NACD Directorship certified.
Trevor Stoll
National Financial Educators Council, Director of Operations
Trevor Stoll has felt passionate about bringing greater financial wellness to Californians for decades. When he was an undergraduate at the University of California, Riverside, he witnessed many of his classmates struggling to balance their college budgets and wanted to do something to help. When he heard about the NFEC and its financial education advocacy, he reached out to them. In partnership, they started the American Dream Movement chapter at UCR. This movement gave Trevor the opportunity to empower his college peers with the financial knowledge they needed to effectively and confidently tackle the real-world life decisions they would face during their college years and beyond.
Stoll earned an MBA from the University of California, Irvine and a BS in Business Administration from UCR. This educational background gave him the qualifications to take his passion for promoting financial wellness to the next level. Now, as the NFEC’s Chief Operations Officer, Trevor takes a data-driven approach to planning financial wellness strategies and initiatives for maximum long-term social impact. He also is charged with maintaining quality control of the NFEC’s resources and ensuring their compliance with top standards. These are just some of the contributions Stoll is looking forward to making as part of his role on the California Financial Educators Council’s Advisory Board.
Carolyn Campbell
Emerging Capital Partners, Managing Partner and COO
Carolyn Campbell is an experienced executive and board director with over 25 years of investing in the financial services and technology sectors. Ms. Campbell is a founder and managing partner of Emerging Capital Partners (ECP), a private equity firm which has raised over $3.4 billion in growth capital for investment in over 70 listed and private high-growth companies, with a focus on innovation in financial services, telecom and energy/logistics. As a member of ECP’s Audit/Valuation, Investment and Executive Committees, her M&A financial and legal background makes her a key decision-maker in relation to financial performance and governance. As chair of the firm’s advisory committees and a director of multiple boards, she is valued for oversight and strategy in relation to finance/audit, corporate governance, management and ESG, improving financial reporting, corporate governance, business plans and IT systems. Ms. Campbell is particularly well-versed in issues facing highly-regulated industries and those looking to expand into new markets.
Prior to founding ECP, Ms. Campbell worked in global private equity at Emerging Markets Partnership (EMP), where she provided overall leadership and strategy for funds in Asia and Eastern Europe. Prior to that, Ms. Campbell worked in M&A and corporate finance globally at White & Case LLP, where she advised on U.S. venture capital deals and guided expanding multinational corporations to find suitable investments, build strong local partnerships and achieve best governance practices. Her work at White & Case spanned a variety of sectors, including financial services, insurance and technology.
Ms. Campbell has received various awards including the Private Equity Africa Women Impact Award and life membership in the Council on Foreign Relations. A sought-after speaker on board governance, investment strategy and executive management, she has appeared on C-SPAN, Bloomberg and Africa Today, spoken at the National Economists Club, the Brookings Institute, and the Harvard and Wharton Business Schools. She has published on cryptocurrency and other topics in the Financial Times, Environmental Finance, Quartz and Private Equity International. Ms. Campbell received a BA in Economics summa cum laude from the University of Connecticut, a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law, and a Ph.D. in Political Economy from Oxford University and is fluent in French.
Other Board Experience
- Chair of Finance/Audit Committee for six years of Washington International School, a private K-12 school with over $45m in revenues
- Investment Committee Member, American Psychological Foundation
- Advisory Council Member, United States Millennium Challenge Corporation
Sonja Strzoda
Financial Services Executive & Nonprofit Board Professional
Sonja Strzoda has over twenty-five years of experience in the global asset management and financial services industries working with Boards, senior executives and major investors. She was most recently with ColumbiaThreadneedle Investments (a subsidiary of Ameriprise Financial) where she served as Director of Consultant Relations and facilitated the re-engineering of the global consultant relations effort. Previously, Sonja was Senior Vice President for Putnam Investments where she worked as part of the global sales team and re-established the firm’s brand in the institutional marketplace. Earlier roles and positions included Vice President at Robeco Investment Management, Principal at Bradford & Marzec, Inc., a privately held institutional fixed income manager, PIMCO, and Dean Witter Reynolds (Morgan Stanley).
Sonja currently sits on the Boards of WISE-Women Investing in Security and Education, NuVision Federal Credit Union where she serves on the Asset and Liability Committee and CEO Compensation Committee, and Working Wardrobes where Sonja is a member of the Governance and Strategic Planning Committees, and Chair of the Audit Committee.
Sonja received her MBA with an emphasis in finance from California State University, Long Beach, where she was the first woman portfolio manager on the University’s Student Managed Investment Fund. She earned her BS with a major in economics from University of California, Irvine. Sonja is also a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® professional and held FINRA Series 7 and 63 licenses.
Sam X Renick
Internationally recognized financial literacy pioneer and leader Sam X Renick has joined the California Educators Council Advisory Board as of 2022. Mr. Renick’s expertise lies in innovative children’s financial education, with which he has reached more than a quarter million children across 8 countries and 40 US states over the past two decades.
Mr. Renick founded his social entrepreneurial venture, the “It’s a Habit!” Company, in 2001 and co-created the Sammy Rabbit storybook character to empower individuals from all backgrounds to teach young children excellent money habits in an entertaining, effective format. For his own far-reaching children’s financial literacy instruction efforts, he and his team have earned multiple honors – including the 2016 National Financial Educators Council Instructor of the Year Award, the New Jersey Coalition for Financial Education Lifetime Achievement Award, the California Jump$tart Coalition Leaders in Personal Literacy Award, and induction into the Loyola Marymount University Wall of Honor, among many more.
A prolific author and songwriter, Mr. Renick has developed one of the largest financial literacy resource libraries in the world. Among this extensive bank of resources can be found storybooks and songs such as Sammy’s Big Dream, Get in the Habit, S.A.V.E. Rainy Day, Lemonade Stand, Anyone Can Be Rich, and Show Your Family the Way.
Mr. Renick also has garnered substantial media attention for his exemplary work in the financial education space. His efforts have been featured in television and radio spots on ABC, the Armed Forces Network, Fox, and NPR; and in print media including the Chicago Tribune, New York Times, Kansas City Star, MSN, Kiplinger, MarketWatch, and Yahoo Finance.
Today, Mr. Renick serves a myriad of high-profile clients, both individuals and enterprises. His work has gained worldwide support from groups of all sizes and from all sectors, including the US Department of Defense, Air Force Aid Society, Citi, Girl Scouts of America, Texas Family Community Leaders of America, Toyota, the University of Maryland, and the United Way.
Sam Renick’s lifelong commitment to spreading knowledge and joy on great money habits has helped form his mantra: “Great habits give all kids a better and brighter future!”
Rodney Balbuena
Managing Director, SageView Advisory Group
Advisory Board Member Rodney Balbuena was chosen to serve on the California Financial Educators Council (CFEC) due to his passion for helping individuals and organizations secure their financial futures – a calling that deeply aligns with the mission of the National Financial Educators Council, the CFEC’s parent organization. Across his nearly three-decade career in financial services, Balbuena has consistently demonstrated innovation, compassion, and contributions to positive social progress.
Criteria for selection to the Advisory Board include having a proven dedication to financial wellness and service to California communities. Rodney Balbuena’s history of success in guiding his clients toward financial well-being and his commitment to empowering underserved groups with financial education recommend him strongly to fill this position. The California Financial Educators Council anticipates a highly productive and beneficial collaborative relationship with Rodney Balbuena well into the future.
Innovative Solutions for Economic Empowerment: Rodney Balbuena
I attended California State University at Los Angeles, where I pursued a major in Business Marketing. During those formative years, I cultivated a keen interest in the art of public speaking, effective presentations, and the world of financial products. As I ventured into the job market in 1994, a remarkable opportunity emerged for a bilingual educator role within a global financial services corporation, and I was fortunate enough to be selected for this prestigious position.
With a career spanning over 27 years in this dynamic industry, I have diligently acquired and currently hold a series of prestigious securities licenses, including Series 6, 63, and 65. Furthermore, I take great pride in being recognized with a Chartered Certified Fiduciary Advisor (CPFA) and Behavioral Finance Analyst designation, which unequivocally underscores my unwavering dedication to achieving professional excellence.
I am excited and committed to lending my skills, insights, and experience to the ongoing success and growth of the National Financial Educators Council and its state affiliate, the California Financial Educators Council. Together, I believe we can achieve remarkable results and make a positive impact.
I look forward to collaborating with the entire advisory board in the coming months and years, as we work together to shape the future and realize our vision.
James Chang
President and CEO of Pasadena Federal Credit Union
President and CEO of Pasadena Federal Credit Union in Pasadena, CA, James Chang brings more than 25 years of financial institution experience to his position on the California Financial Educators Council Advisory Board. His substantial skills and expertise include promoting professional personal finance guidance, strategic use of technology, and personal delivery of outstanding products and services.
Holding a Bachelor of Science degree in Political Science from the University of California, Santa Barbara, Chang started his career as a credit union teller – where his daily interactions with members quickly illuminated and solidified his passion for helping others. He cites his dedication to prioritizing members’ interests as the impetus behind his advancement into top leadership positions. In addition to his current title, he has held executive positions at Pasadena Service Federal Credit Union, Verity Credit Union, and Southland Credit Union.
James views his Advisory Board role as a unique opportunity to amplify his community impact by becoming a champion of top-quality financial education resources. He plans to leverage his broad professional network to advance the cause of building greater financial literacy and well-being among Californians in his own community and statewide.