February was a month of celebration – Lunar New Year vacation, anyone? – and a month of beginnings – significant progress was made in a number of business areas, with increasing momentum as we enter March Madness.
We are now in the Year of the Dragon, and fully expect it to be a year of great growth and great service. February was a strong indication of the year to come.
Objectives and Key Results
We saw some great progress toward our objective of 10 percent growth each month. Our AUM growth in fixed income was a good example of that. The sales tracker — overseen by the Finance Department – hit its goal in February with $6.6 million of new sales and renewals.
Kudos to our talented and hard-working team of representatives. They have been attending multiple events each week, connecting face-to-face with many of our friends and supporters. It is paying off.
Speaking of representatives, we now have another who has passed the Series 7 exam – Wendy Zhou! Congrats, Wendy.
Fairmont Breakers Long Beach
February saw the public launch of our efforts to support one of Long Beach’s most historic landmarks. It is the Fairmont Breakers Long Beach, a waterfront hotel that first opened in 1926.
New owners (well, they bought it in 2017) Pacific6 are nearing completion of a more than $135 million refurbishment and renovation of the hotel. The luxury hotel line Fairmont will be the operator of the five-star boutique hotel, giving the city a level of accommodation it has not seen before.
We have started weekly hard-hat tours of the hotel in partnership with Pacific6. Special thanks to our marketing manager Jennifer Huang for pushing through with the tour communications.
Fond Farewell
It’s always hard to see a valued friend and coworker move on, but we had to celebrate with Eric Romero when he was named Director of Economic Development for the city of Carson. Eric and I have been friends and colleagues since before Sunstone, and I’m sure we will keep in touch.
Eric created the Economic Development Department here, and launched multiple initiatives for Sunstone. Those initiatives now are in the capable hands of Jayro Sandoval and Ryan Phong. Let’s be sure to provide the support they’re going to need.
There’s more to Sunstone’s February, but March has arrived. Let the Madness begin!
And as always, remember to be a Sunstone!
©Sunstone Management, Inc. 2024
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About Sunstone Management
Sunstone Management is a diversified private capital management firm with headquarters in Southern California that provides a range of early-stage venture capital, real estate, and fixed income funds to qualified and accredited investors. The firm delivers new and exciting options for economic growth through innovative public-private partnerships, making use of its unique experience across government, education, and private sectors. Identified by Financial Times as one of America’s Fastest Growing Companies three years in a row. In the second quarter of 2023, PitchBook ranked Sunstone the seventh most active early-stage venture capital firm in the country, and 18th overall.
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