For more than four decades, Tom Tait’s career has spanned business and public service, guided by a simple belief that kindness and doing the right thing are not only good values, but good ways to lead. He is the former Mayor of Anaheim and Executive Chairman of TAIT & Associates, Inc., a national engineering and environmental services firm he led as CEO for more than 30 years.

Tom and his wife, Julie, have been married for 44 years and have four grown children and 15 grandchildren. Tom earned his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Wyoming and his M.B.A. and law degree from Vanderbilt University.

Tom was elected Mayor of Anaheim in 2010 and re-elected to a second term in 2014, serving until he was termed out of office in 2018. Tom approached governing much like a holistic doctor approaches a patient. Rather than simply treating symptoms, he believed a city could become healthier by healing from within. For Tom, that meant looking beyond laws and ordinances and focusing on the culture of the city, building it around the universal values of kindness and freedom and shaping how government treated its citizens, how people treated one another, and ultimately how the community saw itself.

As mayor, Tom changed Anaheim’s motto to “City of Kindness.” Among his initiatives, Anaheim students accepted the One Million Acts of Kindness challenge, a goal they ultimately achieved. Together with other initiatives throughout Anaheim, the effort fostered a culture of kindness, strengthening the bonds within the community and helping make Anaheim a healthier, more resilient city.

To promote freedom and innovation, Tom led efforts to eliminate unnecessary regulations that burdened small businesses and entrepreneurs.   In addition, working in partnership with the Anaheim Union High School District, Tom brought an entrepreneurial curriculum to its schools and developed a broad mentoring program connecting thousands of high school students with mentors from local businesses.

TAIT & Associates is a family-owned business founded by Tom’s father, Kenneth Tait, 62 years ago. At TAIT, kindness and ethical conduct are central to the company’s culture. The philosophy is simple: treat everyone with kindness, and do the right thing. Tom believes these principles are essential in their own right and fundamental to long-term business success.

As a side note, during his time as mayor, Tom was affectionately known throughout Anaheim, and particularly at San Antonio de Padua parish, simply as Julie Tait’s husband.

Shannon Eusey is the Co-Founder and Chair of Beacon Pointe Advisors. She Co-founded the firm in 2002 and served as its Chief Executive Officer from its inception for the last 25 years, leading Beacon Pointe’s growth into one of the nation’s most respected independent wealth management firms. Today, as Chair, she continues to provide strategic leadership and governance while advancing the firm’s long-term vision.

Driven by a passion for financial education and empowering investors, Shannon is a founding member of the Beacon Pointe Women’s Advisory Institute and co-author of Your Dollars, Our Sense: A Fun and Simple Guide to Money Matters, an international bestselling book that has ranked #1 in six different business and finance categories. More recently, she co-authored Your Dollars, Our Sense: A Catholic Guide to Personal Finance and Wealth Management, which offers practical guidance for aligning financial decisions with Catholic values.  

Outside of Beacon Pointe, Shannon currently serves as a Director of Banc of California (NYSE: BANC), Canaccord Genuity Group (TSX: CF), Senior Advisor to McKinsey & Company, the LA84 Foundation, and the Play Equity Fund. She also serves on the Board of Hoag Hospital and is an Advisor to View Point Ventures and Cognicor.

Throughout her career, Shannon has served on numerous public company, nonprofit, and industry advisory boards, including the UCI Athletics Board, the Charles Schwab Advisor Council, the TD Ameritrade Advisory Council, the CNBC Financial Advisor Council, and ScratchWorks, a FinTech accelerator that connects innovative technology companies with investment and wealth management leaders to accelerate the digital transformation of financial services. She is also a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization Orange County Chapter.

Shannon graduated from the University of California, Irvine, where she was a Division I volleyball student-athlete, and earned her MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management. She also completed the Directors’ Consortium Public Company Director Certification through the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Shannon and her husband, Rick, have four children and reside in Laguna Beach, California.