Jess Marzak

Jess-Marzak

My wife Debra and I have owned our home on Valley Lakes Drive for 36 years and have lived in Oakmont full time for 7 years. Prior to moving to Oakmont, we lived in San Mateo County, and I worked in the venture capital industry in Silicon Valley for 22 years. I graduated from Occidental College, and earned an MBA from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. During my tenure in the venture capital industry, I invested in and sat on the boards of directors of over 30 companies.

I was appointed to the Oakmont Board of Directors in May 2019 and was elected to the board in 2020. I accepted the appointment to the board because I saw two major issues that the Oakmont community had to deal with at that time: whether to acquire the golf course, and what to do with the 63-year-old Berger Center. I felt I could contribute to the analysis and discussion around both issues. Obviously, the golf course issue was resolved definitively with over 75% of the community voting to acquire the golf course. Since then, operations at the golf courses have improved dramatically, and Oakmont is the proud owner a two beautiful golf courses that also act as permanent green belt for the whole community.

Resolving the issue of what to do with the Berger Center has taken a back seat in the last two years to the more important issue of making Oakmont safe in the face of ongoing wildfires and dealing with the COVID virus. The efforts of the Firewise Committee have pushed Oakmont to remediate homes and yards to defend against the risk of fire more successfully, and more work needs to be done to complete the removal of all junipers from the community. Dealing with COVID has changed the behavior of everyone in Oakmont. When Oakmont residents can again return to more normal activities, such as attending meetings in person, I would like to lead a community discussion about the issues surrounding the Berger Center. The only way to resolve these issues is thru a series of community meetings where facts are presented, questions are asked, and thoughts are expressed about how to resolve unavoidable differences of opinion. I have great faith that the residents of Oakmont will come up with the right solution.