KATE KLIMOW, Vice President of Government and Community Affairs

Kate Klimow serves as the Vice President of Government Affairs for the Orange County Business Council. She came to OCBC with nearly 20 years experience in government and public affairs bringing a record of success in  implementing strategic business initiatives, building strong alliances with key stakeholders, and managing through crisis and change.

Kate has a broad-based business perspective gained from working within both the public and private sector.  Her career began as a member of the original campaign staff for an Arizona governor and later served in the Arizona Department of Commerce where she implemented the first agreement between the Departments of Commerce and Environmental Quality to jointly develop Arizona’s environmental industries market.

After moving to California and working for Parsons Corporation, an international engineering and design firm, she became part of the real estate development division for Walt Disney Imagineering (WDI).  While with WDI, she oversaw all public affairs aspects of a multi-million dollar development project for The Walt Disney Company, managing a media, government, and community relations strategy that successfully secured entitlement rights for one of the largest redevelopment projects in the State of California at the time.

Kate then moved to the Disneyland Resort, managing government relations and regulatory issues affecting business operations at the local level, as well as theme park and tourism industry issues at the regional and state level

Following Disney, Kate worked for KB Home, a Fortune 500 national homebuilder, where she provided strategic government relations and public affairs support for operating division throughout the Unites States. Her most recent experience is as the Executive Director of the Los Angeles division of the California Apartment Association, a non-profit trade association representing owners, investors, developers, managers and suppliers of apartment communities throughout Los Angeles County.

Kate grew up in Phoenix, Arizona, but braved the cold, upstate New York winters to graduate Phi Beta Kappa and Magna Cum Laude from Colgate University, with a major in Anthropology and a minor in Theatre.  Kate is married to David Golbeck and has two adult stepchildren; one is an officer in the US Navy, and the other is a new mother of the most beautiful granddaughter in the world.

[Contact Kate]

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