Meet Aaron
Aaron Klein is a husband, dad, business leader, technology expert, education reformer, orphan and adoption advocate and a believer in Isaiah 1:17’s radical mandate for social change. He grew up and currently resides with his wife and family in Northern California.
In 2001, Aaron married Cacey Steward Klein. It is a true story that after meeting her for the second time at the age of 14, he had decided he would marry her some day (it only took her eight years to agree). Cacey is a blogger, a talented decorator and designer, and has her own business in distinctive foods and gifts.
They are active members of their church, Foothill Christian Fellowship, in Meadow Vista.
Orphan Care and Adoption
Together, the Kleins experienced the miracle of adoption when they brought Spencer Daniel Sang-Jin Klein home from Seoul, South Korea on November 9, 2007. Spencer is three years old, and enjoys playing Thomas the Train and his Elmo electric guitar. His dad believes he is a future baseball player, perhaps first as a Sierra College Wolverine.
They experienced that miracle a second time when they brought Emma Nichole Asnakech Klein home from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on January 1, 2010. Emma is one year old, and enjoys crawling around the Klein home and playing with her big brother. Her many future talents are still in development, waiting to be discovered.
Today, Aaron and Cacey are working to develop opportunities to engage in the cause of orphan care and adoption. The effort will help families learn how to plan and finance adoptions, coordinate support during and after adoption via small groups and wraparound families, make a difference in orphan prevention and orphan care projects overseas, and reform public policy to promote permanency for children in the foster care system.
Career in Entrepreneurial Business
At the ripe old age of twelve years old, Aaron began working in the afternoons, after school, for his dad’s wholesale distribution company. After starting in the shipping room, he worked his way up to managing sales, marketing and operations at the company.
His entire career has been working with entrepreneurial businesses. He founded (and sold) a web consulting firm that revolutionized online political communication and fundraising for candidates running for Governor of California, United States Congress, State Senate and State Assembly.
He built a business operations software company that was named to the Sacramento Area Regional Technology Alliance’s Tech Index, and drove the development of products to manage product and pricing data for wholesale distributors, and sales and commission reconciliation for wireless channel resellers.
He has also worked to build new business units and drive growth through the application of emerging technologies and development of new business models for established companies in the financial and software fields.
He currently sits on the boards of wiOps and BizFlex.
Education Reform
Aaron has invested a great deal of time in efforts to reform the education system and ensure that it can be a powerful engine for American prosperity and competitiveness once again.
He was elected in 2004 as a member of the Sierra College Board of Trustees. After the change in leadership, he was one of the leading voices for a balanced budget and prudent reserve policy that built $6.5 million in new surpluses by mid-2009, enabling the board to protect access to college during the fiscal crisis that followed. He was re-elected to the board in 2008, winning substantial majorities in every major city in the district.
Aaron continues to serve on the board at Sierra College. His priorities are increasing access to college for those with fewer opportunities; strengthening the ties between the college and the job-creating businesses that need a qualified workforce; and finding innovative ways to repair classrooms and labs, and invest in the future college facilities that the region will need in order to thrive. His current term will end in December 2012.
Personal
In between his family, work in entrepreneurial business, and public service, Aaron finds time to write, read history and fiction, run, watch movies, cheer on the Sacramento Kings and the Los Angeles Dodgers, and spend time with an immediate family that currently totals four parents, twelve brothers and sisters, three in-laws and ten very adorable nieces and nephews.
Photos by Blue Castle Photography
