Aaron Klein is the co-founder and CEO of Riskalyze, a technology startup that is revolutionizing how we make risk/reward decisions with our investments.
He’s also been elected twice as a Sierra College Trustee, and advocates for adoption and ending the global orphan crisis as a co-founder of Hope Takes Root.
Most importantly, he’s a husband and a father who believes in Isaiah 1:17’s radical mandate for changing the world.
Family
In 2001, Aaron married Cacey Steward Klein. It’s 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.
Together, they experienced the miracle of adoption when they brought Spencer Daniel Sang-Jin Klein home from Seoul, South Korea on November 9, 2007. Spencer is almost five years old and enjoys playing with Buzz Lightyear and Lightning McQueen (as well as video and iPad games, when his parents let him). His dad believes he might be 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 nearly three years old, and enjoys singing, dancing and dressing up like a princess.
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, from founding and selling a web consulting firm that worked with political candidates for Governor of California, US Congress and the state legislature, to building a business operations software company named to the SARTA Tech Index, to building new business models for an established financial services company.
In 2011, Aaron became the co-founder and CEO of Riskalyze. The innovative company’s technology allows people to capture their tolerance for risk as a quantitative mathematical function, and then use that unique and personal Risk Fingerprint to make better investing decisions.
Orphan Care and Adoption
In 2010, Aaron and Cacey helped to found Hope Takes Root, a local effort to build a revolutionary community to foster, care and adopt orphans both at home and around the world.
Hope Takes Root is helping 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.
Education Reform
Over the last six years, Aaron has invested his time and effort in making our education system a powerful engine for American prosperity and competitiveness once again.
He was elected in 2004 as a Sierra College Trustee. After the college’s change in leadership, he was one of the leading voices for the balanced budget and prudent reserve policy that built $6.5 million in new surpluses by mid-2009, protecting access to college during the fiscal crisis that followed. He was re-elected to the board in 2008, winning substantial majorities across the district. In 2011, he was elected as Board President.
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, four in-laws and nine very adorable nieces and nephews.
Photos by Blue Castle Photography
