Jeff Michael

Jeff Michael
Jeff Michael

Jeff Michael

Joint Venture Partner

Jeff Michael is an award winning, veteran television journalist who has been reporting in Los Angeles for three decades.

Most recently Jeff co-anchored the CBS2 News at 5pm, 6pm & 11pm while also appearing on KCAL9 evening newscasts. Prior to that, for eighteen years, Jeff anchored and reported for KTTV, Fox11 News. He co-created and launched Fox11’s 5pm news-interview show, Studio 11 LA  and was the Co-Anchor of the Fox11 10 O’clock News.

Jeff began his Los Angeles reporting career at KABC-TV in 1990 as a Crime Specialist; a niche that had brought him national attention while reporting for WSVN-TV in Miami, Florida.

He has covered every major Southern California news event over thirty years including the beating of Rodney King, the LA Riots, the arrest and trial of O.J. Simpson, the funerals of presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan and more wildfires than he cares to count.

Jeff has also reported on many national and international news events including the Oklahoma City bombing, the Aurora Colorado theater mass shooting, the US arrest of Manuel Noriega in Panama, national political conventions, presidential elections, both space shuttle Challenger and Columbia disasters and three of the country’s last four major hurricanes. He is the recipient of a number of Emmy, Golden Mic and Associated Press awards.

Marcia Lewis Smith

Marcia Lewis Smith
Marcia Lewis Smith

Marcia Lewis Smith

Joint Venture Partner

Marcia applies her extensive background as a successful producer and writer of network television and documentaries to the benefit of EKA’s clients. Her understanding of people and how to talk to them is her tool to tell your story in a way the audience can consume easily and understand quickly. Marcia takes complicated ideas and makes them simple.

Keeping a project or client on message is critical to a positive outcome. Marcia creates a coherence and voice for each project that reflects the values of the audience, stakeholders and venue to which it is being portrayed. In working across many of our practices, she gives our clients the talking points and language with which to communicate their vision; creating a comfort zone for them in their appearances with decision makers and the public. Her scripts for commercials, project videos and to-the-point web segments deliver the client’s messages with an effectiveness that is measurable.

Marcia has been associated with EKA since its inception in 2005 and is a veteran of many campaigns including political, development, community education and reputation management. As a television producer and writer, her programs have received multiple award nominations and recognition. She is a Senior Lecturer for Boston University’s College of Communication and a twice appointed former Beverly Hills City Commissioner.

Kathy Jones Irish

Kathy Jones Irish
Kathy Jones Irish

Kathy Jones Irish

Joint Venture Partner

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Ms. Irish has more than 30 years of public and private sector professional experience in program management, project and personnel management in the fields of transportation, engineering, procurement, local government, waste management, water resource planning, workforce development, and corporate philanthropy.

In 2013, Kathy was appointed by Governor Jerry Brown to the Board of engineers, Land Surveyors and Geologists. During 2015, her colleagues elected her to serve as President of the Board and she is presently a member of the Board. Kathy is involved in Board outreach to encourage licensure among aspiring engineers and regularly works with Board staff on matters relating to vendor procurement.

Kathy is a graduate of Occidental College and holds a Certificate in Public Policy Analysis from the Claremont Graduate School. She is a former Coro Fellow, served as a Congressional intern for United States Congressman Don Edwards, and was a Legislative Intern for former State Legislator and Congressman Alan D. Wheat. Kathy has received numerous commendations for public service, public policy engagement and community investment. She lives in Pasadena, California and is the proud mother of her son, Brandon Carleton Irish.

Jennifer Andrews

Jennifer Andrews
Jennifer Andrews

Jennifer Andrews

Joint Venture Partner

Jennifer Andrews is an award-winning communications professional with a proven track record in developing and executing innovative strategies across multiple industries. Renowned for her corporate issues, crisis management, and media relations expertise, Jennifer transforms complex issues into compelling narratives for diverse audiences.

Previously, Jennifer was Director of Communications for Waste Management, Inc. (now WM), responsible for the company’s comprehensive communications strategy and reputation management. She directed high-profile crisis communications efforts, including those involving litigation and regulatory challenges, ensuring the company maintained a positive public image and strong stakeholder relations.

She was also Director of Communications at Cox Communications, developing and implementing statewide internal and external communications strategies for California. Her leadership ensured cohesive and effective organizational communication, enhancing brand reputation and customer engagement.

Jennifer served as a key member of the corporate communications department at Sempra Energy, the parent company of SoCal Gas and San Diego Gas & Electric. She managed media relations and financial communications, both domestically and internationally, strengthening the company’s public and financial profiles.

Jennifer holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from New York University. She has advanced her professional skills through prestigious programs such as the Public Relations Leadership Forum and the Arthur W. Page Society’s Future Leaders Experience.

An active member of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) and the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), Jennifer is dedicated to advancing best practices in communications. She regularly contributes her expertise to these organizations, helping shape the profession’s future.

With her extensive experience and recognized expertise, Jennifer Andrews is a leader in the communications field. Her strategic approach and ability to manage complex issues make her an invaluable asset to any organization.

Paul Haney

Paul Haney
Paul Haney

Paul Haney

Joint Venture Partner

213-741-1500, ext. 504

Paul is the go-to person for aviation, aerospace and public relations issues. He leads a specialized practice providing a wide range of client services to aerospace companies, airlines and other travel-related companies. Paul has extensive experience in strategic counseling, media relations, crisis communications, public affairs and community relations.

Paul came to EKA from Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA), where he served as deputy executive director for the City of Los Angeles agency that owns and operates Los Angeles International Airport and three other airports. In eight years at LAWA, his responsibilities included oversight of operations, construction and maintenance, security, air service development and public and community relations.

Before joining LAWA, Paul spent twenty-two years at American Airlines and Lockheed Martin Corporation in corporate communications, business development, marketing and airline operations. He also had a key role in establishing Lockheed Martin´s award-winning Ethics & Corporate Compliance Program.

Paul has a journalism degree from the University of Kansas. He worked for Gannett Newspapers and United Press International as a reporter and bureau chief before joining American Airlines at its corporate headquarters.

Tina Choi

Tina Choi
Tina Choi

Tina Choi

Joint Venture Partner

213-741-1500, ext. 430

Tina specializes in government and entitlement advocacy and consulting, guiding and counseling clients through the convoluted development and entitlement approval processes. Tina acts as the interface with political entities, development and construction related agencies and community organizations. Current and prior clients include Westfield Shopping Center Development, Vulcan Paul Allen, McDonalds, CVS, Crescent Heights Development, Century Plaza Hotel Development, Gilmore Development, La Terra Development, TAO entertainment Group, Umami Burgers, Marriott Hotels, Capitol Records/EMI, SBE Hotel/Nightlife/Restaurant Group, Gerding Edlen/South Group Development, Equinox Fitness, NASCAR/Turner Sports Interactive, EA Electronic Arts, Mani Brothers, Famima Convenience Stores, Chick-Fil-A Restaurants, Maguire Properties, CIM Development Group, Sushi Roku/Innovative dining group, Lennar, Warmington Homes, Gerding/Edlen Development, SBE/Phillipe Starck Development, Shinyong, Conquest Student Housing Development and Accord Interests. Project profiles include high rise mixed-use residential, hotels and restaurants and industrial park developments.

Tina served as a senior economic development deputy and Director of International Trade where she succeeded in achieving important retention and attraction of significant businesses for the City of LA, including the retention of Toyota Motor Sales, Viking Office Products, Steelcase Office and Belken Computers in the City of Los Angeles.

In addition to her professional career, Tina served as either board member or advisor to a diverse group of nonprofit, community and trade associations. Current and past affiliations include the Ketchum Downtown YMCA, Jr Achievements, USC IBEAR, Korean American Coalition, Trade Advisory Committee to the City of Los Angeles, World Trade Center Association, Foreign Trade Association and the Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation, Equality CA and has served as an Area Planning Commissioner in an appointed capacity for Mayor James Hahn. She currently serves as the Vice-Chair of Sister City of Los Angeles, the largest Sister City diplomatic organization in the Country.

Tina is a decorated search and rescue Ski Patroller as part of National Ski Patrol, received her degree in political economics from the University of California at Berkeley. She’s an immigrant from South Korea and a long-time resident of Los Angeles.

Check out what Tina's clients think of her work:

LaTerra Development is a leading real estate investment management and development company with a portfolio value at completion estimated to exceed $3 billion and overseeing more than $1.5 billion in committed equity throughout the United States, Canada and Australia. Our success in the Los Angeles and Southern California region in part is due to our strong working relationship with Tina Choi, Partner at EKA. LaTerra specifically sought out Tina for her extensive experience in navigating the myriad of permitting, plan check and inspection requirements one must manage, to be successful.

Tina’s 30+ years of working closely with development and regulatory agencies, enabled her to leverage the valuable long term relationships with senior staff of these regulatory agencies, in securing agency permitting and code determinations on an expedited timeline, but also enabled us to secure various discretionary approvals which would not have been possible without her skillset and networking resources.

Working closely with our technical team of architects, engineers, and general contractors, Tina has played a significant role in proactively identifying and solving important ongoing issues with Building and Safety, Public Works, Transportation, Water and Power as well as other regulatory agencies. This unique quality has been critical to the success of many of our projects; saving time and millions in cost.

Tina is also unique in other skillsets allowing her to actively contribute from the earliest stages of a project’s timeline. This includes the due diligence, entitlements, plan check, permitting and inspection phases of our projects, thus providing true A-Z comprehensive concierge services. This type of comprehensive and consistent service ensures that we meet our project completion and occupancy dates on a reliable and predictable timeframe.

We know of no other consultant who provides this level of service – from the beginning of our entitlement phase to the final inspection phase. Her tenacity and ingenuity in finding solutions to significant regulatory challenges consistently encountered in our various projects, is extraordinary.

She moves between plan check issues with engineers,including onsite visits with our General Contractors and Subcontractors while negotiating solutions with City inspectors to move us through rough and final inspections , troubleshooting as needed to get us to our Occupancy approval expeditiously. She is adept in intervening with any and all agencies imposing regulatory requirements and is adaptive , creative and effective in efficient solutions to get us to our opening date. In short, Tina is the “fixer.”

I can genuinely recommend Tina. Her ingenuity, tenacity, vast network of contacts in the regulatory agencies and a consistent commitment to keep projects on schedule, has been invaluable to the LaTerra Team.

Charles Tourtellotte
CEO
LaTerra Development, LLC

Don Knabe

Don Knabe
Don Knabe

Don Knabe

Joint Venture Partner

Supervisor Don Knabe was first elected to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in November of 1996 and was overwhelmingly re-elected in 2000, 2004, 2008, and 2012. Supervisor Knabe retired in December 2016 after attending 5,985 chicken dinners at public events.

Supervisor Knabe represented the Fourth District, which is a uniquely diverse area that is home to over two million residents and includes two of the nation’s largest economic hubs; the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, and Los Angeles International Airport. The Fourth District is also geographically diverse, stretching from Marina del Rey to the Palos Verdes Peninsula to Long Beach all the way east to Diamond Bar and dozens of cities in between. The Fourth District also includes Catalina Island and San Clemente Island.

Supervisor Knabe has spent much of his political career working to protect the innocent and vulnerable children in Los Angeles County. He established the Safe Surrender program in Los Angeles County which allows someone to surrender an infant within 72 hours of birth, as long as the infant shows no signs of abuse. Since 2001, over 160 babies have been safely surrendered in Los Angeles County. In 2015, Supervisor Knabe launched a scholarship program to benefit children who have been safely surrendered.

Supervisor Knabe is also known as a national leader on the issue of child sex trafficking. In 2012, he launched a county-wide awareness campaign to spread the word that young girls are being sexually exploited for money right here in southern California. In 2013, he testified on the issue of child sex trafficking at a hearing before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs in Washington, D.C., and, in 2014, he advocated for stiffer penalties for the buyers and sellers of young girls at the National Press Club with Congressman Ted Poe of Texas.

Supervisor Knabe is a leader in regional transportation currently serving as a Director for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Supervisor Knabe is a member of the Southern California Regional Rail Authority (Metrolink), where he serves on the Executive Management and Audit Committee.

Supervisor Knabe has a true passion for the arts and attributes much of his own personal success to an early involvement with music. His enthusiasm for the arts has resulted in the creation of several innovative youth programs, such as the Pediatric Arts Program at Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center, and the Arts Education Partnership Program, which provides grants to schools and community-based organizations to fund visual art, dance, music, and theatre programs for students.

In 2014, Supervisor Knabe announced the start of “Operation Libraries,” a plan to invest $45 million to upgrade county libraries in communities throughout the Fourth District.

Supervisor Knabe is an advocate for environmental initiatives throughout Los Angeles County. In 2012, Supervisor Knabe called upon federal and state legislators to amend decades-old laws and regulations to encourage the development of innovative conversion technologies in Los Angeles County, as an alternative to landfills. Through conversion technologies, trash that would get dumped in a landfill would be converted into fuels and energy sources. In addition, Supervisor Knabe has led the County’s efforts to improve overall water quality, including 19 projects within the Fourth District that will lower pollution and divert storm water from the ocean, including the Dominguez Gap Wetlands Project, which was completed in 2008, improved water quality, created recreation opportunities for residents and visitors an enhanced the environment by creating an open space habitat for the community.

Supervisor Knabe is respected for the strength of his grassroots support and considerable experience in local government, which have made him a highly regarded voice, not only at home in the Fourth District, but in Sacramento and Washington D.C. He was elected to the Cerritos City Council in 1980 and served as a Councilman for eight years, including two terms as Mayor. Supervisor Knabe was Mayor during the Cerritos Air Crash in 1986.

Supervisor Knabe is an avid golfer, and hosts the Knabe Cup, a CIF sanctioned golf tournament for high school boys and girls teams in the Fourth District. He also supports junior golf clinics for kids to develop a love for the game of golf at a young age.

As Chief of Staff to the late Fourth District Supervisor Deane Dana, Supervisor Knabe gained invaluable insight into crucial Federal, State and Local issues and the needs of the Fourth District’s two million constituents.

Supervisor Knabe is a veteran having served in the United States Navy. He earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Graceland University in Lamoni, Iowa.

Supervisor Knabe and his wife, Julie, have been married for 50 years. They have two married sons, and four incredible grandchildren.

 
 

Pat West

Pat West
Pat West

Pat West

Joint Venture Partner

Pat West is a veteran city manager and transformative public sector leader with nearly four decades of experience in California municipal government. As Joint Venture Partner at EKA, Pat brings unmatched expertise in redevelopment, entitlement processes, and the inner workings of city government, particularly during times of crisis and economic uncertainty.

Throughout his 39-year public service career in the Gateway Cities region of Southeast Los Angeles County, Pat has served in both small contract cities and large charter cities, holding a wide range of department head positions and serving 23 years as a City Manager. He earned national recognition for his innovative and community-focused leadership.

As City Manager of Paramount, Pat helped reverse the city’s status as one of the most distressed in the nation, leading an award-winning transformation through creative zoning and redevelopment strategies. In 2005, he was appointed Executive Director of the Redevelopment Agency and Director of Community Development for the City of Long Beach—California’s sixth-largest city—at a time when Long Beach was facing its most significant economic crisis in a generation. The collapse of the aerospace industry, once the region’s dominant economic engine, left vast tracts of land vacant and thousands unemployed. Simultaneously, the closure of the Long Beach Naval Base by the federal government further devastated the city’s economy, creating widespread blight, soaring unemployment, and a significant shortfall in city revenues.

Amid these challenges, Pat led efforts to stabilize and revitalize the city, eventually serving as Long Beach City Manager. Under his leadership, the city achieved its lowest-ever crime and unemployment rates and successfully completed a $520 million Civic Center development through a groundbreaking public-private partnership.

Widely respected for his vision, calm under pressure, and ability to unite stakeholders, Pat now applies his knowledge to help clients navigate complex challenges at the intersection of policy, politics, and economic development.

Kathryn Randazzo

Kathryn Randazzo
Kathryn Randazzo

Kathryn Randazzo

Director

Kathryn is a dedicated professional with a distinct expertise in the intricate domains of land use, urban planning, and permitting. Kathryn diligently delves into the dynamic landscape of city codes, meticulously analyzes evolving planning trends, diligently monitors the ever-shifting terrain of state legislation, and actively participates in local meetings to remain informed about planning and land use issues.

Collaborating closely with clients, Kathryn navigates the complex maze of bureaucracy within both Los Angeles City and County, deftly facilitating applications encompassing special event permits, urban lot splits, conditional use permits, and an assortment of other essential permissions.

Beyond her formidable command of procedural intricacies, Kathryn helps clients navigate the environmental intricacies intertwined with planning and land use. Kathryn is also knowledgeable in the environmental side of planning and land use, including CEQA, environmental impact reports, hazard mitigation and coastal policy.

Kathryn brings a wealth of experience to her role, having previously held a pivotal position under Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers. During her tenure, she played a crucial role in establishing the Governor’s Committee on Climate Change and was instrumental in staffing numerous committees. Kathryn has also contributed her expertise to local campaigns in Southern California. Kathryn previously worked in Human Relations at her undergraduate university.

Kathryn earned her Master of Urban Planning from the University of Southern California. She earned her bachelor’s in political science and environmental studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

 
 

Lia Baghoumian

Lia Baghoumian
Lia Baghoumian

Lia Baghoumian

Senior Executive Assistant

213-741-1500, ext. 538

Lia serves EKA as a Senior Executive Assistant bringing her experience that culminates over thirteen years. Lia began her professional growth by studying English literature at California State University, Northridge. She began her administrative career working with National TeleConsultants for over a decade. Now as a part of the team working with EKA, Lia has brought her versatile skill set to apply in her executive role.

Lia is a Los Angeles native and currently resides in Glendale.