When the Pacific Palisades Chamber of Commerce holds its 60th Annual Installation Dinner tonight at the Riviera Country Club, Technology for You! founder/owner Ramis Sadrieh will be sworn in as the Chamber’s new president. ‘I’m the first Mr. Palisades to become Chamber president,’ Sadrieh told the Palisadian-Post. Indeed, the 34 year-old technology expert, who grew up in Marquez and attended Palisades High School, was crowned 1993’s Mr. Palisades in 1993. Arnie Wishnick, the Chamber’s executive director, will welcome the new president with open arms. ‘Ramis has been in-training for the job since his college days at UCLA and Pepperdine,’ Wishnick told the Post. ‘He is ready to take charge. He has ideas. He’s got the energy. He’s got the get-up-and-go. He’s also very, very young!’   Sadrieh, a Chamber member for five years, has co-chaired such Chamber-sponsored events as May’s Community Expo, Palisades Pageant, the annual polo tournament, the Village Fair, and Holiday Ho-Ho-Ho. In addition, he has served as treasurer of the Palisades Americanism Parade Association for the last four years, and is a member of the Optimist Club. ‘I love the fact that I get to meet all sorts of people and converse with them,’ Sadrieh said. ‘I’m giving back to a community that I grew up in and that I adore.’ One of the first things Sadrieh wants to do as Chamber president is help stave off the effects of the global economic meltdown on the local level.   ’Promoting businesses in the community is vital,’ Sadrieh said. ‘It keeps the local economy going.’ To that end, ‘the Chamber board will be taking positions on different aspects of the business district and the community. Sometimes, there are things that require Chamber support, such as when the city expanded the hours for parking-meter enforcement and increased the cost. We, as a community, have written to the City Council to complain. The Chamber is going to take stronger positions on issues like this in our town. ‘In addition, I know I’ll be busy in every Chamber function and be involved.’ Sadrieh will succeed outgoing president Antonia Balfour, co-owner of Oasis Palisades in Marquez. ‘Not too many presidents do what Toni Balfour did this past year,’ Wishnick said. ‘And, she did everything successfully. She kept her board of directors happy. She kept her own business profitable. And, she gave birth to a sweet baby girl named Scarlett Isla. Let’s see if any president anywhere can top her achievements.’ ‘Toni is definitely a great figure in the Chamber of Commerce and I feel privileged to have worked with her,’ Sadrieh said. ‘And I hope she stays involved. She definitely had a flow. We got to discuss matters rather than put them on a backburner.’ Sadrieh, who founded Technology for You! in 2003, specializes in repairing computers and electronics and setting up home entertainment systems. Despite his youth, he doesn’t see an urgency to necessarily draw in a younger crowd to the Chamber’s board. ‘I don’t think youth is as important,’ he said, ‘as people who are serious business people and hungry to grow their business and help the community. The more effort you put into the community, the more you get back from it. I’m a classic example of that.’ The new president plans to be accompanied tonight by wife Sara and 15-month-old daughter Layla, as well as his parents, Dr. Khosrow and Fatemeh Sadrieh, D.D.S., who continue to live in the Palisades. ‘Tonight,’ Sadrieh said, ‘we get to dress up a little, have a great dinner, drop our guard and just have fun.’
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