Don Cortez – Founder & President

Don Cortez is from the Oakland Bay Area.  He earned his master’s degree from San Francisco State University in 1973 and went on to coach college football.  Don brought his family back to the Bay Area in 1985, became a licensed real estate agent and founded AA Professional Communications in Hayward California.  After growing the business with his partner from 4 clients to hundreds, Don began acquire answering services from the Bay Area to Reno, NV.

Peter Vander Aa III – Chief Financial Officer

Pete earned his bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Central University in Michigan in 1980.  He spent the majority of his career in operations for Frito-Lay working both in the Houston and Chicago markets.  After retiring from Frito-Lay, he built a successful silk plant and tree retail and wholesale business which he operated for 10 years in Toledo, Ohio.  In 2003, Pete accepted the position of financial officer for Tel-Com and moved to Reno. He has been largely responsible for the successful Tel-Com acquisitions.

Mary Francis – Operations Manager

Mary earned her legal secretary credentials at Heald’s College in the Bay Area.  She became a legal secretary for Bank of America world headquarters downtown San Francisco in 1980.  Mary has held positions in property management and answering service in the Bay Area.  She was executive administrator for ResCare in 1988. In 2000, she moved to Reno and took the position of executive administrative assistant for United Way.  In 2009, Mary accepted the position of Operations Manager for Tel-Com.

Dolores Vander Aa – Marketing & New Business Development

Dolores earned her degree in Human Relations Organizational Behavior from the University of San Francisco in 1984.  Since then she has held management and marketing positions for General Foods in SF, Frito-Lay Chicago, ADVO – Detroit (now Red Plum direct mail) and Yellow Book, Reno. In 2009 Dolores started her own marketing and advertising agency, Print & Design Factory, of which Tel-Com was a key client.  In January 2011 Dolores accepted the position of New Business Development Director.

Tara Cayton – Regional Marketing & Sales Manager, SF

Tara graduated from Santa Clara University in 1992 with a BA in Mass Communications.  In 2006 she received her Master’s in Integral Psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) in San Francisco. Tara has over 15 years experience in Marketing, Advertising, Broadcast Media, Technology and Promotions and worked for one of the biggest ad agencies in the world, Initiative Media’s Promotion House in SF. Tara came on board with Tel-Com to cultivate and grow the business in Northern California.

Jamie Cortez Ingram – Account Executive, Sacramento

Jamie earned her BS from CSU Hayward in Kinesiology.   She has held several head coaching positions from the Bay Area to Sacramento, and even taken her teams to the Junior Olympics.  Growing up in her father’s business, gives Jamie 19 years of experience which makes her one of our most valuable players when it comes to understanding the needs of our clients.  She has personally worked with hundreds of Tel-Com clients as an account executive as well as an operator.