About The Team

Kilroy Realty Corporation (KRC) is proud to be the Title Sponsor for the inaugural Reading Partners Silicon Valley Celebrity Spelling Bee! KRC has successfully operated in West Coast commercial real estate markets for more than six decades. KRC has built deep experience in the region serving its many dynamic economic centers across multiple business cycles and operating environments. 

Team Kilroy Celebrity Spellers

This year Team Kilroy is proud to be represented on stage by:

Steve Sordello, CFO, LinkedIn. Steve oversees financial operations at LinkedIn. Previously, he served as Chief Financial Officer of two Nasdaq publicly-traded companies. In July 2007, Steve joined LinkedIn from TiVo, where he was part of the management team that delivered TiVo’s first-ever quarter of profitability. Prior to that, he was CFO for Ask Jeeves and helped lead the company through a transition from unprofitable back to a profitable, high-margin company. 

Eli Khouri, Executive Vice President and Chief Investment Officer, Kilroy Realty Corporation. Eli is responsible for the performance of the Company’s investment activities and capital allocations including acquisitions, development, redevelopment and dispositions. From 1991 to 2001, he served in various investment capacities at Spieker Properties (formerly NYSE: SPK), including Chief Investment Officer, where he was involved with the acquisition and development of over $5 billion of office and industrial assets as well as managing the company’s disposition and capital recycling program. 

Lisa Kim, an Emmy-award winning broadcast journalist and former anchor for NBC Bay Area. One of her fondest memories is covering the San Francisco Giants World Series Win in 2010. She has a wealth of experience not only on the local level, but at the network level as well. Before coming to the Bay Area, she anchored the news and hosted a weekly show on MSNBC. Lisa still has 'news in her blood' as she currently uses her expertise as a media relations specialist at Stanford Hospital. She also hosts and produces special projects for companies such as Ustream, Syntellia and Zynga.

More Info

Our Teams need your help!

Four brave teams have come together to support Reading Partners' students by competing in a celebrity Spelling Bee! The Teams will be up on stage trying to spell words like: ichthyophthirius and if they make a mistake, they will be eliminated from the game.... 

So, they need your help to purchase a "pass" to skip the worst of the words and stay in the game to become our students' spelling bee champions! Click on the team pages above to support one of your favorite celebrities and donate to a good cause. 

 

About the Spelling Bee

Date: June 3, 2013

Time: 6:30-8:30pm   

Location: Draper University, 44 E. 3rd Avenue, San Mateo CA, 94401

RSVP: http://rpsiliconvalley-celebritybee.eventbrite.com/ 

Presented By: Kilroy Realty

Team Sponsors:

  • Kilroy Realty
  • City National Bank
  • The Sobrato Organization
  • Katherine Morris 

Celebrity Spellers:

  • Harris Barton, San Francisco 49er
  • Tim Draper, Founder, Draper Fisher Jurvetson
  • Dave Goldberg, CEO, Survey Monkey
  • Carl Guardino, CEO, Silicon Valley Leadership Group
  • Lisa Kim, former NBC anchor
  • Sam Liccardo, San Jose City Council Member
  • Lisa Sobrato Sonsini, Sobrato Family Foundation Board President
  • Steve Sordello, CFO, LinkedIn
  • Mark Stevens, Managing Partner, S-Cubed Capital

Event Concept: The Reading Partners “Celebrity Spelling Bee” annual event is designed to be a fun, lighthearted engagement that brings together local luminaries and Team Sponsors to publicly celebrate Reading Partners’ students, volunteers, and community partners. Organized in a “game-show” fashion, the event pits teams against each other to compete on stage to be named the Reading Partners Spelling Bee Champion. 

Support our Students

I became familiar with Reading Partners 8 years ago when I became a tutor with the program. I was so impressed with how the program is run and the results they achieve that I joined their Silicon Valley regional board 4 years ago.  

The literacy challenge:  According to the U.S. Department of Education, 87% of 4th graders from low-income communities are reading below grade level. And yet, reading proficiency is the most critical skill for success later in life. Research has found that 3rd grade reading skills can predict high school graduation rates with 70% accuracy.  

Reading Partners:  Reading Partners recruits community members to tutor students one-on-one using an individualized reading plan and a structured curriculum. The program has amazing results: On average, students gain 1.6 months of reading skills for every month enrolled. Prior to enrollment, they were gaining skills at .6 months per month - meaning students more than double their rate of learning in the program. We are serving over 5,000 students across the US this year, and there is no other similar program that is achieving these results.  

Please make a gift and help me support our students!

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