I was born in New York City to my Guatemalan father who met my American mother, a first generation American born to two German Jewish refugees, in New York while here in the US studying for his PhD. When I was eight months old, we moved to Guatemala. We spent the next sixteen years moving around in Central America and Europe. I attended first grade at the US army base school in Karlsruhe, Germany. Six schools later, I went to a catholic co-ed high school, Academia del Perpetuo Socorro- Our Lady of Perpetual Help, in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Then I attended Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where although I started as a physics major, I ended up majoring in economics. After college, I worked for an advertising agency headquartered on Madison Avenue in New York City, McCaffrey and McCall, which was later acquired by Saatchi and Saatchi Advertising. Not happy, I applied for an International MBA program and spent a year studying at ESLSCA Paris Business School. On my way back home, I detoured to Israel, met the man who was destined to become the father of my children, and traveled with him throughout Australia and Asia.
When I was hired by an Israeli software start-up to head their US division, we settled down in the SF Bay Area. We sold that start-up to Intel Corp. After that, I ran an auto repair shop in Sunnyvale. During that time, I became an industry representative to the Bureau of Automotive Repair, chaired a taskforce on Governor Schwarzenegger's Conference on Entrepreneurship, and was the industry delegate to the Western Regional White House Conference.
In 2015, I ran for Redwood City City Council and more recently in 2022, I ran for California State Assembly D21. Professionally, I am a multilingual (English, French, Hebrew & Spanish), multicultural environmental entrepreneur. I helped build AirSpeQ, a particulate matter sensor developer in Berkeley CA funded by NASA, NSF and NIH. Most recently we launched BlueDesal, a Sausalito based start-up, commercializing small scale wave powered desalination pods to make water and energy affordable for everyone.
I have two children and three grandchildren. For thirteen years, I lived on the water at Docktown, on Redwood Creek. I have always been passionate about the environment and sustainable living.
Professional Linkedin profile: www.linkedin.com/in/taniasole
Being vocal:
India Smart Utility Week March. 2024
Speaking with others at the Planning CommissionMy comments are on at 10:41.