Michael Phares Official Bio...

Posted by Richard L. Roberts

Born in Los Angeles and raised in La Cañada where he graduated from an all-boy, Catholic high school as a decorated water polo player, singer and academian, Michael's ambition was to become a pastoral counselor. He attended Pepperdine University and was bit, however, by the business bug. He graduated with a degree in Psychology; emphases in philosophy, counseling and business. While he worked for Pepperdine in their Advancement Information Management division, he managed to set aside enough time to become a nationally ranked amateur bodyboard competitor; winning the West Coast Men's Championship. As coach of Pepperdine's surf team, his surfers also became a top notch team in the nation.

He became the Sales and Marketing Director for American International Inspections, a deputy building inspection firm. After growing the firm to the second largest in the Los Angeles area, he was transferred to manage the company's profit sharing portfolio proving to be a wise and successful investor. In 2000 he burned out, quit his job, dropped everything and found a job in the Five Cities area that was subsequently cancelled. He worked for awhile as a counselor for a boy's home in Nipomo, Wall Street Canyon Youth Ranch. Needing more money, he found a job as the general manager for AVC Cellular, and helped make it the number one independently owned Verizon store in downtown SLO. Moving along in his job career, he became the Sales & Marketing Manager for Malcolm DeMille, Inc., a Nipomo based company that manufactures luxury gifts, jewelry and monumental trophies for the PGA tours and top golf country clubs in the world. Next he became the international sales representative for an on line company, Experts-Exchange.com, that provides on line tech support for programming, coding, system administration, etc, and is the top online repository of tech information in the world. Recently he was courted by BridgePoint Custom Strategies' owner and Senior Strategist, Adi Ringer to serve as the company's Business Development & Marketing Manager in charge of branding the company, increasing community exposure, proliferating target market penetration, and growing the company.

Mike is an Ambassador for the Grover Beach Chamber of Commerce, on the Board of Directors for the San Luis Obispo Creative And Marketing Alliance, a member of the San Luis Obispo Chamber of Commerce's Legislative Council and Technology Advisory Committees, a member of SofTec, a member of SLO Tech Brew, a charter member of the Nipomo Optimists, charter member of the Christian Surfers of Pismo Beach, member of the Christian Surfing Federation, and a member of the Surfrider Foundation. He is also the HS Youth Director at Harvest Bible Fellowship in Arroyo Grande and an ordained minister. He recently moved to GroverBeach from Nipomo. "I like GroverBeach. It's quiet, has a diversity of businesses, temperate climate, a great family feel and most important, it's close to the ocean." Married to Michelle (5-years on Feb 19th); daughter, Madilyn, almost 2, and another (Makenna) on the way (due April 10th).