Board Biographies

Northstar Property Owners Association is the governing body of the association and consists of 7 elected volunteers.  They are elected by members of the association and serve 2 year terms with a 3 successive term limit. 

Want to learn more about our directors?  While they are frequent guests of the recreation center and live in Northstar, click on any members of our board to learn more!

Jackie Apple, President

When I was a teenager, my family purchased an Indian Hills condominium. Over 40 years later we are still enjoying our time in that same condo. My husband and I and our two college age girls have spent many summers and ski vacations here at Northstar taking advantage of the outdoor activities.

I grew up in San Francisco and attended college at UC Berkeley. While working on the east coast, I received my MBA from Georgetown University. My marketing career was predominately in the financial services sector with stints at Citibank and Charles Schwab. Yet, one of the most interesting and rewarding jobs I held was as the Merchandising Director for the North Face launching in store concept shops throughout the US and Canada.

While taking time to raise my two daughters, I decided to pursue my passion for cooking by attending The Tante Marie Cooking School in San Francisco in 2008. Since then, I have been teaching private in-home cooking classes, and am part of the teaching staff at The Civic Kitchen Cooking School in San Francisco. In addition to working as a cooking teacher, I also manage our family-owned residential apartment buildings in San Francisco.

With my husband recently retired and my flexible work schedule, we plan to spend more and more time at Northstar.  I am looking forward to serving on the board and continuing to improve our NPOA community. As a NPOA board member I hope to represent the concerns of all homeowners and ensure our amenities continue to improve and serve our community.



Paul Schumacher, Vice President

My wife Edna and I first visited Northstar in the mid-1970’s. After my father built a home on Beaver Pond in 1978, Northstar was our family’s vacation location for the next four decades. We became co-owners of the Beaver Pond home in the mid-1990’s and purchased our home on Skidder Trail in February 2010. Our five children, and now their children, have all enjoyed Northstar and its wonderful facilities. Northstar is truly our family’s home away from home.

Professionally, I spent 15 years in the produce industry, mostly in senior management for a subsidiary of Del Monte Corporation, then based in San Francisco. During that period, I was based in Guatemala, Costa Rica, Miami, and ultimately Los Angeles, where beginning in 1979 I attended law school at night at Loyola Law School. Subsequently, I spent three decades as an attorney with a focus on commercial litigation, primarily representing medium to large financial services companies in court and arbitration. For most of those 30 years, I was a partner at three laws, including spending my last 12 years with Greenberg Traurig, a Miami-based firm of approximately 2,000 attorneys. I retired in early 2018.

I am very pleased to now be a member of the NPOA Board of Directors and hope to apply my business and legal experience on the issues that face all Northstar homeowners. My focus will be to protect the interests of all homeowners, while looking to promote improvements to our great community.



Mark Patel, Secretary/Treasurer


Colette Findley, Director

My connection to our community goes back 25 years to when my family bought their first of many properties in Northstar.  I have countless cherished memories of time spent here with friends and family over the years – it was our mountain sanctuary, far away from the hustle and bustle of the big city.  Fast forward to recent history when my husband and I, on a bit of a whim, decided we wanted to live in Tahoe full time – we bought our own retreat in Northstar in 2018, moved to the mountains and we’ve never looked back.

Professionally, I’m an event producer and project manager with a bachelor’s degree in Finance from Santa Clara University.  I started my career in film production, where I spent over twenty years in Los Angeles producing hundreds of award-winning commercials and high-profile music videos.  In 2015, I pivoted my career and currently produce corporate events – everything from multi-day educational conferences to private parties and concerts.

I’m very pleased to be joining the NPOA Board of Directors – I find working on Boards incredibly rewarding and take joy in the contribution I’m able to make to the community.  In addition, being a full-time resident of Northstar puts me in the unique position to really understand the challenges that our community faces.  As our community continues to evolve and change, I will put a spotlight on ensuring the Board is looking ahead and addressing how we can create a vision for the future.

 



Steve Klei, Director

My wife Katy and I have been married for 35 years and have 4 children who are now young adults and have a love of Northstar like we do. It is our stated intent to pass on our home to them as a legacy. This creates the deep desire to engage, contribute, improve and influence what happens here.

We both grew up in Michigan got married in Michigan in December 1983 (on my wife’s graduation day from college) and immediately came to Lake Tahoe for our honeymoon and never moved back!

One of the first ski resorts we ever visited was Northstar and we have been coming ever since, finally buying our own place in 2003. We have seen all the progress and LOVE it. Our primary residence has been in Pleasanton, CA, but with our kids now grown and my work transitioning to more advisory work vs full-time operating roles, we will be spending a large amount of our time in Northstar.

Northstar living has been an awesome experience and it keeps getting better, especially now that we can spend more time here at Northstar.

Our family is passionate about the environment at Northstar. We love skiing, boarding, fly fishing, hiking, biking and kayaking as well as just relaxing and hanging out at our home, in the village and Truckee.

My focus and a key reason why I am motivated to serve on the Board is to ensure Northstar continues to improve, enabling it to maintain its current reputation as one of the most sought after areas of North Lake Tahoe and keep its special family oriented focus and reputation. I believe the bar is continually being raised around us and we must ensure we meet and exceed the expectations of current and prospective homeowners who are so proud of this community.

I have 20 years of executive CFO experience leading in high growth founder-led entrepreneurial environments for 5 successful fast growing, primarily SaaS based companies – both public and private. I have managed tremendous growth – having joined companies in the earlier stages between $7M and $30M in revenue. I am one of a few CFOs to have grown two SaaS companies to over $125M of recurring revenue, seeing growth that few others have experienced, with my most recent company growing 10x from $40M to $400M in 4 years . I have raised >$700M in capital to fund growth over a dozen different times and has led the acquisition of 10+ companies to augment organic growth. Finally, I have led a successful IPO and the ultimate successful acquisition of 4 different companies creating almost $2 billion in value for shareholders (Kabam, Jigsaw, Zantaz, ProBusiness).

I am active in a Board of Director capacity for 3 different SaaS software companies and on the Advisory Board for 2 Companies including Demandbase, Tribe Dynamics, ThinkHR, Silicon Valley Bank and Ceevra. These Boards provide me the experience to operate as a trusted advisor to management as well as provide the appropriate leadership and strategic direction necessary to move the Association forward.

I am a CPA starting my career with Ernst & Young, receiving a degree in Accounting from Central Michigan University.



Chris Somers, Director

I have over 25+ years of industry experience as a Principal in the US Wealth business based in San Francisco and focused primarily on Northern California, Hawaii and the Pacific Northwest specializing in Defined Contribution and Defined Benefit plans.  I work with plan sponsors who manage retirement programs and help them mitigate fiduciary risk while consulting on overall strategy, vendor management, investment consulting and plan design.

Prior to joining Mercer, I have worked at AIG, Lincoln Financial, PIMCO, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Fidelity Investments, and Ernst & Young in the US and EMEA.

I am a graduate of Marist College in Poughkeepsie, NY where I studied Communications and Russian, and went to St. Mary’s College in Moraga, CA for an MBA in International Business.   I hold FINRA 6, 7, 24, 26 and 66 licenses along with Life and Health.

I am happily married to my wife, Ruthann for 32 years!  Together, we have two boys – Chris (age 30) and John (age 29).

I live in Fairfield, CA and have our home up here in Northstar.  I am an avid skier and love to travel almost as much as skiing.



Al Roth, Director