{"id":3446,"date":"2018-10-25T09:44:47","date_gmt":"2018-10-25T16:44:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogschapman.wpenginepowered.com\/business\/2018\/10\/25\/alumni-spotlight-robin-follman-otta-15\/"},"modified":"2018-10-25T09:44:47","modified_gmt":"2018-10-25T16:44:47","slug":"alumni-spotlight-robin-follman-otta-15","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/business\/2018\/10\/25\/alumni-spotlight-robin-follman-otta-15\/","title":{"rendered":"Alumni Spotlight: Robin Follman"},"content":{"rendered":"

Born and raised in Orange County, Robin Follman-Otta<\/a> is a Chief Executive Officer, wife, mother of two, a retired international operatic soprano, educator, and an entrepreneur. Robin performed as one of the top leading ladies in the operatic industry for more than 30 years throughout the world, and is one of the primary leading ladies to come out of Orange County.<\/p>\n

\"\"Robin has recently been the recipient of the Influential Leader Award<\/em><\/a> in 2018 by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB)<\/strong>. In 2017, the National Security Organization<\/strong> presented Robin with the Women in Defense \u201cService to the Flag Award.<\/em>\u201d Robin was honored by the Girl Scouts of America<\/strong> with the 2017 Celebrate Leadership Award<\/em>. She was recognized in 2016 by the Orange County Business Journal<\/em> (OCBJ)<\/strong> with the \u201cWomen in Business\u201d Award, and the \u201cLongevity Award \u2013 Family Owned Business.\u201d And has received other awards, including Artist of the Year<\/em> from Arts Orange County<\/strong>; and Outstanding Contributions in Education Through the Art<\/em>s from the Orange County Department of Education<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Since retiring from the arts world in 2012, Robin has led the team at Markall Inc<\/strong><\/a>. as CEO, along with its manufacturing arm, RA Industries, LLC<\/a>,<\/strong> as a privately held, woman- and minority-owned full-service engineering and fabrication completion center that has operated in Santa Ana, CA, for three generations, spanning more than 60 years. Markall is one of the top fabrication and repair centers in North America with highly refined experience in machining precision parts using exotic raw materials, including cobalt, nickel, Inconel, beryllium copper, titanium and thermoplastics. Markall serves the Aerospace & Defense; Commercial; Energy; Entertainment (Animatronics); and Medical industries and owns and occupies a 70,000 square-foot campus in Santa Ana that incorporates onsite specialized manufacturing facilities and an international repair center.\u00a0 The company also has a presence in Houston, TX, New Orleans, LA and Anchorage, AK.<\/p>\n

In addition to managing her family\u2019s manufacturing companies, she functions as Chief Operating Officer for their adventure destination fishing lodge in Alaska, Katmai Lodge<\/strong> <\/a>along the famed Alagnak River near the legendary Brooks Falls in the Katmai National Park.<\/p>\n

Ms. Follman-Otta received her AA degree locally at Saddleback College<\/strong> in Mission Viejo, California and her Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Indiana University, Bloomington<\/strong>. Taking advantage of Orange County\u2019s educational resources, Follman-Otta in 2015 earned an Executive MBA degree from Chapman University<\/strong>, and now serves as a Governor on the Chapman University<\/strong> Board of Governors as well as the Board of Counselors for the Argyros School of Business and Economics at Chapman University<\/strong>.\u00a0 She continues to support the arts community by serving as CEO of the Follman-Young Foundation for the Arts<\/strong><\/a>, a 501(c)3 public charity; founder and CEO of the Katmai Lodge Alaska and Markall Inc. Foundation for Disease & Disability Awareness<\/a>;<\/strong> being an active member of the Segerstrom Center of the Arts<\/strong> support group, Angels of the Arts; as well as acting in an advisory position to Pacific Symphony\u2019s<\/strong> Opera Support Task Force.\u00a0 For the past 2 years, Mrs. Follman-Otta has been designated by the Orange County Business Journal\u2019s<\/em><\/strong> (OCBJ) <\/strong>OC500 as one of the most influential people in the Orange County business community.<\/p>\n

Q&A with Robin<\/h3>\n

What is the most important lesson you learned from your parents?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Resilience. Resiliency, pick-up, dust off, keep going. That\u2019s what serves me every single day. In everything you do, do it right the first time and finish it completely. Don\u2019t let things hang. Because then it will haunt you.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What class had the biggest impact on you while at Chapman University?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Since I\u2019ve left, statistics and finance. And that\u2019s because I got through it. And just having knowledge of that gives me great confidence walking into a room.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What was your favorite TV show growing up?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Oprah. I love her, I met her once. I think I was 20 and I was performing. I was in the Disney\u2019s American Teacher\u2019s Awards, and I was one of the performers and she just sat there by herself in the wings. She was wonderful and amazing and inspiring.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What kinds of hobbies and interests do you have outside work?<\/strong><\/p>\n

My children. Because they\u2019re just, everything that has to do with them I want to take up myself. Whether it be sewing, any project for Girl Scouts. My son, they are my hobby they are what I choose to enjoy every day. For me, I do like to sew, I really enjoy sewing I don\u2019t get to do it very much.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Otta \u201915 – Argyros School EMBA Alumna, Executive, World-Class Soprano, Artistic Director and Entrepreneur<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1660,"featured_media":3452,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[130,11,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-argyros-alumni","category-news","category-graduate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1660"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}