Welcome to Second in Command, brought to you by COO Alliance, where top-level

COOs share their insights, tactics, and strategies that made them the chief behind the chief. And now, here and now here's your host, Cameron Herald.

Matthew.

Matthew Sabatini is the chief operating officer for a visit California, a non-profit

organization created to increase tourism and market California as a premier travel

destination. He oversees several departments managing the organization's 130 million dollar budget as well as financial policies and technology systems

With more than 14 years of experience at visit California, Matt has successfully led the

organization to continue its track record of 21 years of unqualified audits.

Matt has more than 20 years of operations and executive experience and is the recipient of the 2011 Business

Journal's CFO of the Year Award, a California native and an Auburn resident, Matt and his family

enjoy the state's abundance and love to travel.

Matt is also a former member of the CEO Alliance.

So Matt, welcome to the Second and Command podcast.

Thank you for having me.

Yeah, so tell us, I mean, it's funny when I think about, you know, marketing California as a tourist destination, I'm like,

dang, like you got one of the top three, like what do you got?

Like, California, Italy, and the Taj Mahal like where else like you know so so how

like what is it that they're trying to do and give us a little bit of an overview of

the of the organization because clearly I'm you know I

probably understate how important it is. Yeah I mean I think you know ultimately in the

most simplistic form we are trying to inspire travelers to come to California with you know intent of you know increasing the

tourism economy within California you know we have the largest tourism economy in the US. You know obviously our charge has

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