Annette Maxwell
Founder and CEO

Military Brat  Born in Hawaii to a career military father and a Japanese immigrant mother, Annette was raised in North Carolina, Germany, Kentucky and California. This upbringing gave her an opportunity to experience different cultures first-hand and she continues to value and appreciate those differences today.  Annette’s childhood was anything but typical; she learned how to handle a 9mm handgun and shine combat boots before her first day of Kindergarten. One of her favorite childhood memories is watching a dozen transport planes flying by in formation and seeing hundreds of small, white parachutes popping open in their wake as the soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division (Fort Campbell, KY) trained to become paratroopers.

Education The fact that she was a straight-A student came as a surprise to her when her guidance counselor mentioned it at the end of Annette’s junior year of high school.  She graduated as Valedictorian and was nominated to two US Military Academies (and respectfully declined both nominations).  Instead, she chose to attend San Jose State University (San Jose, CA) and earned her BS in Computer Engineering. She holds a couple of noteworthy certificates: She’s a certified Project Management Professional (PMP®) and also is an instrument-rated Commercial Helicopter Pilot.

Work Experience Annette’s professional career began as a Firmware Engineer with Hewlett-Packard (now Agilent) where she helped to develop HP’s first modular Signal Analyzer.  After a decade with HP, she left to join a small company called StrataCom and designed high-speed switches for the telecommunications industry.  StrataCom later merged with a slightly larger company called Cisco Systems and helped it to grow into the hugely successful company it is today.  In the eleven years Annette was with Cisco, she held nine different positions; each one strengthened her skills, broadened her knowledge of business, business processes and interconnections and guided her towards becoming the strategist she is today.  She has held technical and non-technical positions, managed both technical and non-technical teams in the US, Japan and distributed teams world-wide.  And she’s just as comfortable working with C-level executives as she is with normal people 😉  Annette then ventured out on her own, enrolled in flight school and founded Nakama Enterprises.

Interests and Hobbies Annette is an instructor with the City of San Jose, Office of Emergency Services where she co-teaches Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) courses. She’s also a Disaster Services volunteer with the local chapter of the American Red Cross. In her spare time, Annette likes flying helicopters, vegetable gardening, cooking, playing volleyball, watching baseball and learning. Her favorite subjects are Astrophysics and Cosmology (not to be confused with Astrology and Cosmetology).  Annette’s favorite food is single-malt scotch.