Corporate Team

Lauri is proudly of Filipino descent and grew up in the aloha state of Hawaii. Lauri's business passion and focus is on making G|M customers happy. She studied at University of Hawaii, majoring in Travel Industry Management. Lauri has been involved with G|M since 1989, originally managing the purchasing and order entry department. As CEO, Lauri provides leadership for growth, fiscal responsibility and empowers and encourages the well-being, engagement and career trajectories of our talented G|M’er team members. Lauri’s life interests include charitable endeavors, reading, art, music and travel.

Educated at UC Riverside with a major in business, Steve was a restaurateur from 1979 to 1989 with Bobby McGee’s USA and as District Supervisor operated (5) locations with 500 team members including Honolulu, San Diego, Burbank, Mission Viejo and San Bernardino. In 1989, Steve shifted his career to workplace strategy and furniture planning to become the Herman Miller dealer in the Inland Empire, founding G|M. Leveraging hospitality work ethic, service and people skills Steve added specialized technology and created a vertically integrated, rapid response, client first enterprise dedicated to design, pride of craft and client happiness. Steve’s role is to provide vision, executional resources and training to support our engaged team members in achieving their goals and dreams. Our G|M family has grown from our original 5 team members to over 275 in four SoCal locations. Steve’s off work interests include golf, boating, business & history reading.

Jason was born in Tacoma, WA to an Air Force family starting a journey of being raised all over the world. The military took his childhood to Washington, Germany, Texas, & Alaska before moving his senior year of High School to Southern California. While enrolled in Riverside Community College pursing a degree in healthcare, Jason’s plans ended up changing as he began his career at G|M Riverside in 2007 as a Project Application Specialist. In early 2008 he transferred to the new San Diego location and began splitting time between an Account Executive Role and Design in 2009. It became a full-time position in 2010 through 2017 in which Jason was constantly one of the company’s top performers. In 2018, he moved into the Vice President of Workplace Success role where he is leading & overseeing all “Sales Activity” in our San Diego region and growing not only business, but our team as well. One of the things he is most proud of is how team members have been able to grow and move up and be successful in the company under his leadership and guidance.

Jason is married to Jessica and has two amazing daughters, Lorelei & Dahlia. He enjoys spending time in the mountains, enjoying the outdoors with his family. And rooting on the Seattle Seahawks and sharing that joy with family and fellow 12’s.

Danette was born in Denver, Colorado, the oldest of 4. Upon graduating from Colorado State University in 1987 with a Bachelor’s of Science degree in interior design, she moved to Massachusetts where she started her career working for the Department of Interior – National Park Service on a historical renovation of the Boott Cotton Mills into a National Park museum. She moved back to Colorado in 1992 and worked for Davis Partnership designing interiors for medical office buildings, community colleges and corporate environments. It was during her 5 years at Davis Partnership where she learned she had a passion for design and understanding of it’s power in place. In 1998 Danette moved to California to work for HOK to help launch the Irvine office. She then joined Carrier Johnson and held a Director, Sr. Associate and design principal position and worked for “CJ” for almost 19 years. Danette joined GMBI in 2018 as their V.P. of interior Construction and leads the interior construction division DIV13 to provide prefabricated architectural solutions to our clients.

In her 29 year career, Danette has led projects ranging from 1,000SF to 465,000SF, both renovation and ground up, in areas of commercial, higher education, multifamily, healthcare, bio-tech and retail design. Danette has co-taught and lectures at local interior design schools as well as held a Board of Directors position for IIDA SoCal. She is NCIDQ certified.

Josh grew up in Orange County, California, living the quintessential Southern California lifestyle – camping, surfing and waterskiing in the summer, and hitting the fresh powder at Mammoth Mountain in the winter. During his junior year in high school, Josh discovered his love for great design when he and his father began a project of restoring and hot-rodding a classic 1953 Studebaker from the ground up, learning about the industrial designer, Raymond Loewy in the process. From there, Josh studied Industrial Design at California State University, Long Beach before working as an intern at a Los Angeles-based commercial furniture dealership where he spent the next 18 years developing his skills in workplace design. Josh’s passion lies in the process of discovery and taking his clients through the intricacies of planning their perfect space, weaving their DNA into every detail of their furnishings. Later, Josh would lead the design department for 8 years before joining G|M as Director of Workplace Success. In his role, he leads workplace discovery and design for clients while bringing his passion and knowledge for good design to the rest of the G|M team.

Josh now enjoys sharing the lifestyle he loves so much with his wife Keiko and 3 children, Kai, Miya, and Mei – camping and traveling across this beautiful state and enjoying all the outdoor activities California has to offer. In the summer, you’ll often find him with his family on adventures in his wife’s home country of Japan.

Candice was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan where she spent her entire childhood. Upon high school graduation, her father decided to pursue his passion in becoming an office furniture dealer and relocated the family to Fresno, California. Candice would later attend California State University, Fresno and graduate with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration. She began her career in the furniture industry working for her father’s Steelcase dealer, Peninsula Business Interiors. In 2012, Candice jumped into a manufacturer role and moved south to San Diego for Herman Miller. While at Herman Miller, Candice enjoyed new business development and ultimately led the Herman Miller team for the San Diego and the Inland Empire regions. Candice recently joined G|M in 2022 as the Director of Workplace Success. In her role, she leads the Account Executive team in San Diego and focuses on business development where she can pursue her passion of making a difference.

Candice is married to Brandon and together they have two daughters, Cayla and Maci. She is actively involved as a Board Member in the foundation that supports her daughters’ school and has been serving as a Girl Scout Troop Leader since 2016. Candice also enjoys reading, crafting with her girls, and traveling.

Michaela Stein has spent the past 15+ years in the professional landscapes of musical theatre, opera, and workplace design. With a BFA in Theatrical Design and an MFA in Stage Design for Theatre and Film from the University of Nebraska Lincoln, Michaela thrives in creative atmospheres. Her career path includes a unique set of skills acquired by being a Scenic Designer, Costume Designer, Scenic Artist, Workplace Designer, Account Executive, and today – Market Director. Her versatility is evident in her six-year tenure at G|M, where she has contributed to both the design and sales departments. Michaela takes pleasure in constructing immersive narratives by seamlessly blending functional and beautiful design elements, ensuring her clients' stories resonate in the spaces she creates. Outside her professional commitments, Michaela shares a harmonious life with her husband, surrounded by the melodious presence of his musical instruments. With no children or pets, their world serves as a canvas for shared creativity and passion. Michaela's unwavering dedication to storytelling through space and aesthetics remains a driving force as she continues to evolve both professionally and personally.

Josie received her Bachelor of Science Degree in Accounting in 1983 followed by her CPA license in 2003. She began her finance/accounting career as a staff accountant with a local CPA firm in 1983 and accepted an accountant/auditor position at the Press Enterprise Newspaper in 1990. Following her last position at The Press-Enterprise as Director of Financial Planning and Revenue Accounting, Josie joined the G|M team in 2013 as the Director of Accounting and quickly became the CFO/VP of Accounting in 2015. In her current role, Josie is responsible for G|M’s overall financial and cash flow management including the company’s financial, forecast reporting and internal control. Additionally, she is tasked with providing our clients order and billing information accurately and timely, ensuring accurate inventory management, and supporting all management activities to achieve collective profitability goals.

Josie speaks (4) languages including Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese and English.

Tammy was born and raised in Southern California, graduating from John W. North High School followed by additional education at Riverside Community College. Her professional career began with the County of Riverside Dept. of Social Services for 10 years working in the Facilities Dept. where she was initially exposed to G|M. She joined the G|M team in 1999 as a Purchasing Assistant and subsequently worked her way up and became Purchasing Manager. Her clerical knowledge and experience with detail offered her the opportunity to become Director of Administrative Operations & Purchasing in 2016. She has extensive knowledge of G|M’s processes and thrives on helping others achieve their workplace goals. She takes great pride in her achievements both at G|M and at home. She enjoys working with animals, reading, sewing, and has learned sign language. She is a proud wife of 29 years to Alex with a 23 year old daughter and can be found enjoying time with family whenever possible.

Shellie was born in San Bernardino, CA and later raised in Riverside, CA. She attended University of California, Riverside and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology. While attending UC Riverside, Shellie started a college job that turned into a 12-year career with Nordstrom. At Nordstrom, Shellie learned the value of customer service, and that taking care of the customer is always the right thing to do. While at Nordstrom, Shellie attended The Art Institute of California, Orange County and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Interior Design. Shellie was hired by G|M Business Interiors in 2014 as an Account Manager Administrator (now Job Captain). At G|M, Shellie has moved through the Job Captain department, promoting to Assistant Manager and then to Department Manager, and now to Director of Client First Sales Operations where she gets to live her passion of taking care of the client.

Shellie has two children, Olivia (13) and Caden (11). She loves spending time supporting her kids in school and after school activities. Family is everything, so in her spare time, Shellie spends time with those she is closest to.

Louana was born in the Middle Eastern country of Kuwait and spent her early childhood there, before relocating with her parents to their native country of India for a couple of years. Her family immigrated to the US when Louana was 11 years old, and she grew up in Riverside, CA.

Louana graduated from the University of California in Riverside with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Human Resources. She also completed an in-depth certificate program in Human Resources Management at the University of California in Irvine.

Louana joined G|M Business Interiors in 2020 and is currently responsible for leading and overseeing all Human Resources functions including compliance and change management, employee relations, talent acquisition and onboarding, training and development, compensation and benefits administration, and wellness and safety. She has more than 20 years of previous work experience supporting mid-size companies in the manufacturing and construction industries, where she successfully developed and implemented targeted initiatives to achieve business objectives.

Louana is married to her childhood sweetheart, Ryan, and they are blessed with 3 wonderful children – Julia, Nathan and Lily. Together, they enjoy traveling, exploring new places and spending time with their very large extended family.