Ethiopian born, college educated in the United States and now a proud Arcadia Rotarian, Daniel Yohannes is an engineer who works with Aaron Rose. More on this later.
While attending high school in Ethiopia, Daniel applied for an AFS scholarship as an exchange student, which was supposed to be for a year in the United States. Well that year was extended because the Communists took over Ethiopia and Daniel could not return. Daniel applied for citizenship and ultimately attended Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas. He had a dual major, but specialized in electrical engineering. His brothers were in school in California, so it was an easy decision to come to California, where he attended Cal State LA. After graduation, his first job was with the City of Los Angeles, Department of Building and Safety. His job was to review products being used in buildings and test them.
He became interested in “power engineering” and thus went to work for the Department of Water and Power of the City of Los Angeles. With deregulation taking place, which was to create competition between power companies, just the opposite occurred and so he left Water and Power.
He then started GEI, Inc. a company that was involved with marketing electrical components and sales. The business attracted large corporations such as Carrier Corporation, involving air conditioning units.
Leaving that company, he started ecads-na-green energy with Aaron Rose. The company markets Solar Panels, LED lights and Relays. The focus of the business is on these three products with major corporations as customers. Solar energy and green energy are the major aspects of the company in that the idea is to market products that require less power and thus less drain on resources to power these products.
Daniel is married, wife Sarah and has two sons. Great job Daniel!

Jon Richards was born in Pasadena and attended Arcadia High School. He is happy to be back in Arcadia, working on land reclamation.
Jon attended BYU and after graduation started in the construction business. After that he started the Jon Richards Company and retired in 1995. That didn’t last long. He then was involved in the United Hardwoods Company, a company which did flooring.
While in Barcelona with his wife Maria, he came up with an idea about women’s undergarments and how to make them invisible to the casual observer.
A year ago he returned to Arcadia and started to work for Arcadia Reclamation Company. He resigned in December, but continues to work for it as a Special Projects Consultant. Currently, they are working on filling an 87 acre site in Arcadia near El Monte. This was a sand and gravel pit and it is gradually being filled 12 inches at a time. As a part of the project, the company is required to secure the abutments and slopes adjacent to Lower Azusa Road. Critical to the work is the compaction rate, because ultimately this site can be used for building construction of offices, plants or housing. There are over 700 truckloads of material than are dumped on site daily, however the project is only half complete before the pit is filled and stabilized.
The Jon Richards Company is still in business fabricating structures for theme parks, such as California Adventure and Knotts Berry Farm. The fabrication process utilizes drawings prepared by the company, materials such as plastics, foam products, and acrylics, and the assembly of the materials into various works. The work is very creative, involving fabricated structures such as the Universal Studios Globe, the world’s largest Hour Glass and signs for Tejon Ranch. Many of the works created by the company are used in TV commercials.
Jon’s family includes Maria and three children. He loves Arcadia