The Family Business CEOs to Watch Class of 2024 comprises 20 exceptional business leaders who are charting the course for long-term success of their enterprises. They include members of the second through fifth generations of family ownership as well as non-family leaders.
Alysha Loumakis-Calderon
President & CEO | Second generation | ISYS Solutions Inc., Brea, Calif.
Alysha Loumakis-Calderon is president and CEO of ISYS Solutions Inc., which operates two businesses: ISYS Case Management and CareerSmart Learning. ISYS, founded in 1998 by her father, Chris Loumakis, provides nurse case management services to the workers’ compensation industry. CareerSmart Learning, launched under Loumakis-Calderon’s leadership in 2010, provides online continuing education to licensed healthcare professionals throughout the United States.
Loumakis-Calderon graduated from California State University Long Beach with a degree in social work and then worked in social services, assisting older adults struggling with mental illness. After obtaining her master’s degree from California State University Chico, she worked in the state of California’s Bureau of State Audits and later in the California Department of Social Services. She transitioned to the family business in 2010 to start CareerSmart Learning, then succeeded her father as president of both operating divisions in 2018.
Loumakis-Calderon is one of three sisters, all of whom hold operational roles with the company. As a second-generation leader, she has focused on strategically growing the business while safeguarding and enhancing the core values and culture established by the generation before.
During Loumakis-Calderon’s tenure as CEO, the company has doubled in size and expanded into new geographic service areas. Under her leadership, the company established a charitable activities committee, later rebranded as the Pay-It-Forward program, which creates opportunities for employees, customers and the company to contribute to causes important to them. She also established the Leadership Learning Lab program to help develop and cultivate new leadership talent.
Among other community service activities, Loumakis-Calderon is chairman of the board of directors of Family Enterprise USA (FEUSA), a non-profit that advocates on Capitol Hill for family businesses and the value they bring to the economy and local communities in which they serve.
“Alysha has helped FEUSA become more professional and strategic,” says Pat Soldano, FEUSA’s president. “She is thoughtful in her approach to business as well as the role her family, and other families, play in the business. She considers the impact of policy on the business, but also on the family, employees and the community.
“She has been very helpful to us at FEUSA by speaking out about the mission. She regularly comes to D.C. to meet with members of Congress and attends the Congressional Family Business Caucus meetings. She encourages and inspires others to talk to their members of Congress about their businesses and to become involved in the bipartisan legislative process.”
“Alysha has successfully led her family business from first to second generation and is setting the stage for a successful transition to third generation down the road,” says Tim Schultz, director of the California State University Fullerton Center (CSUF) for Family Business. “Under her leadership, they have built a new headquarters, expanded their service offerings and geographic reach, and made a significant impact in the community they serve with their Pay-It-Forward initiatives. Alysha is also a consistent supporter of the family business community as an active member of the CSUF Center for Family Business and chair of FEUSA.”
“I feel blessed for the opportunity to grow and build upon the business that my father created with such care, which has now had such a positive impact on the lives of thousands, ranging from the injured workers we help to empower to the customers we serve and our extended family of employees and their respective families, now spanning multiple generations,” Loumakis-Calderon says. “I always aspired to leadership positions because I love working with people and I take pride in serving others. But it wasn’t until I joined the family business after having a separate career that I truly realized what a gift family businesses are and what a privilege it is to steward ours for future generations of family and employees to benefit from.
“Serving our family business has given me a deeper passion and purpose than I ever would have been afforded in state service or corporate America.”