Management Team

Our leadership team supports operations, our clients and our families through a passionate dedication to the CCLC mission.

Ty Durekas, Chief Executive Officer
Fran Durekas, Founder and Chief Development Officer
Pam Belli, V.P. of Finance
Melinda Martel, V.P. of Human Resources
Sheila Niehaus, V.P. of Operations
Ruth White, Senior Director Client Services & Marketing
Cindy de la Pena O’Mara, Senior Director, New Center Development
Deepa MacPherson, Senior Director, Employee Relations

Ty Durekas, Chief Executive Officer
Ty is responsible for overseeing the overall quality of CCLC’s center operations and has been with CCLC for 14 years. For the past seven years his responsibilities have included managing facility development, human resources, finance and supporting client development. Ty is focused on ensuring that all of our centers meet NAEYC standards. He has been active in the child care field for 14 years and has championed several innovative approaches related to increasing the availability, quality and affordability of care for families. In April 2005, Ty applied for and was awarded a grant so CCLC could integrate low income families into quality child care settings by the First 5 Commission of Monterey.

Prior to CCLC, Ty spent ten years developing products and key accounts for the semiconductor industry; most notably managing a critical multi-million dollar business unit. In the 1990’s, Ty developed international sales strategies and offices throughout Asia and Europe for large multi-national technology companies including Applied Materials and Sony. Ty earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science from San Jose State University.

Fran Durekas, Founder & Chief Development Officer
Fran is a graduate of the California Polytechnic University in San Luis Obispo and holds a degree in Human Development. She has been in the child care industry for more than 20 years and has been an active member of state and national child care organizations including the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).

Fran has extensive experience working with clients from concept through development to opening, and has provided project management expertise to dozens of child care centers throughout her career.

She is an active member of the PAEYC, an advisor to CAEYC on conference presentations, a board member of the California Polytechnic State University’s Child Development Department; actively involved in the Alliance for Work/Life Professionals and has been certified through Boston College’s Work/Life Program. She is also on the Child Care Partnership Council for San Mateo County and serves on the Quality Committee for Preschool for All. In October 2005 she was chosen as the Alumni of the Year at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo for her contributions to the field of Early Childhood Development.

Fran has had all three of her children at CCLC and enjoys not only being the Founder, but also seeing our programs from a parent’s perspective.

Pam Belli, Vice President of Finance
Pam is responsible for broad financial management including day-to-day forecasting, budgeting and accounting. In addition, she will lead the strategic planning and implementation of projects that will drive the financial performance of the company. Pam comes to CCLC from Intel where she was most recently the Finance Enterprise Services Controller. She was responsible for a $1.8B budget for more than 10,000 employees. With her multi-site, multi-national experience, she will play an integral part in identifying and executing assessment of new business opportunities and transaction evaluations.

Prior to Intel, Pam held positions of increasing responsibility in areas of financial analysis, strategic planning and mergers and acquisitions with Orca Capital Corporation, NationsBank, and Prudential Bank and Trust Co. Pam received her MBA from Fuqua School of Business, Duke University and her bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Nevada, Reno.

Melinda Martel, Vice President of Human Resources
Melinda Martel recently joined our team as CCLC’s new Vice President of Human Resources. Melinda comes to us with over 10 years’ experience in a variety of HR roles, including her most recent role as Director of Human Resources with QualComm, Inc. She has experience with cultural change leadership, transition management, organizational development, succession planning and relating HR strategy to business results. Melinda will be relocating with her family to Portland from San Diego. As VP of HR, Melinda will be leading our HR initiatives and working with all departments to provide an HR strategy for CCLC that will help us provide the high-touch environment that we all strive towards.

Sheila Niehaus, Vice President, Operations
Already experienced in the field of child care, Sheila joined KinderCare Learning Centers in 1986 as a District Manager in Michigan, and subsequently served as District Manager for KinderCare@Work in support of 15 on-site centers across seven states. She has held positions of increasing responsibility throughout her lengthy tenure with KLC, including Region Vice President over six Midwestern states, and she played a critical role in the highly successful integration of the field organizations of KinderCare and KLC during their merger in 2005.

Most recently, Sheila accepted a position with CCLC as the Vice President of Center Operations, overseeing all centers within our fourteen regions. Sheila earned her B.S. in Human Resources and Family Studies from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Ruth White, Senior Director Client Services & Marketing
Ruth ensures that our clients receive quality service and that we are responsive to the needs of each organization with whom we partner. Ruth manages our Client Services, Marketing and National Programs teams. She oversees our internal and external marketing efforts and our national specialized dependent care programs. Ruth joined CCLC in 2006, bringing with her more than 15 years of experience in client service and process management to deliver excellent client relationships to numerous industries including many Fortune 500 companies. Previous roles include VP Program Development, VP Client Services and Director of Process and Planning as well as a variety of account and client management positions. Her responsibilities have included establishing and maintaining client relationships, managing company growth, development of operational policies and goals and inspiring and coaching staff members. Ruth earned her Master’s of Business Administration focused on Innovation and Technology from Portland State University.

Cindy de la Pena O'Mara, Senior Director, New Center Development
Cindy started with CCLC in 1992 and has been instrumental in developing several areas of the company including human resources, operations and client management. Cindy excels at working with CCLC's clients and their employees to design services that meet each organization’s specific needs. Cindy has developed many of the innovative employer programs that CCLC offers.

She is an active member of several Work/Life and Professional Child Care Organizations including the Alliance for Work Life Professionals (AWLP), World at Work and the National Association of Education for Young Children (NAEYC). Cindy has served as a NAEYC accreditation validator, presents at workshops on the national and state level as well as works with other child care professionals on quality environments for staff and children. Cindy holds a certificate from Harvard University School of Design with a focus on Child Care Centers and she earned her Bachelor's degree in Education from San Jose State University.

Deepa MacPherson, Senior Director of Human Resources
Deepa is responsible for various human resources functions for the organization. Ms. MacPherson has been with the company since 1993 and has contributed to various functions such as multi-site management and curriculum development. She works closely with the managers and employees to develop innovative systems for staff retention and overall employee satisfaction. She is very active in the early childhood field and works with staff in continuing their education. She earned her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Psychology from University of California, Irvine and later earned her Master's Degree in Child Development at San Jose State University. Additionally Ms. MacPherson has earned her Human Resources Management Certificate from UC Santa Cruz and is SPHR certified.

Ms. MacPherson has taught child development courses at various community colleges as well as San Jose State University. Her master's thesis was entitled "Childrearing Practices in Asian Indians, American Asian Indians, and Euro-American Parents". Her research in this area has helped various families in our programs. She has served as a highly respected NAEYC Validator, has presented at professional conferences and is the Secretary for the Peninsula Affiliate for the NAEYC. She is also an active member of the Northern California Human Resource Association.