John Emerson

John Emerson, before he began managing “some of your 201(k)s,” served in the Clinton White House. He was the go-to person for all things California, helping guide the response to the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

Q. What do you wake up to?
A. NPR News. Then I turn on channel four and “The Today Show.”

Q. What is your favorite word?
A. Yikes!

Q. What inspires you?
A. Great leadership, and seeing normal, everyday people doing extraordinary things.

Q. What comforts you?
A. Hanging out with my three girls. Also mashed potatoes, gravy and roast chicken.

Q. What do you consider beautiful?
A. The mountains. Music in Disney Hall. I don’t like that atonal modern stuff, but more the melodic, classical music.

Q. How would you describe yourself in five words or fewer?
A. Too verbose to describe myself in five words or fewer? Friendly, outgoing, great sense of humor, easy for people to get to know, and a leader.

Q. If you could live in any time, past, present, or future, when would it be?
A. Seventy-five years from now, clearly past my life expectancy, to see what had become of my kids, their kids, and see what kind of world we live in.

Q. When are you most creative?
A. Sitting on a long airplane flight.

Q. What is your greatest extravagance?
A. Vacations that we take as a family.

Q. What worries you?
A. A terrorist getting a hold of nuclear material.

Q. If you could take only one more journey, where would you go?
A. When I was 11 years old, I went to Africa with my grandmother. I think I’d go back to Africa with my family.

Q. Who is the one person, living or dead, that you’d love to have a beer with?
A. Martin Luther King.

*Photo by Aaron Salcido.