Our Principal

Susan Giles Bischak is a “hands-on” business person with functional business expertise. Her problem-solving skills are used in organizational, financial, development, and marketing strategies for public and private sector clients. She is “bottom-line” oriented and understands how to improve profitability while enhancing operations and performance. Susan is a team leader and also works closely as a team member to help clients achieve their goals.

Susan provides business and financial consulting to the banking industry, where she has led large workout groups and closed down financial institutions for regulators. She provides business and financial services to institutional investors, and corporations. She is highly technical and focuses on what is achievable financially and realistically. She provides strategic planning, financial planning, operational audits, and financial structuring for her clients, isolating the best options to meet their goals. Some of her clients include the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Resolution Trust Corporation, GSA, Bank of America, California Public Employees Retirement System, California State Teachers Retirement System, Wells Fargo Bank, Alaska Permanent Fund, Fireman’s Fund, Union Bank of California, Silicon Valley Bank, the City of Oakland, the City and County of San Francisco, Sun Microsystems, and Apple Computers.

Susan is President of Giles & Company, serving in this capacity for 18 years. She was a partner with Ernst & Young where she led the Western Region in consulting for the banking industry and real estate. She was President and founder of The Land Economics Group. For five years, she served as CEO and Board Chair of KidzMouse, Inc., a consumer products company manufacturing and distributing children’s computer accessories to world wide markets. She was responsible for the licensing of intellectual property and overseeing the manufacturing and distribution of the product line.

Susan was an Adjunct Professor teaching finance and business planning in the Masters Program at the University of Southern California, School of Policy, Planning, and Development. She has been an Adjunct Professor at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, and has also taught at the University of California, Berkeley.

Susan holds a Master’s degree in City Planning from the University of California, Berkeley, and was a Graduate Exchange Student at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business. She also holds a B.A. in Political Science, Distinction with Highest Honors, from the University of North Carolina. She has published articles in various professional journals, and is co-author of a Sage Publications book entitled: Fundamentals of Economic Development Finance. She is also the co-author of an Urban Land Institute publication entitled Public/Private Housing Partnerships. Susan is a licensed Realtor® in California.

Giles & Company has been certified as a Pensco Trust Preferred Professional. Pensco Trust is a custodian for IRA and 401K funds for individual investors. www.penscotrust.com