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Vice President for Programs

Joe Pon was appointed Vice President for Programs in October 2009. As the leader of Irvine’s grantmaking programs, he has overall responsibility for their development, implementation and refinement throughout California. Joe joined Irvine after more than 18 years at Applied Materials, a Fortune 500 technology company in Silicon Valley, where he oversaw corporate philanthropy, government affairs and community relations. Most recently, Joe was the company’s Vice President for Global Corporate Affairs, with overall responsibility for building and enhancing the company’s reputation worldwide. He also was in charge of the Applied Materials Foundation, a highly respected corporate foundation in Silicon Valley. Previously, Joe led worldwide government affairs and executive communications and was responsible for establishing Applied Materials’ public policy organization. He began his career in corporate marketing, managing various corporate and product marketing initiatives. Joe also has extensive community leadership experience, having served on the boards of the San Jose–Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce, the West Valley–Mission College Advancement Foundation, and Opera San Jose, where he served as President. He has also served on the boards of a number of civic and public policy organizations at the local and national level. A graduate of Claremont McKenna College, where he was a double major in Russian-Soviet studies and psychology, Joe also has a master’s degree in international relations from the London School of Economics.