OUR MISSION"Encourage the competence, skill and correct choices needed to create long lasting, stable, safe and aesthetically appealing projects. Honesty before profits. Provide exceptional quality and service. Satisfaction for everyone working with ASN".ABOUT USHISTORY
MEMBERS OF THE FOLLOWING PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
BIOSAlex Sajkovic's passion for natural stone grew out of a serendipitous meeting with the sales manager of an Italian-American stone company that was driving the same model FIAT 131 as Alex. Always having been intrigued and stimulated by Italian design it seemed natural to accept a job in stone sales and service that involved driving that FIAT across the Golden Gate Bridge every day - showing beautiful white Carrara marbles and other stones to clients in Marin, Sonoma and Napa counties. Fast forwarding through 3 stone companies and a few recessions Alex is now working on business development and marketing, including the architectural sampling and outreach program at ASN. In addition to the daily business of ASN, Alex wants to raise the profile of stone as a green building material: "Stone is not a scarce resource...we live on a blue and green spinning rock! Natural stone is not manufactured and is minimally processed so it has a relatively low carbon footprint. If you consider that during the rock cycle stone is simultaneously eroding and being formed - and that it is such an abundant natural resource that is virtually impossible to deplete - then it follows that natural stone is not just a sustainable material, but a definition of sustainability itself". Rose M Garcia used to write hazardous waste management plans for California counties including Fresno and San Francisco before she brought her knack for organization and administration to ASN. Customer service, client satisfaction and helping the sales staff maintain smooth running projects from start to finish keeps Rose humming. Her tireless dedication to details and seeing everything through has cemented ASN's reputation for customer service as many repeat clients will attest. Her first project at ASN was to find 'stone that looks like wood' for a project in Tokyo, Japan. She's overseen airfreighting stone slabs to Hong Kong from seven countries for a mock-up and provided the Dallas Galleria shopping mall with a new limestone floor from Cairo, Egypt. She consistently runs a tight ship and takes care of the ASN family. Wendy Ashton had an early appreciation for building and design,and pursued her degree in Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley. After graduation she had an immediate introduction to the natural stone industry in San Francisco, where she became interested in the integration of natural stone into building and design. This led to her career path in the industry when she accepted a Project Associate position at Clervi Marble in San Francisco, which was started by an Italian stone mason in the early 1900's, eventually achieving preeminent status in San Francisco and Northern California for almost 100 years. Wendy quickly moved into Project Management and Estimating, and combining her skills with Clervi's tradition of quality craftsmanship, successfully merged clients' ideas with old world marble skills resulting in a lot of spectacular stonework, such as the 24x24 Pelo Red Marble gracing the main floors of the Westfield Mall, the former San Francisco Center. Some of Wendy's favorite commercial projects in SF include: 100 California interior flooring and exterior paving; Historic Lobby Restorations of The Adam Grant Building, 114 Sansome; The Central Tower at 703 Market Street, as well as countless lobbies, exterior cladding at SFO and lots of TI work. Residential work included penthouses and residences at the Ritz Carlton and Four Seasons, work for the Gettys' and Hearst's, as well as small and large projects throughout the Bay Area and Hawaii. Currently at ASN, Wendy works as a Senior Project Executive and in Sales. Some notable projects include 181 Fremont Street in San Francisco - AC porcelain tile for 67 luxury baths at the Private Residences. Pinterest HQ, 505 Brannan St. SF with 2cm MC porcelain pavers for the exterior landscaping as well as the interior lobby. 240 Lorton St, Burlingame, Exterior cladding with 3-5cm Lochness Romano limestone and Magnolia Black basalt. Sarbonne Exterior Cladding, Bel Air, CA: Avalon limestone planking. Eric and Wendy Schmidt Family Foundation / Alma Station: exterior travertine, split face limestone cladding and thick travertine pedestal paving on the roof decks. Other current projects include 600 California and 100 Pine - exterior natural stone paving, and exterior paving at several large private residences. Wendy recently accompanied project architects and engineers to St. Amour and L'Aime France to qualify Bleu de Savoie Marble for an expansive lobby floor that will grace the Joan and Sandy Weill Neurosciences Building at UCSF Mission Bay, a signature project that is currently under construction. Charles Sabia previously provided efficient logistics and overall effective operational processes for the tile and industrial/commercial construction industries throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. He brings excellent organizational management as well as a high level of customer service. He receives International stone and tile products from our vendors and distributes it throughout the SF Bay Area. He is a new addition to the ASN family and strives to exceed customer expectations. His attention to detail, can-do attitude and carefulness really helps keep ASN Operations running smoothly. Xiaojin (Jean Guo) keeps us smiling, with her disarming smile and low key demeanor. In the 10 years I have known Jean, she also has figured out the secret to healthy aging, perhaps through her gardening, as the older she gets, the younger she looks! Jean keeps us on track in the Accounting Department with NetSuite. She also manages our Insurance, HR and Payroll. An Electrical Engineer by training in China, she pursued her MBA in Accounting in the US for new opportunities here. Jean is a master orchid grower and her green thumb works on almost everything. Besides traveling and reading, she enjoys her husband Mitch and black cat when at home with her peaceful garden! |
ASN Natural Stone started as a stone brokerage service called Alex Stone Network - in a Haight Ashbury flat -in April 1992, drawing on mine and others many years of experience in stone importing, distributing, high quality fabricated and installed stonework, mostly interior. After a few years, Rose Garcia joined, bringing executive level project management skills and allowing the company to flourish, regularly completing larger projects with a high degree of success.
We acquired our first showroom at the SF Design Center, showcasing a myriad of stone types, sizes and colors. Olle Lundberg's Crull residence in Sonoma offered us the opportunity to import Portuguese limestone for the complete interior floor and exterior paving including pool coping. It was named Rosal - sourced from the quarry shown on this page.
We pioneered large format textured surface tiles and pavers with and concentrated on limestones, marble and unique stones to offer our clients something different - expanding outdoors and helping their projects be all the more remarkable. This is what sets us apart to this day.