Meet New Fair Chief Zeke Fraser

By Jondi Gumz

At a special meeting June 6, the Santa Cruz County Fair board hired Zeke Fraser, 51, of Santa Cruz, as the new manager.

His first day was Monday, June 12. His pay is $8,135 a month.

With the 2023 Santa Cruz County Fair coming up Sept. 13-17 at the fairgrounds in Watsonville, he plans to meet with volunteers, staff and community members and work to make this year’s event a success.

“We are the odd collision of art and agriculture, surf and turf, mountains and sea,” he said in an announcement of his hiring. “Where else can you buy fresh grown strawberries in the morning, spend the day at the beach, and then take a train ride through the redwoods?”

Fraser comes from FileOpen Systems, the document rights company on the Santa Cruz Westside, where he was director of operations.

“Zeke worked with FileOpen for 12 years,” said co-founder Sanford Bingham. “He was our first hire in Santa Cruz when the company moved here from New York. He’s an organizer, a planner, and an honest communicator; a natural leader. The County Fair could not have made a better choice.”

Zeke is married to Staci Fraser, and they’ve lived in Santa Cruz County since 1995. Both are California natives.

They don’t have children, and Zach has extended family living elsewhere in California.

He told Aptos Times, “As far as hobbies go, I enjoy hiking and camping, and I enjoy fiddling around with creating tabletop/card games — not many have made it off the drawing board, but that’s why it’s a hobby.”

Fraser is a UCLA grad. He worked at Washington Mutual Bank for eight years as financial services officer, departing in 2002 for Santa Cruz Mortgage Co. as operations manager for four years.

Next he went to Coast Lending Group in Soquel as director of mortgage banking for close to three years. Then he joined Borelli Investment, a property management company in San Jose, for a year-and-a-half as staff accountant before taking the FileOpen job in Santa Cruz.

On his LinkedIn bio, he claims “a strong focus on empowering teams to excel in fastpaced, highly demanding environments.”

He describes his leadership style as collaborative, based on his belief that “collaboration is the key to success.”

He also mentions his proficiency in customer relations management systems and other database systems and his background in commercial banking operations, mortgage operations, and software development operations.

He is certified as a Quickbooks Proadvisor with competency in bookkeeping and accounting.

“I am a fast learner,” he writes, with

“passion for learning new skills/concepts and adapting to new procedures.”

On LinkedIn, people say Fraser has a “can do” attitude, and admirable work ethic and is meticulous when it comes to business operations.

Fraser succeeds Ken Alstott, hired in April as interim manager. He will be the fourth person in charge of the county fair and fairgrounds since October.

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