Rich Sotelo enters his 14th year with the Sharks and his seventh as vice president of building operations. From 1995-99, he served as director of operations for San Jose Arena Management. Sotelo, 49, oversees various aspects of HP Pavilion at San Jose's Building Operations Department, including audio/visual, engineering, security, conversion, cleaning, facility enhancements and construction projects. In addition, Sotelo is responsible for coordinating the facility's Emergency Response Contingency Planning and, utilizing his past knowledge and involvement with labor union negotiations, he is the HP Pavilion at San Jose's liaison and main negotiator in handling all collective bargaining agreements with the various unions. With a 25-year background in engineering and facility operations, Sotelo, who began his career at San Jose Arena after initially being hired in 1993 by Johnson Controls, also possesses an intricate understanding of the building's inner workings. He has extensively handled equipment and facility shakedown, developed a vast knowledge of arena equipment and facilities, implemented the process to inspect and catalog all equipment locations and continues to monitor all maintenance needs. His experience was invaluable in managing HP Pavilion at San Jose improvement projects such as the installation of an additional ice making chiller, the recent installation of dehumidification equipment and the challenging placement of the HP signs that adorn both entrances and the roof. In addition to onsite building projects, he worked on and oversaw two separate expansion and renovation projects of Logitech Ice at San Jose, which included the addition of a multi-million dollar, 58,000-square foot training and practice facility for the Sharks in August 2000 and a fourth sheet of ice in 2005. The facility is now the largest ice facility under one roof west of the Mississippi River. In addition, the facility added Stanley’s, a 5400 square-foot sports bar which overlooks three of the four ice surfaces and boasts 11 flat-screen, plasma televisions and a state-of-the-art sound system. A native Californian, Sotelo was raised in San Leandro and attended Chabot College in Hayward. Sotelo is on the board of directors for the San Jose Sports Hall of Fame.