“Luck is when preparation meets opportunity.” It’s a line Nestor Paraiso would often say to the local students he mentored over the last three decades. It’s also the lens through which Paraiso can view his own story.
Raised in San Francisco, Paraiso graduated from San Francisco State University in 1991 with a degree in accounting. He joined Chevron in February 1992 after a fortuitous last-minute interview slot opened at his campus career center.
“I tell my students all the time: have your resume ready, look people in the eye, shake a firm hand,” he says. “Be the person who’s ready when opportunity shows up.”
‘Sometimes it wasn’t what we brought as a skill. It was that we showed up.’
That unexpected campus interview turned into a 33-year career at Chevron Richmond. It is a career that proved fruitful not just for the company, but also for the Richmond community. The latter reason is especially why Paraiso, who retired this past July, will be sorely missed.
Throughout his career, Paraiso dedicated countless hours to volunteering in community programs such as mock interviews for local job seekers to one-on-one tutoring for local students and free tax preparation services for low-income residents.
For Paraiso, volunteerism is a belief system. He credits his faith and his family for shaping that outlook.
“I’m a Christian, but I never used volunteering as a platform to preach,” he said. “The best preaching you can do is with your life.”
He noted a practical purpose to volunteering as well.
“If you weigh it out, watching TV versus helping someone, it’s better for you to be active,” Paraiso says. “Go get some sun and help someone.”
Dedicated to Richmond
When he first joined Chevron Richmond, Paraiso began working in the tax division, preparing returns and handling state audits. He moved on to supporting business units on the finance team. In 2008, when he was offered a promotion relocating him to Chevron’s San Ramon offices, Paraiso chose to stay in Richmond. He accepted a role with the maintenance team, where he stayed through his retirement. He became the go-to analyst as his company modernized systems and moved from weekly reports to near-real-time data.
“I loved the collaboration with my colleagues at the refinery,” he said. “Engineers, mechanics, chemists, finance — different minds solving problems together.”
Outside the fence line, Paraiso poured those same skills into Richmond’s schools and nonprofits. Over the years he volunteered with Junior Achievement, especially at Kennedy High School’s Information Technology Academy, helping students practice interviews, tour the refinery and meet professionals in the fields they wanted to enter. He coached writing through WriterCoach Connection, served with the “Earn It! Keep It! Save It!” free tax-preparation coalition, supported College Is Real and MESA and joined a career-pathways advisory group that met with local teachers. Most recently he reconnected with Kennedy High’s robotics team, helping line up Chevron Richmond colleagues — including a mechanic on site — to help ensure the partnership continued after he retired.
What kept him coming back, he said, was simple: presence.
“Sometimes it wasn’t what we brought as a skill,” Paraiso said. “It was that we showed up. A kid sees someone with a real job taking time for them, no strings attached. That matters.”
As a coach, his advice mirrored his own path. “Keep it simple. Go after the key points. You don’t have to be a vocabulary champion,” he’d tell students. The thank-you notes he received over the years, he added, were “sincere and unforgettable.”
The Chevron Way
Paraiso credits Chevron’s culture, from donation matches to flexible scheduling, for making community work sustainable. Due to his flexible schedule, he often spent Fridays in classrooms and many evenings and weekends at community events. “About half of it was after hours. The job still had to get done,” he said with a laugh.
Choosing Richmond changed his career, and, he says, him. He loved the refinery’s mix of people and the humor that carried teams through hard work.
Asked what he tells young people considering a career with Chevron, Paraiso doesn’t hesitate. “Chevron aims to lead the industry. Bring your technical focus, but bring your people skills just as much. Work close to others. The company invests in you as a whole person: work, family, and community.”
Retirement, for Paraiso, starts close to home. He and his wife of 36 years plan to spend more time together and with their growing family of four children and seven grandchildren. He’s also making sure the programs he cares about won’t miss a beat. “It’s about passing the torch,” he said, noting the colleagues he’s connected to the robotics program and other efforts.
Looking back, Paraiso returns to the same theme that guided his 33 years in Richmond. “Show up for the work. Show up for each other. Show up for the kids. If we do that, the rest takes care of itself.”
