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The 43-year-old entrepreneur is a walking (and delightful) conglomerate

By Ed Goldman

By day, Rachel Zillner may look mortal—she’s a dedicated wife and mom of two daughters—but away from home she may actually be a multi-faceted Transformer, capable of shape-shifting into an ever-diverse money-making entrepreneur.

Yet unlike a Transformer (an alien autobot who can morph into cars, engage in wars and make Megan Fox look capable of acting), Zillner is a ferociously bright, highly personable businesswoman. She’s the co-founder and CEO of The RADZ Group, an assemblage of intertwined companies whose overarching (or underlying) commitment is to innovation, empowerment and community impact, none of which sounds objectionable, I’m sure you’ll agree.

The RADZ Group—named for Rachel Zillner (the outer edges’ R and Z) and business partner Anne Descalzo (the inner sanctum’s A and D)—serves as a fiscal umbrella for these six (and counting) businesses:

1. Clutch, a government consulting firm specializing in strategic support for public agencies and initiatives;
2. RSE. Under its original rubric, Runyon, Saltzman and Einhorn, it became one of the region’s best known public relations and advertising agencies. Its owners were the late Jean Runyon, the now-retired Estelle Saltzman and the on-her-own-and-loving it Jane Einhorn, a public relations/public affairs pro. Look for Zillner to reshape the company into something larger and with an expanded focus on social-impact issues;
3. Papilio Collective, a financial services firm dedicated to supporting FinTech companies, financial institutions, and associations;

4. MinervaVerse, what Zillner calls “a platform designed to support and empower entrepreneurs through resources, networking, and mentorship”;
5. Frequency Co-working & Events, which is likely to evolve as the top-drawer co-working and event space; and
6. ECHO, a company specializing in “listening intelligence” and advanced communication strategies.

She also co-founded three Beat the Room outlets, those maddening escape spaces which can either reinforce or tear asunder many a relationship (“Why didn’t you follow the instructions, Tad?!” “Why didn’t you read them aloud a little more clearly, Phyllis?!”)—and which, no matter how difficult they make them to leave, are still no match for finding your way to a bathroom in an IKEA store. She stayed with that business for six-and-a-half years.

Her job history includes two-and-a-half years with Unleashing Leaders, where she served as chief strategy officer, growing the company from $5.5 million in annual revenue to $20 million. Earlier, she had a nearly 13-year stint at SAFE Credit Union, where she became vice president for community banking and membership.

At a recent lunch, Zillner displays none of the restless irritability of the stereotypical hammered young executive. She checks her cellphone only once (to make sure she’s given me the correct name of a new acquaintance who wants to invest in one or more of her business operations). She never bothers to note the time. And when we part, about 90 minutes after sitting down, rather than proffer the no-nonsense handshake one becomes accustomed to when interviewing all manner of tycoons, she throws her arms around me and declares, “This was fun!”

I ask myself: So where’s the phony-baloney gravitas? When will she issue the half-hearted suggestion “We simply must do this again sometime” (instead, before we part, Zillner sets our next lunch date)? And, most telling of all, why doesn’t she make the ill-advised but all-too-often request to look at the article before it appears (yes, even some veteran CEOs still try to pull off that one)?

Can you sense that Zillner is as refreshing as she is commanding? She discovered her inner entrepreneur when she sold her own watercolor paintings “for a nickel or more” when she was a kid.  As a 10-year-old, she’d take calls at her folks’ limousine service. “I sounded like my mother on the phone,” she says. “When I was 16 I even drove the cars, sometimes with rock stars on their way to concerts here or in the Bay Area.” When I ask how she got a chauffeur’s license at 16 in California, where the minimum age is 18 for intrastate driving and 21 for interstate, her response is a wink and a grin.

In addition to all of its endeavors, the RADZ Group now owns a 78,000-square-foor office building in Rancho Cordova, just east of California’s capital.