Adelaida Severson
Adelaida is the president and chief executive officer of Bushtex Inc., an international satellite communications firm she founded with her husband in 1994 that specializes in remote broadcast transmissions for the government and broadcast networks. Among her many honors, Severson was inducted into Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication Hall of Fame in 2017. In addition, she was selected by AzBusiness magazine to its 2015 “Most Influential Women in Arizona” class; in 2014, the Phoenix Business Journal named her on its “Top 25 Dynamic Women in Business” list; and in 2013, she was selected as the Gilbert Chamber of Commerce Business Woman of the Year. Severson also serves as a trustee for ASU.
Severson earned both her doctorate degree in public administration and a Master of Mass Communication degree from ASU, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism and international relations from the University of Southern California.
Episode Transcription
Guiding Growth. Conversations with Community Leaders. In this podcast we'll explore the human journey of leaders, their stories of humility, triumph roadblocks and lessons learned. Come join us as we journey together and uncover the questions you've always wanted to know. This podcast is brought to you by the Gilbert Chamber of Commerce providing resources, connections and belonging for business professionals and rocket space an event and meeting venue in the heart of the East Valley with a full service for person podcast studio. All right sara, what do we got today today?
This guest is known for her incredible leadership of both business and community. A philanthropist at heart. She has raised three boys, been married for 30 years and has run an international business. She is a world traveler with a heart for Gilbert. Welcome dr Adelaida Severson Welcome Welcome wow, that was nice, thank you so glad to be here. We're glad to have you here. Thanks for joining us. Thanks for having me. Alright, so the way we work here is we start off with what we call rapid fire. So we're gonna run through some questions here.
Are you ready set go Star Wars or Star trek? Star Wars, favorite color, red winter or summer winter. What did your mom call you as a kid, Adelaida. Well, okay, Adelaida, what is your favorite holiday christmas? Always. What is the last book you read? The Vanishing Twin? That's so good, you can actually remember that because I just read it. I got a new kindle and it's rocking right there. Would you ever go on a vacation by yourself camping or glamping camping? If you had intro music, what would that song be?
Reverie, how's that go? Oh it's a classic by wc I think. Can you give us a little bit? I always ask people, Okay, so last question glass half full or half empty? Half full. Love it. I would have suspect that about you. Indeed. Gilbert city lifestyles is a locally owned publication whose mission is to find and share great stories in our community and help build a stronger, more vibrant local experience, become a digital subscriber at city lifestyles dot com forward slash gilbert. Did I get them all correct correct.
You can't get those wrong, those are 100% correct. Okay, so I'm excited to explore your childhood as we're reading through some of the pre interview. We I love the fact that you were raised in Hawaii. It sounds to me like a magical childhood. It is, it is and I look back now and it still is, it is, you know, and it's funny because whenever I tell people, you know, growing up, I grew up in Hawaii wow, what's that like? Did you guys wear shoes? Do you have a volcano in your backyard?
I've always wanted to go to Hawaii but I don't have my passport and I'm like wow, okay, we got some learning to do that one totally, but it was, it was magical. Well lucky charm. Would you talk to us a little bit about the life in hawaii and tell us a little bit about that was like and maybe in those years when you were there who kind of influenced you in that time of year period life. Gosh! So in hawaii um everybody's family right? I mean you just, you know I hate to do the cliche, you know it takes a village to, what are they saying?
Village to raise a child. Um but literally everybody's auntie uncle, you know cousins and whatnot and so and it's also super melting pot. Um so in fact I was talking about this to someone the other day and not to get political or weird but um everybody is so careful about, you know what they say and you know oh gosh you're being racist or whatever. So um I'm going to warn you, I might say some things that are racist but that's right. Have you met Sarah? Yeah but in hawaii everybody is a different culture right?
You've got Japanese, chinese Koreans, Filipinos, Vietnamese and the food is amazing. No one, I don't say no one. There's very few native Hawaiians anymore but growing up in that environment you learn about these different cultures and you celebrate the different cultures and so like last week I celebrated chinese New year and people like you're not even chinese what you're trying to do and I'm like we do in hawaii everybody does you get the red envelopes with money in them and it's an exciting time. I still get rid envelopes.
People think I'm still little, I love the red envelopes. 20 bucks. Oh my God, I mean like 50 bucks the other day from, you know, friends and some people that are just give money. It's a very generous, fun, loving environment to grow up in and you know, it's, it's, it's um, I'm very fond of it. So for me, growing up, everybody was nice. Everybody was welcoming hugs kisses, you know this and that, and that's when I came to the mainland, that's how I was and I was met with such a different lifestyle, right?
If you touch someone's like, wait a minute, she's hugging me why? Or you know, why are you so nice? Why are you giving me this? Because that's who we are. So um the tough part was having to temper myself with that because people thought it was too nice then and then you kind of be taken advantage of or whatever. But at base that's who I am so well, you sort of double down on the cool factor because you were raised in Hawaii. But then also your dad ran a bar and the zebra room.
Now that's too cool. Well, and you know when you walked in, it was a really cool place as a kid, there was a wall, in fact four walls. But um on the walls, there was a carving, a wooden carving of the, you know, zebras in a jungle. And I don't know what, when I grew older I was like what happened to the wall? Because I would have love to just rip it off and take it. But that was kind of the, the mark, right, the landmark, the zebra room at the beginning of Kalakaua Avenue, all kinds of different celebrities would go and then you'd have your local people.
So they were one and the same drinking at the same bar, you know Jack Lord from Hawaii 50, you know, sitting next to uncle Bubba, you know, or whatever, it's like just the happening place. So yeah, it was kind of neat. So how long did you live there? So born and raised and then I went away to the mainland to go to university at the University of southern California. Um I have two siblings and both went to the University of Hawaii, me being the wanderlust personality that I was um and also great high school counselors that really kind of helped me to understand my potential if you will because not a whole lot of kids will leave and back then we didn't have internet or you know, we didn't have the money to go visit schools.
So we really had to rely on those brochures that came in the mail, right, and you had to write them for them and um and USC and I I'm not proud of this, but I really wanted to go there because O. J. Simpson was a football player and I was like oh my God I gotta go, I gotta go. I had I known yeah I don't know but um we could never never afford to go to school there and but my counselor always said you know just get in and then where you want to and then we'll figure it out in scholarships.
I was kind of glad I was poor because I was able to get scholarships and grants and you know things that helped me to get through. Um And then I worked you know welcome to college work study uh enough to get by and I would be amazed because I never had a car. Um And there it was like oh so where you from, what kind of car do you drive? You know it's just very kind of that materialistic, I wasn't used to that in hawaii everybody was just sort of like you hide your wealth or you hide you know whatever and wow.
So yeah kind of muddled through that this counselor seems like that person was pretty amazing, Do you remember that person much? Mr Park Mr Park and that was just through the high school years that you were introduced with this person. Yeah. So um they kind of kept track uh like sophomore year on. Um And we had a big school were like I don't know, 2000 kids and so our class probably was 900 and I know that because I was senior class president and I had to know that, right?
And it was like, you know, kind of diminished, but he definitely, if there could be school high school counselors that could be like him, I cloned him all the way around, you know? So, yeah, it doesn't surprise me that you were class president. I mean, you just, you always have the spark to take the lead. Where does, where does that come from? I don't know. I think it was so my mother, so my dad had four and my mom actually, um I think she was so ahead of her time.
She and my parents are older. Um like my mom was 40 when she had me, my dad was 57 old parents, I didn't know this until I was 10 years old. I was in this play and dad was so busy that he would never come, you know, to our programs or whatever. And this time he did, because it was the bicentennial play, 1976 and I was the M. C. And I was like, dad, you gotta come. And I remember he came up to me afterwards and he hugged me and the teachers were like, oh my gosh, it's so great that your grandfather's and I'm like, it's sort of sensitive because that's going to happen.
I was just thinking that as you're telling me that I'm like, oh man, my youngest is two, I'm gonna be right and that was just a game changer. But um I had older parents, My mom was a broadcaster. Um so she came, grew up in the Philippines was a a singer, a pianist and so she worked her way up, got her master's in music and knew she wanted to leave the Philippines to go to the the beautiful country of the United States. Yeah. Did she ever perform at the zebra bar?
That wasn't her thing? Yeah, she was more kind of classical opera, whatever. And so her way out, she applied for this broadcasting school in Washington D. C. Now this was like what the forties ish. There's a picture of her, which I still have, she graduated, there's 20 men and here's this cute little filipino lady in the middle and she got hired. Um because of the dialect that she spoke in Hawaii, there are a lot of Filipinos and the plantations and whatnot. And so she was sort of like this uh goddess because you know, she spoke the language, she had a setup.
I think my mom was like one of the first podcasters because she had a setup like this at home, she would play the piano saying do the news, you know, whatever was going on. And she always used to tell me um you know, you need to, I don't have a boyfriend right now, you need to explore your possibilities, have a career, you know, blah blah blah and I'm like, are you like, you know, and I think about it now and I'm like, wow, she was wise, but she would always say speak up, you know, you need to, don't wait for people to do things for you, you know, that kind of thing and maybe that's how I see it in you. Absolutely.
Really, wow. Okay, so this California college years talk to us about that time of your life. Oh my God. So of course those were the days when I was able to create a whole different person if you will because nobody knew who I was. Um and it really gave me the time to, I don't say uninhibited myself, but I was, I was Adelaida, you know Velasco is my middle name and so people would be like, sorry hispanic, are you black Ethiopian? Like what's your makeup? And I'm like, I don't know, what do you want me to be?
No, just kidding, What do you want me to be today? Right. And so I didn't know, you know, and and being growing and growing up in island, you, you're not exposed to a ton of things, although we did travel, But you know, the first time that I realized a gallon of milk didn't have to cost $5. It was whatever, 98 cents at the time. And I'm like, what is this place? Where are we? Um it was a wild time. I was in a sorority, you know? Um I kinda actually, I won't say I'm ashamed about this, but there was a part of me that I kind of wanted to divorce myself from being from Hawaii and being more kind of like on the mainland if you will, right?
Because I didn't want to, I mean, not that I didn't want to be from Hawaii, it was just the friends and people that were like, hey, you need to join the Hawaiian club and you need to do this and I'm like, no, I've been there, done that, and from there, I want to do this, you know? And so that was kind of my trajectory of learning about people and learning about people that were different, um like building your own identity, but figure out who you really are.
Absolutely taking classes that I didn't think I would ever take and hanging out with people that I don't know that I would ever hang out with and they're now lifelong friends, you know, and you never know, a lot of them are pretty influential now and I'm like, what your what? You know, you and I used to drink back in the day, what's going on, you know? But you know, it's really, it was fun. It was really good. So did you meet O. J. Simpson? Um actually Marcus Allen was the closest I got because he was, he just had graduated um Jack Del Rio, you know, folks like that who were um in my time frame of the athletes, I dated a baseball player.
So I was kind of exposed to that world and uh now that I see where they are and what they've done and where you know, it's just kind of interesting to me to would you do it all the same again? Absolutely, yeah, yeah, yeah, it was a fun time. I do some things different but but yeah, it was good, it was a good time. So next chapter, what happens then? So um I went on to my major was broadcast journalism and international relations with the idea that I was going to be the next international correspondent um which didn't happen obviously, but I did do um some broadcasting um and I remember um sitting in a uh huh back then we'll always, it's always about you know, being there first for news, right, being the first to get the scoop, getting the b roll, that's just beautiful.
And so I was sent out, I got called I actually had my own camera person at the time which was like a big deal 4:00 AM, you know, you get out there and there was a burning building and I was sitting in the parking lot, you know, just kind of writing out what I was going to say and you know, it was all their beautiful building burning beautiful, you know, photo or whatever um and B roll and I was sitting there writing and I had this epiphany that why am I here.
Um people are dying and all I cared about was being here first the B roll getting you know sweeps you know was coming up and I was like wow this is really kind of weird like who am I right now an incredible um perspective because I had a very similar experience. I also was a journalism major print journalism so it's a little bit more sophisticated than that. But I had the exact same experience where I sat, I was sitting outside the courtroom um um recovering a story about somebody who was being accused of murdering murdering his wife and her family was outside the courtroom and I was sitting there just watching them and they're darkest hour and I felt the same. Okay.
Did you interview? No of course not. I didn't, I didn't have the wherewithal to intrude on that, but a good reporter would have but I didn't write just Yeah, I think I met Ben and things just changed drastically. Well. Yeah and I think um you know I'm a pretty faithful person and I think things happen for a reason, right? And so uh fortuitously um and it was also crossroads because I was being passed up for the anchor position because I looked too young. I didn't have the look, I wasn't blond and blue eyed, I wasn't there was always something uh they needed me to change the look of my nose and me and another journalist um classmate of mine, we pinky swore and said if they ever ask you to change anything, you know, physically you're not going to do it. Right.
Well she ended up changing features of her. Yeah, she didn't and she ended up jettisoning jettisoning to um new york and was an anchor there and I went on to satellite communications because right at that time I think I was questioning my life, right? It's sort of like, this is not, I wanted a family, I wanted to be married, I wanted, you know, all the things that of a woman, you know, should be having at this point in her life because all my friends were getting married and whatnot.
And um interestingly a friend of mine from who graduated from USC like out of the blue, reached out to me and said, hey, I'm starting this company, its uh satellite communications. I know you probably don't know anything about it, but would you like to join me? And I'm like, what, what is that? Um, and I'm a fairly, I think journalists are pretty quick reads and easy learners and he goes, um, and you've got an international relations degree, right? So I need somebody in the international division. And so I took the leap and didn't stop, I guess after that.
So here we are. Yeah, that's an incredible friction, internal friction of which, which way do I go? It was, it was a little crossroads, but you know, I kind of missed the whole like, you know, being on camera going to the grocery store and people like, hey you are, but now you can, you can just pull out yourself home, you want to be on camera. Absolutely. Got lemons like, no, sorry, you've got to unpack some of that right then. So then is that roughly then when Bush Tech started?
No. Um so I worked for that company for a while and then um that's where I met my husband to be. Uh he actually lived here in phoenix and I was in santa Monica and he would call in his reports to me and he had this deep voice. I thought he was an older guy and all of a sudden um and he would be like, hey sweetie, hey honey, and wouldn't say my name and I'm like, who are you anyway, long story short, we did have a clandestine romance going on and We decided we needed to kind of figure something out.
So he got, we both quit the company. Um he went freelance and got hired by CBS to be uh to cover that first Gulf war in 1991. Um and then I went back home to Hawaii because my parents were aging and I just didn't know um you know how long I was going to have them and um and I worked in Hawaii for a bit. Um and then he actually, and I don't, I haven't told many people this, but he got kidnapped during the war because he and two other journalists were doing a site survey and it was just really kind of didn't have their passports or anything and they were on the border of Iraq and Iran and got picked up by the other side.
Um I was in Hawaii at the time. Um his mother called me, we weren't engaged or anything yet. Um and said, hey, I just wanna let you know barry's gone like what? And well, we don't know yet. He's got kidnapped. This is all I'm hearing. And it was quite scary because then that evening on cbs news, it was like, yeah, three journalists, you know, got kidnapped and there's barry right there, that was the anchor. Yeah. Right. No, no, it wasn't unfortunately. But yeah, so um that was interesting.
He was gone. We didn't know what was going to happen because at the time that's when all those journalists were getting their heads cut off and you know, on the videos and wouldn't know what to think. And so anyway, he got out, thank God. Um and then he came to Hawaii and I guess that's when he thought about proposing because he must have thought a lot in that jail wherever he was because he did come and um that's yeah, then we decided that we we do this on our own.
So we got married, you know, he did a lot of high conflict areas again as if that wasn't enough for like seven years. And then, um, and then we decided to just kind of do this on our own. So here we are. And so let's explain for our listeners exactly what Bush text does. Oh my gosh. So Bush tax um, means so text, it's T. X is a sexier way of having our logo, but it's more like text T E C H. S. So technicians in the Bush with satellite, you can do anything remotely, so whatever we do, it's in the Bush, um, remotely uh, um, sending and receiving information, communication data.
Um, and so we were doing it a lot for the broadcast industry back in the day, you'd see live via satellite, you know, and then they'd have the, you know, whoever Christiane, amanpour, you know, in the fields and and doing her thing. Um, as you know, television is different now. You know, you could, like you said, just bring out your phone and here's that. So that's what we were competing with. Although the broadcast industry still liked the quality of what we did. And so, um, so we will do things uh, sports events, olympics.
We um, you know, I talk about that because we've been supporting the olympics with satellite communications and bringing the um, the olympic, uh, televised version to everybody that has uh, the the license. So NBC for United States, NHK BBC in London. Um, and then um, that then translated to when they, when we were in the bush. You know, there were, there were military outlets and they would see what we were doing and they were like, wait a minute, what is that? And so we kind of now do it for the government, can't tell you what we do for them because if you do have to kill you all, tell them spook no, just kidding.
So it has to lead to a lot of incredible opportunities and the opportunity to meet other people and experiences what are one of the most or some of the most memorable experiences that you can share with us. Yeah, so um, you know, interestingly, uh, so there's a lot of travel obviously. Um and luckily because I came from a place where there were lots of cultures anyway, I'm able to adapt. But I remember, you know, young bushy, I wanted to get things done and here in the United States, time is money and you got to get stuff done and so Saudi Arabia ride and muslim country.
Um and so I had to get some information like that afternoon and so kind of like, hey, you know, I need to get this and oh Adelaida come on in now, you know, you gotta have coffee, tea, sit down. Oh, you know, come in then. So how's the family? And in the meantime I'm fidgeting because I got a deadline. I gotta meet this thing and so I said so drinking my coffee, oh everybody's fine. Um So about this thing inshallah Angela that means God willing, so I'll get it to you and Sheila like God willing I'll get and I'm like no by three o'clock this afternoon, no inshallah here, but that's you can't you can't force it right?
I mean so so many different types of things you run into south America, same thing. You know you americans, you you work to live, you know you or you live to work, that's all you do. Oh that's all you care about. We we work to barely live so basically chill you know? And so that's kind of helped me in a lot of ways to step back because I find myself in a tizzy when it's really kind of like okay what are we, what are we doing here?
Is it really worth it? Is it really um something that you know you're gonna lose sleep over. Um So I've kind of learned to mellow a little bit um And so those kinds of experiences for sure. Um you know I been to cuba beautiful country, everybody is like why would you want to go there, communist country, they're going to kill you, nicest people china, same thing, you know, although you know there are some issues but you really have to kind of watch yourself and not be that that ugly american if you will because that's kind of how they see us and um just be roll with it, right?
You gotta roll with the punches, so you're a professional, running an incredible business, you're a wife and you're a mom, how do you balance all of this? And I have to add that. You also are very involved in the community just a little bit. Yeah, I think because I love all those things, it's not easy, you know, Sarah, I mean, you know, having a kid that's brand new, I've never done that before, you know, when you first have one um and again, just have to bring my faith into it because it really kind of balances me out because there's days when I call out to God so many times and you're like, what?
Um and I always believe that, you know, he challenges you and doesn't give you something that you can't handle right? And so we've been through a lot, a lot of different things and um but you get through it and you just do so yeah, you know, I don't know, I can tell you, I've got organized scissors or whatever. Um but some of that always it doesn't go as perfectly as you want as, you know, um you think that you can trust certain people and you can't, there's times when there's um, you know an event that's ready to roll, you're ready for it and then something quickly happens that you're like, wow, I didn't plan for that.
Um So really it's just sort of trying to keep that balance if you can uh supportive friends, supportive family um and just you know, just having trust and faith in yourself that you can pull through because there's those dark days when you're like, I don't know what I'm doing, why am I doing this? So actually it reminds me of a conference I just attended and one of the speakers spoke about the work life balance and stress. And she emphasized that stress is only damaging when you resist it.
And if you can just embrace it and roll with it and that glass of wine whiskey shots before the show. Yeah, that's right. Alright, so one more final thought for me here is I love this coat that you had in here that we had captured from your interview here one day, your life will flash before your eyes, make sure it's worth watching. What would make it worth watching for you in my life? I don't know because I feel like I've done things right? Um You mean so I don't know for me um Just living living the dream that you won't um I would be if you if it was me and I I mean I feel like honestly and I'm not trying to um B but you know, I feel like things that have happened in my life, I wanted to change right?
If there was one more thing um you know I would just be looking at my my my kids, my boys and making sure that they're happy and they have wonderful wives and I could have these wonderful grandchildren, I could be you know sitting on the beach and sipping mai mai tai and that's it like somewhere I think it's beautiful. Yeah, I would take that to. Absolutely. I'm in all right Cheryl, let's make it happen. Thank you so much for being on the show with us today. This has been a lot of fun learning from you and adventures and stories you've shared.
Very very cool, appreciate and thank you for your service to Gilbert and continuing to be available and stepping up when someone needs to do it. Absolutely, I enjoy it. Thank you. Alright, so if you like the show, which I know you do you need to subscribe to our tribe and log in and add this show to your favorites list. Mhm guiding growth conversations with community leaders. Cigna is proud to sponsor the guiding growth podcast series. Cigna believes when individuals and communities thrive businesses will too
