Call Us
Free Quote
Menu
On September 17, 2020, the San Fernando Valley Business Journal held a virtual ceremony of their annual Women’s Council Awards, Honoring businesswomen who have made a difference throughout the San Fernando, Conejo, Santa Clarita and Antelope Valley area. Award Categories were: CEO of the Year, Executive of the Year, Volunteer of the Year, Rising Star, Not-For-Profit Leader, Business Owner of the Year and Lifetime Achievement Award. NorthStar Moving’s of Marketing and Co-Founder Laura McHolm was a Women’s Leadership Nominee.
For 15 years, Ram Katalan and wife Laura McHolm have run their moving and self-storage business at a leased 380,000-square-foot property shared with another company in Chatsworth.
“We were subleasing from them,” Katalan explained.
But in the midst of the pandemic, the couple found themselves needing to relocate after the owner-user of their site got acquired by a new parent company. The couple, who reside in Santa Monica, personally supervised the July 1 move to the new location. “We’re literally a couple blocks away (from the previous location),” McHolm said.
Katalan and McHolm have other NorthStar locations: One in in San Mateo with 20,000 square feet; and another in Phoenix, which totals just under 10,000 square feet.
One unusual service which the Chatsworth location provides is temporarily store furniture and personal effects from houses used as filming locations. The NorthStar team take photos of the furniture, bookshelves and other interior arrangements prior to filming, then moves everything into storage so the film designers have a blank canvas to decorate the set. When filming concludes, NorthStar returns and replaces the furniture in the proper arrangement.
More US companies than ever before have female executives at the helm. The San Fernando Valley Business Journal publishes an annual list of women-owned businesses. To qualify for the list, a business must be at least 50% women-owned. NorthStar Moving is proud to be included.
Ram Katalan, Chief Executive and Co-Founder of NorthStar Moving Company, No. 15, in Chatsworth, is still early in the franchising phase of his moving and storage company’s trajectory.
NorthStar Moving has three locations in total, including a franchise in Northern California that is run by an accountant who was familiar with mergers and acquisitions. He is looking to convert a company-owned location in Phoenix into a franchise, Katalan said.
In deciding who will open a franchise, Katalan said he prefers go-getters who are willing to put in the hours and effort to manage their moving team.
The San Fernando Valley Business Journal honored women of outstanding achievement in the San Fernando Valley area business community with their annual Women’s Council awards event held in Woodland Hills, CA on April 17, 2019. We are proud that NorthStar Moving Director of Marketing and Co-Founder Laura McHolm was among the nominees.
NorthStar Moving was included the 2018 list of Largest Family Owned Businesses published by the San Fernando Valley Business Journal. Companies were ranked by total number of employees.
The Women’s Council awards honor women who have made a difference throughout the San Fernando, Santa Clarita, Conejo, and Antelope valley community.
This year’s event took place on Thursday, April 12, 2018 in Woodland Hills, CA . The half day event was filled with inspiration, education and recognition. Laura McHolm, Co-Founder and Director of Marketing of NorthStar Moving was a nominee in the Business Owner of the Year category.
Women’s Council awards 2018
Women’s Council awards 2018
When the San Fernando Valley Business Journal published its list of Top Female Entrepreneurs, Laura McHolm, Co-Founder and Director of Marketing of NorthStar Moving was ranked 8th, and an interview with her appeared on the cover of the issue dedicated to the list.
Laura McHolm had an unlikely start as co-founder and marketing director of NorthStar Moving Co. She began attending university at the age of 16, After graduating from the university of California at Berkeley, she worked for Lawrence Hall of Science teaching computer programming and mathematics and joined the computer division of Atari in its infancy to work in consumer marketing. Encouraged by the Atari legal team to attend law school, she graduated from law school and also obtained an emphasis in computer law from Oxford University. She worked for various inventors as a general counsel and marketing director. In the mid-1990s she moved away from the Fortune 500 to fulfill her more creative, entrepreneurial spirit and partnered with Ram Katalan to launch NorthStar Moving.
Why start a business?
Moving is one of the most stressful moments in people’s lives. My partner and I recognized that no one was taking service seriously in the moving industry. And, just like all entrepreneurs, we thought there had to be a better way.
How did you build it?
By listening to our clients and to our team members. And living by our mission: to exceed our clients’ expectations with graceful customer care and put service back into the moving industry.
