Robin Follman

Her father Robert Follman, a longtime engineer is R.A. Industries’ founder and chairman of the board.

Currently, she leads the Follman-Young Foundation for the Arts as CEO. The foundation offers scholarships, grants and competitive awards to artists, including those with special and unique needs. FYFA also sponsors the Professional Opera Singers’ Association (POSA) annual vocal competition and provides individuals with musical and vocal training, including master classes, by pairing artists with top instructors.

Locally in Orange County, Follman-Otta is an active member of the Segerstrom Center of the Arts support group, Angels of the Arts, Women of Chapman (Chapman University), as well as acting in an advisory position to Pacific Symphony’s Opera Support Task Force.

In 2018, R.A. Industries’ President and CEO Follman-Otta was recognized as a business influencer and leader in the Orange County Business Journal's OC500. She shares this honor with The Irvine Company’s Donald Bren, former NBA basketball player Kobe Bryant, and Chapman University's President Emeritus James Doti. Follman-Otta is an Executive MBA graduate of Chapman University.

The company employs more than 30 people, and was recognized in the 2017 Orange County Business Journal's list of Women and Minority-Owned Businesses.

Despite the economic downturns in manufacturing and, the global oil and gas industry in 2015, the company remains strong because Markall made decisions to diversify their client-base by expanding into serving global markets. The Follman family attributes this staying power to the solid foundation of core values set by three generations of Follman's. It reflects the company's metrics standards of 100 percent on-time delivery, 99.85 percent quality ratings, and value-added pricing.

In addition to managing privately owned manufacturing companies, Follman-Otta leads as chief operating officer (COO) at the Katmai Lodge adventure destination in Alaska. Katmai Lodge is located along the scenic Alagnak River, near the legendary Brooks Falls in the Katmai National Park. Robert Follman bought the Katmai Fishing Lodge in 2014. Under the Follman family ownership in 2018, on the travel-based reviewer site, TripAdvisor, Katmai Lodge overall rated 5 out of 5, and reviewers ranked it No. 1 out of all 16 specialty lodges near King Salmon, and the neighboring Katmai National Park and Preserve.

Prior to recording Dramatic Heroines, Follman-Otta met Italian American Conductor and Composer Steven Mercurio, on Andrea Bocelli's Royal Christmas Show tour. She credits Mercurio for helping to develop her repertoire by singing Puccini's Turandot. She said, "It was like putting on the right size shoes. My voice is finally comfortable." In 2013, she collaborated with him and the Northwest Sinfonia Orchestra.

The Follman patriarchal surname is of Austrian descent. However, Follman-Otta's matriarchal great-grandmother Teodora Paez de Hyland is of 100 percent Hispanic origin from El Rosario, Baja California, Mexico. She married Thomas Patrick Hyland who is 100 percent of Irish origin. During the Spanish rule of Baja California in the 19th century, Teodora's father, Ramon Paez was exclusively brought as a mining engineer from Spain to the town of El Rosario, most likely under the real estate development efforts by Luis Huller and George H. Sisson, and the search for mineral and Boleo Copper deposits.

Follman-Otta continues to support the arts community by serving as CEO and founder of two charities: the Follman-Young Foundation for the Arts, a 501(c)(3) public charity supporting budding performance artists. Follman-Otta, and Orange County philanthropist Robert E. Young co-founded FYFA in 2010. Concerned about cutbacks to visual and performing arts programs in educational institutions, Follman-Otta and the now-late Young established the non-profit organization to nurture the talent of aspiring artists and to foster appreciation of visual and performing arts in Southern California.

From 2000 to 2009, Follman-Otta led the Orange County School of the Arts as artistic director, and directed the voice conservatory program. She actively worked to mentor aspiring young artists, create strategic partnerships with leading arts and educational institutions, and develop long-term educational programs and funding to support the visual and performing arts.

In order to meet the demands of the increased growing sales of R.A. Industries, Markall was created in 1985. Since its inception, the company is the sales and marketing distribution hub for its long-established manufacturing arm, R.A. Industries which has operated in Santa Ana, Calif. for three generations, spanning more than 60 years. Follman-Otta and her mother own 51 percent of Markall. It is a SCMSDC certified women and minority-owned business.

Subsequently, in the 1980s, Follman started working with Richard Auger—the “R.A.” of R.A. Industries, and they became partners until Follman bought out Auger and became chief executive of R.A. Industries.

The Follman's company was eventually sold to an oil drilling firm in the late 1970s, and Follman pursued his father's business path in engineering and manufacturing.

Robin Follman-Otta (born December 9, 1969) is an American business executive at multiple private companies, an international operatic soprano and a philanthropist. She is president and chief executive officer (CEO) at Markall, Inc., an MBE certified women and minority-owned sales and marketing distribution company for its manufacturing arm R.A. Industries, LLC.. The latter company is an engineering and manufacturing completion center specializing in complex precision components and assemblies for the:

The family business heritage started with Adam Matthew Follman, a former Michigan farmer and Follman-Otta's grandfather who founded a company in the 1960s providing parts and materials to the oil and gas industry in Southern California. Her father, Robert Follman, at the age of 17 years old started working in his father's company, learning about technology on the production floor with his father, jury-rigging needed machines and testing various products.

In her patriarchal lineage, Follman-Otta's grandmother was Dorothea Derrfuss, mother to Robert Follman. In southeastern Germany bordering Austria, Derrfuss was raised by Bavarian nuns who taught her how to sing, which became her calling later in life. After immigrating to the U.S., Derrfuss married a German baron with whom she had twin daughters. When her husband deserted the family, and she could no longer care for her daughters, Derrfuss turned to an orphanage for the care of the twins, and sung opera across the U.S. Her success eventually led to her performing contralto on Chicago's NBC-WCFL evening radio shows in the early 1930s. Derrfuss’ inherent vocal gift carried on to generation after generation as the twin girls embraced singing, and Follman-Otta made professional opera her early career. "Ever since, all the women in the family could sing," Follman said.