Kate Jonasse, Owner and Lead Technician
Kate founded K-TECH Automotive in May 2009. As a child, Kate demonstrated a curious, technical mind by disassembling clocks and radios. After purchasing her first car, she became inspired to understand what made it tick. In 2001, Kate graduated from Alfred State College in Alfred, New York with an A.O.S. degree in Automotive Service.
After graduation, Kate interned at a Mercedes Benz dealership in Atlanta, Georgia. Before long, Kate was offered a position and became a Mercedes-Benz factory trained technician. There she learned the right way to repair and treat vehicles and the right way to treat customers. She thrived on the complexity of advanced automobile technology.
Committed to excellence and high standards, Kate took advanced training to hone her skills. She became ASE Master certified (the primary automotive technician certification in the US) and obtained a smog license.
In 2003, Kate moved to San Francisco after hearing how "cool the cars were ... no rust!" For the next few years she gained more and more experience working at various auto repair, transmission and smog shops. She found herself most "at home" working on European cars (VW, Audi, BMW, Jaguar, Rolls Royce, Mercedes) at Bay European in San Francisco.
At a time when Kate was ready for another challenge (and to leave the City), she was offered a job at Out West Garage, a woman owned automotive repair business in Petaluma, California. A year later she met instructor, Peter Oliver, at an Electric Vehicle Conversion class at the Santa Rosa Junior College. Not one to miss an opportunity, when Peter purchased the old Ford dealership building in Sebastopol in May 2009, Kate jumped on board and now operates K-TECH in the building. She works alongside other mechanics and specialists in electric and hybrid vehicles. Kate is already working on her next challenge, working with electric car technology. She is currently taking the "Electrical Circuits" class at the JC.
Kate lives in Petaluma and enjoys reading non-fiction, yoga and walking.
