From the VP of an award winning apparel company, to the head of a chain of progressive markets, to a man who recently founded a company with the mission of improving the world through sensor data, Portland boasts an array of talented pioneers. In honor of Portland’s push to continually innovate the world, our editorial staff has hand picked 9 influential personalities who are poised to elevate our city’s business arena to new heights.
Below are our finalists:
1. Patrick Criteser – CEO – Tillamook County Creamery Association
Tillamook Creamery is arguably the most dominant company in Oregon’s agriculture sector. To maintain this position the company hired Patrick Criteser as the CEO in 2012 with a focus on innovation and growth. A company that was once known mainly for their famous cheddar cheese has now been reeling out a number of new products including 8 different flavors of Tillamook Greek yogurt. Furthermore just last week the brand did a revamp of their product packaging. It will be exciting to see what comes next from Patrick and the folks over at Tillamook.
2.Linda Balfour – Marketing Director – Keen Footwear
As the Marketing director for Keen Footwear, Linda has turned ideas into actions and has effectively grown the brands awareness worldwide. Recently Balfour worked on Keen’s “Follow Your Feet” campaign providing their audience with compelling stories from Keen ambassadors and non profit partners. Keen continues to play a monumental role in attracting attention to Portland’s business scene, whilst being written up year after year as one of “America’s Best Places to Work”. We look forward to seeing what steps Linda & Keen makes next.
3. Ryan Carson – CEO – Team Treehouse
Ryan Carson is the CEO of Treehouse. Treehouse is a fast-growing online coding school that is bringing technology education to the masses. Under Ryan’s guidance treehouse has helped a number of students achieve their dreams and in doing so has unanimously received the admiration of all within the Portland startup scene. Way to go Ryan!
4. Renny Glesson – Global Director of Interactive Strategies – Wieden + Kennedy
As the Global Director of Interactive Strategies for Wieden and Kennedy, Renny has helped a bunch of notable W+K clients navigate their way around the digital world. With clients ranging from Coca-Cola to Nike, Rennys domain is far reaching. Furthermore Renny is a co-founder of PIE, the Portland Incubator Experiment that has been fostering the growth of many innovative new startups such as Cloudability, Orchestrate, and Smart Mocha. Gleeson is without a doubt one of the biggest influencers throughout Portland right now, and we predict his notoriety around Portland will only increase in the future.
5. Surj Patel – CEO – Smart Mocha
Surj Patel created Smart Mocha with the mission of improving the world through sensor data. Previously an ambassador for Gigaom, Patel has a passion for technology. With the creation of Smart Mocha, Patel is pushing the Portland tech scene to the brink of innovation. Simply put, Patel is the epitome of a revolutionary innovator. We will surely see great things from him in the near future.
6. Chris Satchell- Consumer Technology Officer / VP –Nike
As the Consumer Technology Officer / VP at Nike, Chris Satchell has been helping to shape the future of the worlds apparel industry within the digital stratosphere. With Nike’s presence floating over the city, we will definitely be keeping our eyes on Chris Satchell to see how he leads Nike to the top of the digital world. Satchell will also be speaking at this year’s TechFestNW. Do yourself a favor and go check him out.
7. Luke Kanies – CEO – Puppet Labs
Puppet Labs is growing so fast it is hard to keep up. Their primary product, “Puppet Enterprise” is the commercially supported version of its open source management tool “Puppet” which Luke created himself. Many of the world’s leading companies such as Cisco, and eBay are using Puppet Labs software to manage their IT infrastructure and scale. A natural borne risk taker, there is no limit to what the future holds for Luke Kanies.
8. Wendy Collie – CEO- New Seasons Market
If you ask anyone in Portland what the friendliest market in town is you will always receive the same reply, “ It’s New Seasons”. The market is so popular that a metro study claimed that a “New Seasons grocery store raises the surrounding property value by about 20%”. While other stores merely sell groceries, New Seasons uses their leverage to empower local social groups and raise the awareness of several environmental issues. Since her hire in 2012 Wendy has continued to support the local community through personal volunteering as well as through maintaining New Seasons sustainable approach. Within the Portland food industry Wendy is a bona fide rock-star.
9. Chris Murphy – Director of Brand Communications & Digital Marketing – Adidas U.S.
Mr. Murphy has received a number of industry awards for his work at Adidas. One of the most notable of these being a viral video finalist at the 2006 Cannes Festival. Fast forward 8 years and Chris is now on the other side of the circuit as a recently announced guest judge at M&M Global Awards 2014. A strong advocate of social media for brand awareness, Chris will surely give Adidas a digital boost and raise the bar for apparel companies aiming at furthering their digital presence. We will definitely be keeping an eye out on Adidas and Murphy’s efforts.
Well there you have it.
We have rounded up Scratch-it’s list of the top 9 innovators shakin’ up Portland. We know there are many other important figures in the Portland scene that we did not mention in this list. While we specifically commend the efforts of these 9 rising stars we wish the entire business community operating within Portlandia the best on their pursuits. If you have any suggestions on up and coming leaders that we should mention in a future write up, please free to reach out to us at info@scratch-it.com.
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