OK 29: Voyager

Owners of rapidly growing companies

Moderator

Ryan Lewis
Ryan Lewis

I help businesses reach higher growth and profitability while also coaching executive teams to perform at their best. My track record of building my business to be one of Oregon's Fastest Growing Companies (2 years in a row) and on the Inc. 5000 (2 years in a row), while also being voted one of the best places to work in Oregon provides a library of actionable experience for my clients.

Team Members

Affton Coffelt
Affton Coffelt

Affton is the CEO and Founder of Broken Top Brands, a Bend based company curating soy candles, lotions, soap, linen sprays and more. If you were to meet her person, she’d tell you the following: She’s a mother of three, has an immense love for tacos, paddle boarding, hitting the gym, and spending as much time with family and friends as humanly possible.

Founded in 2015 in her small kitchen, the company has grown to its current state in a 10,000 sq foot manufacturing facility in Bend, and a tight knit crew of 27 staff members that now make up the growing company. Affton found success in pitching to key wholesale accounts starting locally, and now features her products in Macy’s, Whole Foods, Crate and Barrel, and more, maintaining sustainable packaging and plant-based ingredients along the way!

Matt Watson
Matt Watson

Matt approaches design as both a creative and a business strategist. He earned his stripes working at Lippincott (NYC) before spending ten years as a senior member for Nike creative team. His work has been featured in over fifty publications, seven documentary films, as well as by the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Matt is the President and Creative Director of Watson Creative – a research-based creative studio.

Matt is married to Jessica and has two children, Henry (10) and Penelope (8), along with a dog and cat. They moved to Bend about a year ago on live on the West side.

FUN FACTS
Can be found: yelling at/for the Oregon State Beavers
Favorite sneaker: Original Air Max 90
Superpower: Observation

Micah Carlson
Micah Carlson

I am the CEO and founder of Defense Architecture Systems Inc. and Gallant Technologies Inc. After a 14 year career at The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory working on a multitude of government programs, I bring over 25 years of engineering design, prototyping and management for DAS customers in need of critical operational systems. I am dedicated to ensuring client and employee success, while bringing new capabilities and easier decision making to complex problems.

I was born in Colorado and moved to Maryland in the late 90's. With our move to Bend in 2020, I have been able to get back to my mountain-based Sasquatchian roots. I enjoy hanging with my family and focusing on outdoor activities including biking, running, and snowboarding.

Sarah Williamson
Sarah Williamson
SWPR Group

Sarah Williamson has more than 15 years of experience creating and implementing strategic PR programs for education organizations. From startups and nonprofit organizations to research institutes and schools, Sarah has spent her career helping clients secure results that make an impact. She helps education organizations blow past their competitors with strategies that make an impact. Sarah and her team think beyond traditional press releases and generic communication tactics and seek out big, bold ideas to create meaningful results for their clients.

Tyrone Hazen
Tyrone Hazen

Founder & Head of Product at Puffin Drinkwear
In recent years I’ve had a major shift in thinking regarding business and personal success. Previously motivated by the potential for personal benefit, I viewed my entrepreneurial pursuits as a means for personal security. Being led by expanders in the current business environment, these mentors have shifted the way I view, and more importantly the way I FEEL, about my business and the greater impacts my team can create. How great is it that we are now in a world where the best moves we can make for our businesses are those that provide an external benefit to our societies, environments and consciousness? My hope is to use success in business for a greater good, creating a positive culture that builds and strengthens communities.

Cort Bushholz
Cort Bushholz

Founder & CEO, SingleMind
An accomplished entrepreneur and technology executive with twenty years of industry experience and sufficient business savvy to maintain the same profitable business for more than 10 years. Founded SingleMind, a user-centered design and development agency, whose primary focus is to partner with great clients in order to solve fascinating problems. Because at the end of the day if our solution doesn’t produce real financial results, there will be no longevity to the relationship.