Bryan Howe

I'm pretty sure somewhere in 2003 my family wanted to ask when I was going to stop this "business planning thing" and get a job. When I started the business as a sole proprietorship in 2002, I never really set out for it to be what it's become. I thought I could help some people, make some money, and work when I wanted. That was my original business plan. When the workload reached a point I couldn't do it all I started thinking about breaking the plan into pieces and have someone focus on each particular section so I could just sell and do financial modeling. In 2004 the team plan model was developed. Since then we have worked with over 10,000 clients and counting.

Connect with me on LinkedIn

Achievements:
2004—The first Alight Planning Certified Consultant
2007—Inc 500 list #111 in the US and #2 in Portland with over 2000% growth
2008—Invited to be a Portland Business Journal and Inc Magazine Guest Columnist
2008—Honored to join Friends of the Children Marketing Committee
2009—Honored as one of Portland's Top 40 Under 40 business people in 2008 by the Portland Business Journal based on business practices and giving back to the community.
2010—Elected to Entrepreneur Organization's Portland chapter Board of Directors as Membership Chair

MasterPlans CEO Bryan Howe sits on the marketing board for Portland's Friends of the Children, a charitable organization. We are also a senior sponsor of the Friendraiser charity event and encourage all entrepreneurs to get involved with their own communities.

William Dean

William came to MasterPlans after a less rewarding career as a paralegal. He does two main things for MasterPlans: 1) monitoring workflow internally, and 2) writing business plans for some of our most promising clients. His hands-on work with our special projects division has led to successful venture documents for companies in the solar industry, biotechnology, ecommerce, and the entertainment field.

William attended Brown University and was the Tristam Burges scholar in English. Burned out on literature from his college days, he now "won't read outside work" and commits his evenings to watching NBA basketball, working to renovate his house, and spending time with friends and colleagues.

Matt Harding

After running an online logo design business and a computer support company in Santa Barbara, California, Matt moved up to join MasterPlans to become the lead designer and marketing strategist. During that time he created over 1600 completely unique logo designs for our clients. His work has appeared in Entrepreneur, Inc, Fast Company, and other publications. One ad in Delta's Horizon in flight magazine got some media attention of its own here:
http://www.viddler.com/explore/helpmybusiness/videos/117/

Now the VP of Marketing, Matt manages our affiliate relationships, assists in long-term planning, and seeks out new business opportunity.

Matt's first foray to Portland was to complete a Bachelor of Arts at Lewis and Clark College with a major in Fine Arts and a minor in East Asian Studies. He enjoys contemplative hours in front of an Xbox 360, competitive tennis, brainstorming business ideas, building computers and creating his own graphic design at home.

Rick Nischalke

Rick Nischalke brings a plethora of business experience to the MasterPlans team. His background in business includes multiple personally owned businesses, as well as many years of business consulting for other business owners.

Rick's extensive business background enables him to accurately assess client needs and goals quickly and to assist them by recommending the best business plan to obtain their objectives.

Among other accomplishments, Rick is a skilled corporate trainer and manager. He has managed as many as 120 employees and has established a national training facility and program for a major energy company. He also has an extensive background in the financial field including mortgage origination.

Rick has been licensed in the following areas: Real estate, Health insurance, Life insurance and Series 6 & 63 Securities.

Rick is happily married and has four children. His faith and family are a very important part of his life. Investing and internet marketing are two of his top interests.

Tom Martinez

Tom Martinez brings several years of solid management and customer service skills to the MasterPlans team. He has held various positions with major corporations and has always been a top contributor in his work environment.

Tom is hard working and personable, and always goes the extra mile to ensure a pleasant and professional experience for our clients.

His interests include film, theatre and mixed martial arts.

Miri Rossitto

As a current resident of Los Angeles, Miri is a well balanced career woman, wife, and mother. She is a natural communicator, and with 12 years of sales experience, coupled with numerous entrepreneurial ventures, she lends a unique perspective and always makes lasting impressions with clients.

Miri adds a tremendous amount of enthusiasm and drive to Masterplans and Masterplans adds it right back to her. As soon as you talk to her, you'll notice her infectious enthusiasm for entrepreneurship that really motivates you. As soon as we met Miri, we knew we needed her on our team.

Her experience ranges all the way from top sale positions with European Corporations to launching her own lucrative company, however, it's her family that keep Miri grounded and her children's bright futures that drive her to succeed.

Marisa Marconi

Marisa has managed more than 2,000 business plan projects since joining the MasterPlans team. Her project portfolio spans all industries and includes many successful companies, including:

• Green House
• Rumba Time
• Super Sprowtz
• Medi Vet
• The Eco Capitalist

Marisa's penchant (some may say obsession) for organization and her analytic approach to each project are both key ingredients for successful projects. A seasoned veteran of the industry, her work with such a wide variety of businesses gives her a unique perspective as a project manager. "Because I've worked with so many different types of business models, I am able to quickly grasp new business ideas and identify what makes them unique as compared to other businesses in the market. I think this is really beneficial to clients—it means that they spend less time explaining to me what the business 'is' and more time on what strategies they plan to deploy, or what unique attributes their business has to make it stand out and succeed. These key points are—at the end of the day—what investors are looking for most in a business plan."

Prior to joining MasterPlans, Marisa worked in operations management and dabbled in film and video editing. She recently helped her partner plan and launch a preschool, which is now successfully operating in Portland. Marisa graduated from Columbia University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English. As captain of Columbia's softball team, she was a four time All-Ivy League honoree. When not deep in the throes of business planning, you may find Marisa biking the streets of Portland, paddling on the Willamette with her dragon boat team, or indulging in the local food scene.

Paige Short

Starting at MasterPlans as an editor, Paige Short quickly progressed to writing business plan narratives, and then to project management. While she has managed several hundred projects, Paige has worked on countless business plans in all stages of development, excelling at each position. The key, she says, lies in foresight—having the perspicacity to intuit the needs of clients and business planners is an attribute that allows Paige to take on challenges with composure.

Paige finds the critical close reading, analysis, and interpretation skills she honed while earning her Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees in literature vital to her leadership role at MasterPlans. "Details are critical, and being able to understand the elements of a project as part of a larger context is also vital. It's the synthesis that is often the challenge in project management."

An Irving Story Scholar and honors student at Pacific University, Paige Short earned the Outstanding Graduate Award for her class, and worked as an editor and writing resource specialist for the university. She taught English in graduate school, and earned her Master's Degree in literature from Portland State University.

Brock Aun

Like most of our clients, Brock Aun first came to MasterPlans in search of a new beginning. Brock started his MasterPlans career as a narrative writer and market researcher, where he applied his passion for writing to key portions of business plans on behalf of businesses as diverse as start-up daycare providers and multinational energy firms. It didn't take long, however, before Brock was identified as an ideal candidate to work directly with clients, and soon settled into his current role as a Project Manager, where he regularly draws on his previous professional experience in politics, public affairs, and administrative support.

Before joining MasterPlans, he enjoyed the privilege of working with local, state, and federal politicians in several states as well as Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations, all of which provided him with a comprehensive understanding of the unique challenges and opportunities within each economic sector. If you ask him, Brock will tell you his current role is more fulfilling than any other position he's ever held. "Working with clients every day to make their vision a reality is a uniquely rewarding experience," he says. "Every client's needs are different, and watching a plan come together from early kick-off calls to final delivery is exciting and always worth the effort."

Since starting at MasterPlans, Brock has worked on more than 550 unique plans and has personally managed more than 150 projects.

Kelly Hinkle

After a ten-year career of finance jobs in New York and New Jersey, Kelly followed her hunch that life in Oregon would be more fun. Upon relocating, she was hired as an "Excel Ninja" at MasterPlans, a place where she can apply her numbers geekery to a pleasantly-varied array of business models. Kelly began her career as research assistant for economist A. Gary Shilling, and besides contributing to his monthly newsletter, she was credited in his book, Deflation. She later worked as a community bank analyst and co-founded the community bank hedge fund, Lykos Capital Management. Kelly graduated with an Economics degree from Lehigh University and may finish the third level of the Chartered Financial Analyst program once she completes her first documentary film.

Stephanie Baty

When she's not at home with her husband and sweet/anxiety-riddled pit bull Stella, Stephanie Baty can likely be found dialed in to her computer developing unique marketing strategies for clients at MP. She is a huge supporter of the Portland Trailblazers, the Oregon State Beavers, and her beloved Yankees—though no one has the heart to tell her she's the only New York fan around these parts.

As the primary component of the marketing strategy development process, Stephanie relishes visualizing herself in the client's shoes, both deciphering and adding to the scope of a company's overall objective to establish a "feel" for the plan. She anticipates obstacles, devises meaningful suggestions, and hopes clients feel prepared to think unconventionally about promoting their business. One thing is certain: she believes in the power of networking—whether for an established marine taxi service or a proprietary software product—to build relationships, create lead opportunities, and give a human face to the business.

Aside from nurturing a few literature projects in her downtime, she volunteers for a behavioral classroom in the West Linn/Wilsonville school district, plays cheap golf and even cheaper tennis, cooks like the second place champ, goes camping, watches Jeopardy, and plays Scrabble against worthy opponents. Her background, though largely rooted in print journalism, includes roles in business development and strategic marketing, and she commits to a "client comes first" philosophy. Stephanie earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Oregon State University and is excited to be part of the MP team as a marketing and strategy consultant.

Morgan Hrejsa

Morgan comes to MasterPlans by way of Chicago, where she spent five years working in book publishing. As an editor, she helped shape her author's visions into nonfiction books. Today, she applies her background in writing, researching, and editing to ensure all clients have an appropriate and successful business plan.

Although she occasionally misses the editorial process, Morgan feels her most fulfilled when unearthing the crucial bits of market research that will justify the need for a client's business. In the past three years, Morgan has composed research reports and product descriptions on topics ranging from roadways in Nigeria, luxury apparel markets in Asia, to coffee shops in Portland, Oregon. Morgan relishes that each day brings new projects and new challenges.

Prior to being named Senior Market Analyst, Morgan oversaw plans as a Project Manager. Using her editorial eye, her plans garnered praise from clients, including:

"...both products are outstanding. Everyone I show them to is blown away."
–Eric Ssebanakitta

"My bank was impressed...I close next week."
–Brenda Griffin

"I wanted to thank you for your continued efforts to please, you MasterPlanners are great!"
–Matthew Perkins

"Thank you again so much for working patiently with me and explaining to me the components that I did not understand. You run a top-notch operation"
–Cynthia Johnson

When not at work, Morgan loves reading, working out at the gym or in Oregon's wilderness, playing with her cat, Margot, and spending time with her husband. Morgan earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in English, with a focus in advertising, from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana.

Mike Acker

In a little over a year with MasterPlans, I've had a hand in more than 800 business plans, contributing market research, product analysis, marketing strategy, and management summaries.

I have recently completed a Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing, and have been writing in one form or another for my whole life. Outside of creating business plans, I write about basketball and music, and have had my work featured on a number of local and national websites. I have many major writing projects in various stages of completion including a novel, screen plays, and a comic book. Any free time I have is spent watching movies, reading, and attending Blazer games!

Ethan Epstein

Ethan brings a wealth of writing and editing experience to MasterPlans, gained while writing for The Wall Street Journal, Slate, The Weekly Standard, and many other national publications, and bolstered by a Bachelor's degree in History from Reed College. His well-honed skills as a journalist have taken him to Seoul, Shanghai, and Beijing, among other locales. Now he turns his eagle eyes toward business plans, working to craft them into well-oiled funding machines. Having edited hundreds of plans to date, for everything from social networking websites to stem cell therapies to food trucks, Ethan is ready to turn your MasterPlan into a MasterPiece.

Mindy Moreland

Mindy is relatively new to MasterPlans, but is no stranger to solid business writing. A former Chamber of Commerce magazine reporter, Mindy has penned dozens of feature articles about start-up ventures, businesspeople of note, and game-changing innovations, which have appeared in publications. She is most fascinated by the origin stories of successful businesses, and appreciates being able to assist in the start-up process at MasterPlans. Mindy's natural curiosity and enthusiasm for research, coupled with her zealous attention to detail, round out the skill set that makes her an editor by both vocation—and inclination. It's little surprise, then, to learn that she's helmed both magazine and newspaper copy desks, served as managing editor of an online food writing journal, and moonlights as Portland Contributing Editor for Oregon Quarterly, the University of Oregon's award-winning alumni magazine.

• In her first year with MasterPlans alone, Mindy helped to refine, draft, or polish more than 800 business plans
• Has hand-crafted 20 custom PowerPoint presentations, preparing clients to present everything from wineries to technology firms to potential investors

Holly Richmond

Holly is an adroit, flexible writer who's crafted news pieces, advice columns, and press releases for teeny nonprofits as well as blog posts, tweets, and white papers for a certain well-known software giant. Most recently, Holly wrote compelling customer stories for Microsoft's Startup Business Group, about everything from technology that monitors home energy use to Midwest quilters using mobile marketing. She knows how to flesh out a phone call or stray bullet points into a convincing narrative anchored by market research. Despite being the newest member of MasterPlans' team, she's already worked on more than 100 business plans in her first two months, with her favorite being researching the rise of zombies in popular culture for a 5K zombie obstacle course.

Sabina Schmidt

Sabina is a senior Financial Modeler at MasterPlans and has more than 6,000 plans under her belt, ranging from restaurants and salons, to windmill farms and motion picture production companies. She is skilled and nimble at understanding clients' financial needs. "Helping clients who may be uncomfortable around numbers is a lot of fun," Sabina expresses. "It is satisfying when a client receives funding as a result of the plan and analysis we performed." Sabina's speed and efficiency in processing financial data facilitates a faster turnaround time back to MasterPlans' clients and impresses lenders.

When she's not finding new ways to improve clients' net profit, Sabina enjoys spending time with her family, in particular her lovable three-year-old son. "He's crunching numbers almost as fast as he crunches his Cheerios," she proclaims. Her previous experience includes work as a market research analyst at a leading web-based retailer, plus an analyst position at Taiwan's premier research institution, in a department led by Nobel Prize winner, Yuan Tseh Lee. Sabina holds degrees in both Business and Management, as well as Environmental Resource Engineering.

Leah Wing

From a young age Leah recognized that business was her forte. At age 11 she started a "landscaping" business that serviced one of her neighbors; instructing them where perennials would look best and then helped plant the flowers. While net profit for her business was only $5 that year, she knew she wanted more of that experience. By age 12 she was selling candy her mother bought her to kids on the playground for 25 cents apiece. Gaining knowledge in the business industry, she was able to raise her net profits for the year to $6.

A decade later, Leah found herself seeking new opportunities in Portland; the place where young people go to retire*. Finding work as a legal assist, Leah handled intellectual property cases, product, patent and trademark research and personal injury cases. When she chose to go back to school to finish her bachelor's, she started her own legal services company, LJ Wing, LLC.

Leah left Western Oregon University magna cum laude, with a BS in Business Administration and an Entrepreneurship minor. Then a funny thing happened: she got a job in the same industry she was educated for! Leah started with MasterPlans in September 2007. Since then, she's made approximately 8000 contracts and processed around 14,000 financial transactions**. She also serves as the Office Manager and all around "go to" person.

Prior to starting her career with MasterPlans, she also tried her hand at Personal Training, which led to her obsession with all things fitness, huge biceps and an appreciation of what the body is capable of. Like most Portlandians, she also enjoys hiking, biking and enjoying the limitless culinary scene Portland has to offer. She is expecting to retire by her 35th birthday.

*So says the show "Portlandia" on IFC.

**This means she can answer any question you throw at her regarding the contract or billing.

Beth Hegeholz

Beth moved to Portland 6 1/2 years ago from Wisconsin to finish her degree in Social Science at Portland State. She fell in love with the city and has decided to make it her home. In her time off she spends her time volunteering at 211, hiking in the Columbia Gorge and catching every Trailblazer game she can.

Shannon Gilligan

Shannon is a recent graduate of the University of Portland with a B.S. in Life Science. She plans to attend Portland State University to earn her master's degree in family and marriage counseling next year. While not working at MasterPlans, she volunteers at Laurelhurst Rehab center, running activities groups for patients. She is also a mentor to a foster child.

Stefanie Sullivan

Stefanie was born and raised in southern California when she relocated to the coastal town of Newport, Oregon for high school. She then moved to Eugene Oregon and attended Lane Community college while getting certified as a nutritionist. While following her passion for the health world Stefanie also became a personal trainer and a Pilates instructor. In Stefanie's free time she loves hanging out with her friends and family and her boxer Lola.

Sarah Kelleher

Sarah is a recent graduate of Portland State University with a B.A. in English. As well as working for our company Sarah is in the publicity and marketing internship program at Timber Press Inc.

Thomas Wilson

A Northwest native, Thomas has been designing professionally in the advertising and marketing fields since 2001. For more than a decade, he has created customized logos, ads, documents, and more for companies in nearly every industry imaginable. This extensive experience equips him with a unique understanding of each new business's aesthetic, and provides the ability to design capital-winning business plans and logos for every client. He has a passion for providing clients with the ideal design to fulfill their needs. To date, Thomas has personally created business plans and logos for more than 120 clients.

A deep appreciation for graphics and illustration makes up a major component of Thomas' personality, and he applies this passion to every project he takes on. The man sees art in, or wants to apply art to, everything. As he says, "While at the movies, I dissect the font as the credits roll. I can overlook a bad comic book story if the art is beautiful. My T-shirt collection is vast and graphical."

Some may say he is a little obsessed, but that only benefits our clients. Providing the ideal solution to each client's design equation is always Thomas' goal.

Richard Mavis

I've been creating websites for the web for a long time now. If you like this one, then we have at least one thing in common.

Do we have any more? Things that I like include: Apple computers, bicycles, crepes, digging, eskimos, faraway places, green text, holograms, imaginary letters, and jackalopes. Things that I dislike include: onions.

I also like Austin. I went to the University of Texas there and earned a BA in English Literature.

But I like Portland even more. I moved here in the winter of 2008 and have not once regretted it. My bike is probably cooler than any you've ever seen.