Greenlight Greater Portland – I’m Inspired

Sep 10 2008

Yesterday, I joined the Board of Greenlight Greater Portland, an economic development group represented by Portland’s private-sector business community. Greenlight’s goal is to recruit and retain growing companies in the Greater Portland region. I was inspired by Greenlight’s mission and the approachability and competence of the Board – titans of industry in this town – I was inspired to write a thank you email to them last night. It went something like this:

From: Ryan Buchanan
To: Tim Priest ; Mark Ganz ; Malia Wasson ; Eric Parsons ; Pat Reiten ; Peggy Fowler ; Steve Stadum ; Roger Hinshaw ; Bill Stoller ; Bob Jesenik ; Wes Lawrence ; Jim Mark ; Dennis Rawlinson ; Keith Leavitt ; Lindsay Desrochers ; Wally Van Valkenburg ; Don Krahmer ; Alan Johnson ; Randy L. Miller ; Scott Campbell ; John Bradley ; Jay Platt
Sent: Tue Sep 09 23:51:47 2008
Subject: RE: September 9 Greenlight Board Meeting: thank you

I wanted to thank each of you for welcoming me onto the Greenlight Board today. Truly, I’m honored. I knew a few of you before today’s Board meeting, but was really encouraged to meet and connect with many of the rest of you. It goes without saying that it is an incredibly prestigious group of individuals and I’m the young guy in the room – willing to listen, learn, and be mentored. I think my initial role will primarily be the voice of the scrappy entrepreneur who I think is Greenlight’s likely target audience from a company recruitment standpoint. And also, I can be a liason to key partners in the community whether it is SAO, OEN, PAF, PDC or other groups.

But, most importantly, I’m in love with this city, the people, the business community here, its proximity to the awe-inspiring outdoors. We, as Portlanders, define ourselves by what we enjoy doing, not solely by our occupation. It is this powerful emotional connection to the region we represent that differentiates us most from other business communities and I am a huge advocate of bringing that passion, positive energy, and relationship-building to the table so that we collectively can be the magnet that draws and retains “A” talent, innovative entrepreneurs, companies, and entire divisions of companies to and in Portland.

Again, thank you. We all get wrapped up into the hundreds of things happening in our companies, community involvement, and families, but you should all take at least 30 seconds of time to be proud of creating a new organization that has gained significant early traction and will, with its partners in the region, be the driving force behind taking the Portland business community to the next level over the next 10 years.

I almost forgot, I know many of you are inundated with emails, so this will be my only “reply to all” email unless requested.

Thx,

Ryan

Ryan Buchanan | CEO
www.eROI.com | Inc. 500 Company
505 NW Couch, Suite 300, Portland, OR 97209
TEL 503.290.3199 FAX 503.228.4249