Advisory Board
Robert L. Countryman, Vice President, J.P. Morgan Chase
Robert is currently Vice President of Commercial Banking and serves on the Board of FiTT Wellness, Inc., a Portland-based “Health & Wellness” management company which launched in January 2009.
Robert has over 20 years experience in the banking and financial services industry. Prior to joining J.P. Morgan Chase, he was Executive Vice President of Business Development & Client Service at Capital Pacific Bank and was a member of the bank’s Executive Management Team. Capital Pacific Bank, founded in 2003, serves the banking needs of small to medium-sized businesses, non-profits and professionals in the Portland area. Robert was instrumental in getting this new bank off the ground, leading the sales effort to grow its balance sheet to over $140 million in loans and $115 million in deposits as of December 2008.
Robert was Senior Vice President & Team Leader of KeyBank’s Corporate Banking Group in Portland from 1998-2003 and was part of Key’s Oregon District Management Team. Prior to joining KeyBank, he spent 11 years with Bank of America/NationsBank and held various positions in Commercial Banking and Commercial Finance in Portland, Seattle and Dallas, TX.
Robert is very active in the Portland community and has held numerous volunteer leadership positions with local non-profits and business organizations. Robert holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration-Finance & Law from Portland State University, and graduated with High Honors.
COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES/HONORS:
- Portland Children’s Museum (PCM ) – current Member of the Leadership Council; Past Board Member; Finance Committee Member; Past Board President (2002-2003);
- FiTT Foundation – Founding Board Member (2009)
- YMCA Columbia Willamette – current Board of Trustees; Chairman of the 2009 Strong Communities Fundraising Campaign, Member of Childcare Division Board;
- Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation – Honorary Board and current Member of the Corporate Relationship Committee; Past Board President (2000-2002);
- Member of Senator Gordon Smith’s finance committee (2006-2008)
- 2003 recipient of The Portland Business Journal’s “Top 40 under 40″ award recognizing the most influential executives in Portland under the age of 40;
- Honored by the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society as one of its four “2006 Man-of-the-Year” candidates, current member of the “Man and Women of the Year” Committee.
- Parent of the Year (2003) – “Roses for Parents” Gala and Auction, (a Rose Festival Event for Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation).
Jeremy Stoddart
Jeremy attended University of Oregon. He went on to successfully lead a Division at a regional marketing company. Feeling a need to give back, Jeremy decided to serve a mission for his church, serving for two years in Brazil. After returning from his mission, he began investing in real estate by purchasing houses in various inner Portland neighborhoods and restoring them.
After a couple of years of effort, a talented Real Estate agent recruited him into the Mortgage Industry where he quickly became a top producing Loan Officer. With an entrepreneurial mind, he saw a need for a company that was passionate about educating their clients to help them make sound financial decisions and assist them on a path to financial independence. He valued long term relationships and felt that the mortgage broker could be elevated to a trusted advisor in the lives of their clients. With this vision, he founded Source One Financial in 2002.
With the major changes in the financial markets, he merged Source One Financial into a Mortgage Bank in Mortgage Trust in April of 2008. At Mortgage Trust he gained the ability to offer FHA loans and have access to banking channels that brokerages do not have. He opened a branch in the Pearl District for his team called Strategy7. At Strategy7 they take a full seven circle analysis of a clients financial situation and design strategies consistent with their short, mid and long term goals.
Today, Jeremy is very well respected in the lending community and serves on the board of a number of business organizations. He is also active in his church Youth Programs working with kids from 12-18 years of age. With his competitive spirit he enjoys half marathons and triathlons. Jeremy has a strong appetite for personal growth and development and influences others around him to be their personal best.
Jeremy enjoys reading, travel and spending time with his friends and family.
Ryan Joseph Davis Christensen
Ryan Joseph Davis Christensen was born May 22, 1976 in sunny Fresno, CA. After highschool, he headed north to Oregon seeking out new inspirations. Wanting to do something significant with people, he soon found himself in the teaching program at Portland State University where his philosophies on equality and humanism began to develop more fully. No doubt, he took from his own youth as a child of an inter-racial couple and his diverse upbringings in developing youth pedagogical theories based on the principal of egalitarianism. It was no easy sell. After becoming disillusioned with the limitations of a teaching program, Ryan took his ideas to the street, launching Sameunderneath as a clothing line February 9th, 1999.
Then, like most good things, it was a process. Ten years of Ryan growing the company fiscally, while involving it with music, dance, art, fashion, political, and community events – altogether fusing his passion for people with his nose for style. Ryan continued to be the vision, voice and modern day prophet of Sameunderneath until late 2008 when he sold the company. He currently sits on the board of The Oregon Bus Project, a progressive political organization and Our United Village, a community based organization that empowers neighborhoods to work with each other to tackle community obstacles. Ryan is also pursuing a new adventure with local companies as their Brand Evangelist.
“As the Brand Evangelist for brands, I will bring my own grassroots and guerilla-style marketing to help build a brand that is more than just fashion,footwear, or consumer good and moves into something experiential for both the Brand and its customers.”-Ryan JD Christensen
He has launched a personal website, RYANJDC.com, on February 1, 2009. RYANJDC.com will include personal and professional ventures including speaking engagements, travel, and business endeavors; as well as a blog space to keep in touch with all those that have touched his life personally and professionally.
At the tender age of 33, Ryan has already accomplished many feats by sticking to his motto of “positivity and perserversance”. In turn, he has been awarded the following:
2008-Featured in Kevin Carroll’s The Red Rubber Ball at Work: Elevate Your Game through the Hidden Power of Play as one of the 31 successful players within business, arts, music, and sports.
2008- Picked as one of the “25 of Portland’s Most Creative Thinkers” by Ultimate Northwest special edition by the Oregonian
2008- Selected as one of the “40 under 40” by Portland Business Journal
2008- Chosen as one of 3 finalists for the Angel Oregon Fund, received Popular Vote of over 300 angel investors
2007- Credited as one of the leaders in sustainable apparel brands in Josh Dorfman’s The Lazy Environmentalist
2006- Sameunderneath voted “Best Local Clothing Brand” by Portland Monthly