Board of Directors

Mark’s education is part of his journey.  He holds an M.S in Wildland Resource Science.  Then he was a carpenter before going on to an MBA by the time he was 30.  Pursuing a career in business, he first worked for very large companies, but subsequently owned and ran two small businesses over the next 25 years.  The first  business had a technical computer mapping twist.  The second business was different, Mark and his wife Gayle developed and ran a luxury Bed and Breakfast in the Sierra Foothills where they lived for 32 years.  In 2017 they sold the B&B and retired.  

 

Mark has always loved hiking and backpacking.  That interest started with his first 50 miler as an 11 year old boy scout.  He figures his time spent on High Sierra backpack trips totals about one-and-a-half years.  How?  50 years of summer vacations mostly, and 30 of those with his wife Gayle.   Mark returns again and again to the Southern Sierra where the mountain ranges are vast, the peaks high, and the canyons deep.  Then he landed in the Siskiyous which have their own gentle and spectacular beauty. 

Geoff has a BS in Finance, and had a business career in marketing and business development in the technology sector. His career spanned 13 years at National Semiconductor in the Bay Area, then 3 years at a software company before moving to the Portland area where he worked for Intel for 18 years. He held positions in product marketing, competitive analysis, industry marketing, and business development.

 

He moved to the Applegate in 2016 where he and his wife live off grid on 170 acres in their dream home, which they built after buying land there years earlier. 

 

Geoff is an avid hiker, mountain biker and back country skier. He is a volunteer with the Land Steward program from the Southern Oregon Research and Extension Center (SOREC). He lives directly off the East Applegate Ridge Trail (ART) and is passionate about seeing the ART developed to its fullest potential.

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Norm graduated from the University of Idaho with a degree in electrical engineering.  He then moved to the Bay Area where he worked in several startup companies. After not too many years of the hectic city life, he decided that the country, where he largely grew up, was the only place to be.  After a little bit of world traveling, he settled in Southern Oregon in the late 1980s.  Norm tried his hand in several small businesses, one of which became Applegate Broadband that he has run for 23 years.  In a rapidly changing IT environment it has been quite a wild ride.  Nevertheless, a combination of backcountry skills and technical learning has seen him through.  

 

Norm has always enjoyed the incredible beauty, and amazing recreational opportunities of Southern Oregon and the West in general. His life has been filled with hiking, backpacking, mountain biking, surfing, paragliding, rafting, backcountry skiing, now wing foiling, and e-biking, as a secondary career.  What a great place to live!

Scott, a native of the Applegate Valley, has a deep-rooted connection to his home river. With a passion for swimming holes, endemic plants, and the literary works of author Wendell Berry, his love for nature shines through. Professionally, Scott works in natural resource management, currently working  with the State of Oregon and previously with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Scott's dedication to environmental stewardship is further exemplified by his involvement as a former Master Gardener and ongoing pursuit of becoming a Master Naturalist through the Oregon State University extension service. As an enthusiastic trail runner, hiker, and backpacker, he actively seeks to share the unique beauty of the Applegate Valley with his neighbors and respectful visitors.