Welcome New Partners

(From the March 2006 Newsletter)

Scott Collins - Scott has lived in the Portland area since 1984. He moved here from Arkansas to take a job with Andersen Consulting. After five years at Andersen and a brief time at a client, Scott joined a startup healthcare consulting firm, Stockamp & Associates in 1990 where he stayed until 2003. Since leaving Stockamp, Scott has enjoyed spending more time with his family and generally catching up on life after many years of travel. Scott and his wife Gaila have three children, ages 11, 9 and 6. He is currently working with the CASH project.

Judith A. McGee - Judith A. McGee has a distinguished career in financial planning, business and community service. In January 2006, Research Magazine recognized Judith as one of "America's Top-Ranked Advisors". Her financial planning career began in 1975 and she received her Certified Financial Planner designation from the College for Financial Planning in 1979, making Judith the first woman Certified Financial Planner in the ten western states. In 1989, Judith joined Raymond James Financial Services, Inc., a NASD/SIPC broker/dealer in St. Petersburg, Florida as branch manager.

Judith authors a bi-weekly financial column published in The Daily Journal of Commerce and contributes regularly to national business publications which have included the American Bankers Association Trust and Investment magazine. She has written consumer financial books published through Simon & Schuster (The J.K. Lassers' Personal Investment Annuals (1988-1992) and the J.K. Lasser Personal Real Estate Investment Guide). Her book, The Random House Personal Investment Management Guide (1993) with Andrew Tobias' Managing Your Money software, was listed by Money Magazine as one of the nine best money books of the year.

Judith has been a dedicated volunteer to social service organizations and currently serves as President of the Board of Directors of William Temple House in Portland. William Temple House is a 40-year-old social service and counseling agency assisting over 12,000 working poor each year. She is co-founder and member of the Board of Directors of Town Center Bank, Portland, Oregon, a community bank organized in 1997.

Family is the core of Judith's life. She and her husband, Charles E. Defoe, Jr., have three grown children and love being grandparents. Chuck and Judith share their love of the outdoors and Judith covets catching the biggest fish and delights in snowmobiling in the mountains.

Mark Waller - Mark Waller is the founder of BridgeWorks Capital, a Lake Oswego merchant bank that focuses on raising early stage capital for a variety of companies including companies active in medical technology, green energy, software, and mining and natural resources. Several of these companies have been spin-offs from universities and national labs.

Mark spends about a third of his time working with non-profits. He served on the Board of the National College of Naturopathic Medicine for ten years and raised the largest gifts in the school's history to establish their research department. He served as Board Chair of the local Tibetan community and was instrumental in bringing the Dalai Lama to Portland for three days in May 2001. He is an active member of the Board of Self Enhancement, Inc. which helps at-risk kids reach their fullest potential and become productive citizens. He is a director of the Lake Oswego chapter of Rotary and is the regional Membership Chair for 2005-2006. He was also co-founder of Kiddazzle Dental Network, which has provided pro bono dental care to over 200 underserved kids in Portland.

Mark was born in New York City and came west to attend Reed College in 1968. For fun, he plays copious amounts of tennis, patrols for the Mt. Hood Ski Patrol, cycles and tries to exhaust his Australian Shepherd Jake.