It’s not often that I get the opportunity to build something that I’m able to hand off to a new leader. I mean, I’ve been able to hand off jobs. And roles. Even a startup here and there. I came close with PIE a couple of times. But I’ve never truly managed to build something meaningful and lasting that truly had the potential to continue thriving and improving beyond me. Until we started Built Oregon. And today that handoff — and the next phase of Built’s work – is official. Katharine Reinhold is the new leader of Built Oregon.
If I’m good at one thing, it’s starting things. I’m almost as good at stopping things. But I’ve never been terribly good and continuing things. I like the messy startup mode. And with a cofounder like Mitch Daugherty, who shared a similar kind of startup ethos, we wound up trying a whole bunch of stuff during the first decade of Built.
Now, it’s time for someone to take that amalgamation of ideas and programs and make it into something that can scale. By simplifying. And optimizing. And operationalizing. With a fresh perspective. And that’s what Katharine is perfectly positioned to do.
A former director of innovation at adidas, Reinhold has had a varied and impactful history with Built Oregon. She has served as a mentor supporting founders in the Built Oregon community since 2019. As a board member, she helped to conceptualize and oversee the Built Marketplace, a stopgap effort to support Oregon consumer brands during the pandemic. After assuming the role of board chair, Reinhold helped steer the strategic direction of the organization and establish organizational structure that enabled Built Oregon to deliver more impact, more efficiently, with limited resources.
“As a purely volunteer board chair, Katharine still moved Built forward by leaps and bounds in terms of the organization and its operational maturity,” said Daugherty, who remains engaged as board chair of Built Oregon. “I absolutely cannot wait to see the impact that she will have with the opportunity to focus on Built full time. We’re so lucky to have her — as is our incredible community.”
Like Mitch, I can’t wait to see where Built goes from here. And I’m incredibly happy with the leadership we’ve chosen to help build a bigger, better version of Built.
For more, read the press release, Mitch’s take, Katharine’s take, or the coverage in The Oregonian and the Portland Business Journal.
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[…] as you may have seen, we managed to hire someone amazing to run Built Oregon, this week. Which means I get to “remove one of my hats” or “take something off […]