FORECAST SPEAKER BIOS
JOHN MITCHELL
John Mitchell received his B.A. degree from Williams College and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Oregon. He is a fellow of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Oregon and a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He was a professor of economics at Boise State University for 13 years, before joining U.S. Bancorp in July of 1983. He was Chief Economist of U.S. Bancorp until July of 1998 and served as Economist Western Region for US Bank until July of 2007. He wrote US. Bancorp’s regional publications including the Update, The Business Barometer, Northwest Portrait, US Territory , Oregon Tidbits and was a columnist for Oregon Business Magazine. He currently speaks to conventions and business groups around the nation and contributes to several newsletters. He was a business analyst for KPTV in Portland. He has been making economic presentations on the nation and the region for 40 years.
John is a member of the Western Blue Chip Forecast Panel, a Trustee of Aquila Tax Free Trust of Oregon, a board member of Oregon Mutual Insurance Company and Western Capital Bancorp in Boise, Idaho. John was Chairman of the Oregon Council of Economic Advisors from 1992 to 1998 and a member from 1984 to 1998. John was Chairman of the Oregon Governor’s Technical Advisory Committee on Tax Review and Chairman of the Life Flight Consortium.
SCOTT M. ROBINSON
Scott Robinson was recently appointed to Director, Investor Participations for StanCorp Mortgage Investors and leads a team that will participate loans in excess of $400 million per year. Prior to his recent appointment, he was Director, Loan Originations and led a team of originators that contribute toward annual loan production in excess of $1.5 billion a year. Scott has been with SMI since 1999.
Scott has been a Vice Chair of MBA’s Portfolio Investors Committee since 2007, has received the FLMI designation and has completed the CRI Level 1 exam. Scott earned a MBA from Portland State University and a B.A. in Business Administration, Finance/Real Estate from California State University, Fullerton.
JULIE ROST
Rost’s real estate career spans over a decade and has led to her recognition as an expert in real estate investment, private equity fund raising and capital placement. After opening and managing three west coast real estate equity firms, she has opened her own consulting company focusing on raising private equity capital.
Rost is on the national board of directors for CREW and was recognized as a “Woman of Impact” from CREW Sacramento in 2008. She is an active member of the Pension Real Estate Association, CREW Sacramento and a past member of the Advisory Board of Real Estate Investment.
CRAIG WESSEL - MODERATOR
Publisher of The Portland Business Journal for the past 8 years, Wessel has been involved in the newspaper and magazine publishing industry for 24 years.
Prior to joining The Portland Business Journal, he was Director of Marketing for Street & Smith’s SportsBusiness Journal, a national trade publication serving the sports industry.
Wessel has also served as publisher of Corporate Report Minnesota magazine, a national award winning statewide business magazine, and Minnesota Ventures, a small business magazine serving the state of Minnesota.
Prior to serving as publisher of the Minnesota magazines, Wessel was president and owner of a publishing consulting firm in Santa Monica, California, which served trade publications across the country.
Wessel began his publishing career with American City Business Journals where, as Director of Development, he was involved in the launch of more than 15 regional business newspapers.
Wessel has an undergraduate degree in International Finance from the University of Georgia, a certificate in Composing and Arranging from the Grove School of Music in Los Angeles, and has completed several courses of study in publishing industry related seminars, conferences and symposiums. He currently serves on the boards of the Classic Wines Auction, Junior Achievement and Doernbecher Children’s Hospital Foundation.
