West Company::Staff

West Company Staff

Pamela Patterson, CEO

Pamela Patterson, became the CEO of West Company in July of 2004 at a time when the organization was in need of restructuring. Since taking the lead as West Company's CEO, Pamela has successfully secured over a million dollars in grants from diverse funding sources, and has been instrumental in growing and expanding West Company Services to include hosting the Small Business Development Center and in securing funds from the City of Fort Bragg and County of Mendocino through the Community Development Block Grant Program. 

Pamela has been assisting businesses in Mendocino County for over 10 years. Prior to becoming the CEO of West Company Pamela held positions of the Director of the Women's Business Center, Office Manager, and Business Consultant with West Company. Pamela has a vast knowledge of business and economic development in Mendocino County which has helped many local businesses start and grow.

Heather Gurewitz, Women's Business Center Director

Having grown up in an entrepreneurial household, Heather has a life-long understanding of what it means to own and operate a business.  However, her passion has always been for building and strengthening communities through grass roots economic development, which was the focus of her master degree in Community and Regional Planning from the University of Oregon completed in 2009.  She began her career shortly after receiving a bachelor degree in Geography from UC Berkeley in 1999, as a freelance cartographer and graphic designer, but found herself extremely motivated to participate in community development.  After a year-long stint as a planner at the State of Alaska Department of Transportation, Gurewitz "ran off and joined the Peace Corps" where she served two years in Honduras assisting in sustainable community and business development.  She has continued working with entrepreneurs through her AmeriCorps Service as part of the Resource Assistance for Rural Environments Program with the Northeast Oregon Economic Development District and as a graduate student. She specializes in community-based economic development with an emphasis in small business development. As well as directing the WBC program, Gurewitz is a certified facilitator for the Profit Mastery Program, and provides consulting and training to start-up and existing businesses.

Joy Calonico, Business Development Manager II

Joy is a "serial" entrepreneur with experience in business start-ups, product development, branding, marketing, business planning and operations, She has worked with businesses in Mendocino County for over 20 years. For five years she worked for West Company and the Santa Rosa SBDC, serving local entrepreneurs. She has a background in media and has been a POS display designer. She holds Masters degrees in fine art, business and communications.

Cathy Boyd, Operations Manager

With over 30 years of experience in administrative management, public relations, database administration, and contract management, Cathy is responsible for the administration of our internal policy and procedures that maintain the efficiency of our organization. In addition, she also administers the collection of data and required reporting to funding agencies and organizations. Cathy is also responsible for the design and maintenance of our internal tracking system which coordinates our funding and service delivery. 

Victoria Brittain, Administrative Coordinator (Inland)

Victoria coordinates the administrative office duties at our inland office.  She coordinates and schedules client consultations and provides support for outreach and events.

Melissa Anderson, Administrative Coordinator (Coast)

Melissa coordinates the administrative office duties in the coast office.  She coordinates and schedules client consultations and provides support for outreach and events.

In addition to employees at West Company, we have business advisors under contract to counsel our SBDC clients and when appropriate our TIG clients. Contractors include:

 

Nancy Banker, a highly motivated, results oriented seasoned executive with over 15 years of experience in multiple markets including health care. She was the founder and COO of Entremed Physician Equity Network from 1989-1998.

 

Johanna Jensen provides marketing assistance to our clients. One of her many accomplishments includes developing strategic marketing plans and implementation of tactical activities realizing $40 million in annual sales for clients of Attachmate Corporation.

 

Ruth Dobberpuhl is a certified QuickBooks bookkeeper and when appropriate, counsels our clients in their QuickBooks.

Molly Boynoff grew up on the south coast of Mendocino County and has worked in microenterprise development as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic. She is fluent in Spanish and brings a wide breadth of experience to our clients.

 

 

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