As Grove’s new Operations Manager, Jim sees to the day to day running of the company. He’s a dynamic thinker and is quickly becoming an integral member of team Grove. For his first five months he familiarized himself with how we use lean manufacturing to make our products.  He spent a lot of time getting to know the behind the scenes at Grove and is especially interested in inter-departmental communication, process, and flow.  Jim is also a project manager, primarily for product launches - the most recent being for our new Wood Speakers!

Jim hails from Romeoville, IL, a place he describes as “an industrial nexus in the ever expanding Chigolandland beast with lots of options for good Italian beef.” He came out to Portland in 2001, where he now lives with his wife Sarah Toor-- a photographer who also does marketing for Portland’s White Bird Dance Company.

Outside of work Jim loves to get his exercise playing soccer at Portland’s longest running pick up game in West Moreland Park. He practices yin yoga-- a very slow, gentle, restorative yoga which takes place largely on the mat.  Yin wards off those pesky soccer injuries and also helps him stay grounded and chill.

He and his wife Sarah host two annual events-- The ShortShort Film Fest and The Blacklight Audio Fest. The ShorotShort attracts between 50-60 people and shows 10-12 film submissions usually ranging 3-5 minutes in duration. The Blacklight Audio Fest features found sounds, spoken word poetry, and longer sound pieces similar to our favorite NPR shows This American Life and Radiolab. Fun! These events are in their sixth year running!  You can learn more about these at yumilife.com.

goGrove!

Written by Mike Schultz. Mike is an oil painter from Ithaca, New York.  When he is not working for Grove, he’s painting and drawing to his heart’s content. You can see his work on his blog and his website.