Meet the people who help you see the possibilities.

Kimberly S. Baker, CFP^®

Director of Financial Planning / Financial Planner

Background

Kim has been a Certified Financial Planner® professional with Johnson Bixby since 1993, taking on various leadership roles along the way. She now serves as our Director of Financial Planning, mentoring and teaching our newer financial planners. Her work includes imparting the firm’s process and philosophy and preparing early-career planners to step into the role of trusted financial advisor.

To help lift the next generation of financial planning professionals, Kim also invests time and energy in speaking with finance students at local universities.

Kim keeps a pulse on industry and market trends and developments to help serve clients and the team. And she’s a key contributor to our firm’s Planning Matters blog, Ripple Events and pro bono work.

An enthusiastic problem solver who enjoys teaching others, Kim also works to improve financial literacy in the community and has held several officer positions with the Financial Planning Association of Oregon & SW Washington.

• Kim enjoys the international sport of volkswalking—non-competitive goal-oriented group walking. She’s a member of the American Volkssport Association and walked all over the U.S. and in multiple countries.
• She and her husband, Dan, are always up for their next big home improvement project!
• After taking a 30-year break, she has recently rediscovered her love of playing piano.

Heidi Johnson Bixby, CFP^®

CEO, President and Financial Planner

Background

Heidi is the owner and ‘architect’ of our firm. She began her career in financial planning in 1991 as an assistant to Deborah Johnson, our company’s founder. She achieved her CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ certification in 1997 and has been devoted to helping clients plan for the lives they want ever since.

One of Heidi’s earliest lessons about money was her parents saying, “If you want it, save your pennies.” It’s an approach she’s used her entire life, and one she shares often with others.

Today, Heidi leads Johnson Bixby with a clear vision and purpose – to continue building the firm to give back to the profession of financial planning and to the community.

• An active member of the community, Heidi has chaired or served on the boards of many nonprofits and business organizations over the last 25 years.
• She is past board chair of Columbia Springs.
• She currently serves as board treasurer of Global Sojourns Giving Circle and is a member of the Mackay Sposito board.
• Heidi is the catalyst behind the scenes who launched Ripple Impact NW, a nonprofit focused on inspiring philanthropy locally, in 2022.
• Heidi isn’t just the architect of our firm—she also designed her own home.
• From multiple trips to Africa for GSGC work to Bangladesh and Shanghai to visit clients, Heidi has traveled to more than 30 countries, and travel continues to be the focus of her photography hobby.

Zach Reuter, CFP^®

Financial Planner

Background

Whether it’s the game of Gonzaga basketball or the game of personal finance, Zach is a huge fan. After making a 180- degree career change from nonprofit work to financial services, Zach is driven by the empowerment and confidence sound financial planning brings to people’s lives.

After college, Zach served as an AmeriCorps volunteer for two years in Spokane before transitioning to a Portland area nonprofit helping connect volunteers to service agencies across the Pacific Northwest.

After a budding fascination with personal finance became an obsession, he started working with a financial planning firm in Portland before joining Johnson Bixby in 2020. Zach was a member of our client services team prior to completing the requirements to become a Certified Financial Planner® professional and joining our team of planners.

Zach enjoys staying on top of changing financial law and regulations, but also learning about how to help clients use their resources, financial and otherwise, to live a meaningful life.

• At 6’7” Zach jokes about his ability to see above the fray and help make level-headed decisions (we love that he can reach high shelves in the office.)
• In college, Zach studied abroad in Zambia, focusing on chimpanzee behavior and group dynamics.
• He lives in the Salmon Creek area near WSU Vancouver with his wife, two children, and English bulldog, Penelope.

Amanda Reynolds, MA, CFP^®, CPA

Financial Planner

Background

Amanda knows talking about personal finances can feel very private, and sometimes it can be overwhelming. And that’s exactly why she is here combining her love of people and finance. As a Certified Financial Planner® professional, Amanda considers it a privilege to help guide our clients on a path toward achieving their goals.

Sometimes we don’t exactly know what we think or want until someone asks us pertinent questions, takes time to listen and draws connections about what they’ve heard. Amanda creates space for clients to feel comfortable sharing their values and priorities, so together they build a financial plan that is meaningful and realistic.

Growing up in California, she escaped to the Northwest years ago and still finds pure joy in every waterway she can dip her toes into. Whether it’s swimming, boating, kayaking, SUP’ing, hiking near a waterfall or simply sitting along the shore.

• Amanda started her career working in public accounting and then went on to be a part of several finance teams of local nonprofits.
• On her wish list is learning to horseback ride.
• She enjoys spending time with her nieces and nephews, occasionally being asked if she is their older sister.
• Watch Amanda’s Meet the Planner video to learn more about her work at Johnson Bixby.

Lynn Snyder, MBA, CFA^®

Portfolio Manager

Background

In the noisy and complex world of capital markets and investing, Lynn knows how to simplify and keep the conversation relevant to one’s personal goals. Afterall, it’s something he’s been doing his entire life, thanks to being raised in the heartland of Nebraska where Warren Buffet and Berkshire Hathaway were sources of inspiration.

Prior to joining Johnson Bixby, Lynn held a variety of financial roles including positions at U.S. Trust, Columbia Mutual Funds and Janus Mutual Funds.

• Perhaps one of his most notable roles is the one as a father to three teenage daughters, who have all adopted their dad’s love of math as one of their favorite subjects.
• In college, Lynn spent time in an honor’s travel abroad program in Greece, Turkey and Italy, where he met his wife.
• For fun, you can find Lynn running marathons and fly fishing the streams of Oregon, Montana and Colorado.

Patricia Spies, MBA, CFP^®

Financial Planner

Background

As a Certified Financial Planner® professional, Patricia helps clients plan for tomorrow by taking care of today. With a clear understanding of each client’s unique financial vision, she works to develop a tailored path forward whether buying a home, starting a family, or planning for retirement.

From her perspective, change usually won’t occur unless the “why” is understood. Educating and coaching clients on ways to support their lifestyles without sacrificing their goals is a top priority. She also gives each client the time and attention they deserve to make sound financial decisions and feel confident they are prepared for the future.

Before joining Johnson Bixby in 2017, Patricia worked at Oregon State University in the human resources department. It was here that she learned the ins and outs of retirement benefits and federal compliance.

• Originally from Ohio, Patricia and her Oregonian husband, Kurt, are full-on residents of the Pacific Northwest.
• Whether it’s gardening at home, finding a good hike or a walk around the block, with two young boys every day is an adventure.
• Watch Patricia’s Meet the Planner video in which she talks about her work at Johnson Bixby.

Alexander Ali, AFC^®

Client Services

Background

Alexander joined the Johnson Bixby team in 2022, bringing a strong desire to help people make empowered financial decisions so they can live their best lives.

Growing up in Kuwait and then moving to San Francisco to attend college, Alexander started his career as a graphic designer. As life unfolded, he felt a calling to help people with their financial lives and started his own private practice as a financial counselor and coach, most recently passing his Accredited Financial Counselor exam. Today he resides on our Client Services team where he works side-by-side with our Planning team to help clients see the possibilities.

Alexander enjoys listening or playing music (we heard he can play a mean ukulele solo!) as well as hiking and being active in the great outdoors.

Lana Alvarez

Compliance/Audit Manager

Background

Details are Lana’s forte. Lana has been with Johnson Bixby since 2003 and with more that than 25 years of experience in the financial planning world, Lana knows exactly what details to look for. She has a laser-like focus on accuracy and completeness—a natural gift we appreciate greatly here. Lana enjoys staying on top of the regulatory updates and changes, as it presents a consistent learning opportunity, which she enjoys.

Lana moved to the Northwest from Colorado, drawn to its proximity to the spectacular beauty of both the mountains and coast. She misses the Rockies and occasionally goes back to get her “Colorado fix,” but home is where the rain falls and where she and her husband raised their two children.

• In her free time, Lana enjoys hiking, traveling, and creative healthy cooking.
• Lana’s future travel goals include exploring Europe with her family and continuing to discover the hidden gems the Pacific Northwest has to offer.

Kailee Aparicio

Client Services

Background

An inaugural member of our first Johnson Bixby internship program, Kailee joined us in the summer of 2022 before coming onboard full time in the fall. She’s a graduate of the University of Portland, with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and a major in Finance.

As part of our Client Services team, Kailee assists our financial planners by offering efficient, kind, and compassionate service. She chose the financial profession because she knows dealing with finances alone can feel overwhelming and intimidating at times. But with a knowledgeable team behind you, those financial stressors can be alleviated.

• Kailee loves the outdoors. During the winter weekends you’ll find her skiing the slopes at Mt. Hood. In the summer, she enjoys taking her paddle board out to explore the Willamette River.
• Kailee is a cat mom and looks forward to hearing anything and everything about your pets. Fun fact: her kitties are named Yuki & Tama – which translates to “Snow-Ball” in Japanese.
• Kailee studied abroad in London in college, where she fell in love with all things international travel. She had the opportunity to see Scotland, Ireland, France and Italy and is always looking for future travel recommendations!

Karen Brown

Client Services

Background

Karen joined Johnson Bixby in 2004. She’s a long-time veteran of the financial planning industry and enjoyed supporting team members and clients for more than 30 years. She held the FPQP™ designation (Financial Paraplanner Qualified Professional) from 2007 – 2021. In 2020 she transitioned to a part-time role, gradually moving toward retirement. She loves helping others and provides support by confirming transactions and assisting with special projects.

Karen enjoys music, dancing, biking, learning about photography, and being involved in her local church.  She has two sons who live in Idaho and Michigan with their wives and young children – which means as many trips as possible to visit those grandchildren!

• Karen holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Alabama.
• She grew up in the south but later lived in Canada and Indianapolis before moving to Washington.
• Karen enjoys traveling and looks forward to more adventures in the U.S. and possibly abroad.

Karen Marshall

Office Administrator

Background

Karen is our office manager at Johnson Bixby and likely one of the first faces you’ll see when visiting us. She oversees the day-to-day logistics of running our front office while supporting our Client Services team. With a lifelong enthusiasm for organization and order, she channels those attributes making our team’s professional lives more manageable and streamlined.

Before joining Johnson Bixby in September 2021, Karen worked in a variety of office management positions with a specialty in financial services.

• Originally from a small Texas town, she started her career in Los Angeles. In 2015 she moved to Portland becoming acquainted with the metropolitan area as a Mobile Notary and Notary Signing Agent.
• Karen loves traveling – especially alone on the road! She says solo road trips are excellent opportunities for quiet introspection, loud sing-alongs and visiting far-flung friends and family.

Mandy Peterson

Client Services Manager

Background

Mandy is a natural at building rapport with clients, something she likely picked up after working the bulk of her career in family law.

In 2018, she switch paths from legal field to financial services and quickly learned this was the industry for her! She joined Johnson Bixby in 2020 where she worked her way to the role of Client Services Manager. Mandy found she has a passion for supporting clients with reaching their financial goals and helping team members reach their professional goals.

• Mandy hails from the land of 10,000 lakes (Minnesota).
• She loves spending time with her family, especially her nephew, Calvin, and her yellow lab, Tova.
• In her spare time, she loves traveling, hiking, and curling up with a good book!

Haley Smart, FPQP™

Client Services Technical Specialist

Background

Whether she’s explaining the complex in simple terms, or unraveling a particularly tangled web, Haley brings her passion for learning and finding answers to the work she does every day. But these aren’t just abstractions. Her extensive background in volunteering shows that she’s in this to better the lives of clients and colleagues.

Haley started working in financial services in 2008 after an unexpected career change, but that was all the chance she needed. Since then, she has worked her way up, and built a formidable career helping to polish our internal processes and guide her teammates in support of clients achieving their financial goals. Now we get to realize the benefits of her hard work, dedication, and serious problem-solving skills.

When she’s not working, Haley enjoys spending time with her husband and going to Timbers games. Yep, Haley is a super fan.

• Haley adores her rescue dog Jackson.
• She looks forward to kayaking and family trips throughout the year.
• She is an active member of a car club in Oregon with her 2019 Dodge Charger Scat Pack.

Cindy Staley

Compliance Specialist

Background

With her quiet demeanor, Cindy helps our business run smoothly and safely, while demonstrating compliance is about helping and protecting the people you work with, and the clients you serve.

Cindy relocated to the Vancouver area after 30 years in the financial services industry in Seattle. The move allowed her and her husband to be closer to her daughter and son-in-law and expand her love of gardening beyond the porch pots.

• Cindy loves cross-stitch but her cats, Pepa and Maynard, make the task difficult to perform with their love of thread, ribbon and yarn balls.
• Drama has followed Cindy throughout her adult life but not in the way you might imagine. Her now retired husband has a Master’s in the fine arts and together they ran local theatres.

José Vélez

Client Services

Background

A graduate from the University of Portland, José joined our team in May 2022. With a degree in finance and a minor in Spanish, José joined the financial profession because of his strong belief that everyone deserves a seat at the table when it comes to their financial relationships. Working toward obtaining his CFP® designation, he looks forward to giving clients and local community the tools to become financially empowered.

• Born in Puerto Rico, José spent the first 11 years of his life in Austin, Texas, before relocating to the Pacific Northwest with his family.
• A self-proclaimed homebody, José enjoys watching movies, a good tv series and podcasts. On weekends, you’ll probably find him visiting his parents to enjoy a good meal and an exciting soccer match.

Cynthia Boman Thompson, MS, CFP^®

Chief Financial Officer

Background

Ask Cyndi what she loves about her job and the answer is simple: people and purpose. Her energy and enthusiasm for helping both team members and businesses grow and succeed is evident in her work over the last 25 years.

Before joining Johnson Bixby in 2020 as our CFO and COO, she held multiple finance and client relationship roles in a variety of industries – from recruiting to medicine to real estate. Don’t be surprised if you see her name pop up when researching items related to financial planning, investing, parenting or travel as she’s published articles in dozens of magazines through the years.

Cyndi has been an active board member of the Financial Planning Association of Oregon and SW Washington including serving as president for 2020 and 2021 along with Board Chair/Past President for 2022. She is on the Board of Directors for the Portland chapter of Financial Executives International as well as the Oregon State University Business School’s Finance Advisory Council.

• Make sure to swap your unique travel experiences with Cyndi. She has visited a musk ox farm in Alaska, cruised through Greenland and glided down the Nile in a felucca.
• Cyndi’s preferred mode of transportation? Segways and riding ATVs!

Megan Dixon, CAP^®

Director of Community Investments & Relationships

Background

Megan has built her career around helping nonprofits raise the critical funds and resources necessary to do their good work. Her enthusiasm to grow and develop a community —making them better tomorrow than they are today—is one of the reasons she is perfect as our Director of Community Investments & Relationships.

In her role, Megan leads community involvement, philanthropy and volunteerism efforts for Johnson Bixby and sister firm, Integrated Tax Services where she was previously director of Community and Client Relations. Megan is also co-founder and vice chair of Ripple Impact NW, a nonprofit who mission is to connect, inform and inspire people to generate ripples of community well-being through philanthropy.

Megan believes growing and developing are essential for all aspects of life, not just the office. Whether it be cultivating the growth mindset of her two children or tending the vegetables and flowers around her yard – growth is everywhere. When not in the garden, you may find her writing a poem, an art form near and dear to her heart. Not a big surprise considering she met her husband in a poetry class back in college.

Rachel Gorretta, CDMP, PCM

Marketing & Communications Director

Background

Rachel is an optimistic realist helping promote the Johnson Bixby brand in all the ways that matter—whether that be to existing clients, future clients, employees or community partners. A natural people person who gets an extrovert classification on every test she’s taken, she tackles each communication challenge that comes across her plate with grace and enthusiasm.

A lifelong communicator who had childhood dreams of becoming a news broadcaster, she spent her early career years in public relations and marketing roles. After more than a decade in corporate communications, she moved to a local creative agency in account services where she realized she had a passion for promoting brands for smaller businesses.

Away from the office, Rachel enjoys entertaining friends and family over a homecooked meal—especially ones that contain vegetables from her garden.

• Although born and raised in Vancouver, Rachel spent her college years away, attending Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
• She’s married to her husband and has two teenage daughters.

Kristi Koebke

Chief Marketing Officer/Brand Strategist

Background

Kristi believes in the power of story to connect us, move us, and transform lives. As our Chief Marketing Officer, she is a writer, brand and messaging strategist, and workshop facilitator with a knack for finding stories and creating pathways to help great ideas become remarkable experiences.

For 25 years, Kristi has worked in marketing for companies including HP, Microsoft, Apple, Nike, Moda Health, Kaiser Permanente, and many others. She has 20 years of experience in the financial services industry, working with Registered Investment Advisory firms and larger brands such as Charles Schwab, Morgan Stanley and Prudential.

Today, she is committed to mentoring the next generation of women and BIPOC leaders in marketing, communications and business.

• Kristi fell in love with the Pacific Northwest in 1999 and moved here from Iowa shortly after.
• Outside of the office Kristi writes poetry and is an avid reader of nonfiction. She also enjoys travel, cooking, baking, eating, drinking, and laughing.
• In 2020, Kristi co-founded the Block Aid Project, a grassroots effort to care for – one block at a time – houseless neighbors living on the streets of Portland. The group makes, packages, and delivers food and basic supplies to some of the most vulnerable among us.

Vivian Le Cousins

Senior Accountant

Background

Vivian loves the art of untangling an accounting challenge. With a keen attention to detail and superior organization skills, she’s a natural fit to our team. She brings with her more than 10 years of accounting and finance experience, including three years in public accounting. In her role, she is responsible for overseeing the companies’ financial data by controlling, verifying, and managing the financial transactions.

• Vivian is a California native and is married with two kids.
• In her free time, she enjoys camping, sports, and spending time with her family and friends.

Paula Lee

Director of Culture & Employee Experience

Bob McMahan

Information Technology Manager

Juli Potts, SHRM-CP, PHR, CCP

Senior Director of Human Resources

Background

Juli brings enthusiasm for people along with her vast experience in human resources to Johnson Bixby, and our sister company, Integrated Tax Services. She drives our people strategy and initiatives to ensure we are attracting, developing and retaining the best talent, while working to amplify employee engagement and strengthening our HR systems and procedures.

A Pacific Northwest native, Juli was an adult student while raising her two kids. She graduated from Washington State University with a bachelor’s degree in Personnel Psychology and Human Resources Management, and a minor in Psychology. She holds multiple human resource professional designations including Professional in Human Resources (PHR), SHRM Certified Professional (SHRM-CP) and Certified Compensation Professional (CCP).

Depending on the season, you’ll find Juli enjoying any number of activities – hiking, kayaking, outdoor concerts, camping, yard work or wine tasting.

Jim Scott

Facilities Maintenance Tech

Saskia Van Verseveld

Chief Operations Officer

Background

For more than 30 years, Saskia has held different roles for organizations that all have one thing in common – they support the core of the business. Whether in a human resource, accounting, facilities, IT, or administration position she’s had the joy of performing a wide variety of projects and business initiatives. And that is the reason she loves her job – no day and no project is ever the same.

Saskia is fueled by improving processes and business operations, so they run efficiently and smoothly.

Saskia grew up in Europe (Go Netherlands!) and now calls the Pacific Northwest home. On weekends you can find her skiing, hiking, and exploring the great outdoors.

Brigg Wolgamott

IT Support Specialist

Melanie Yeagley

Marketing & Event Support Specialist

Programs for Positive Change

We believe in programming that is upstream in its approach and strategic in its design. Activities that aim to solve and prevent challenges before they start are in alignment with our companies’ approach and highlighting ways to leverage other sources of support is even better. We ask: how can our support be a catalyst for good?

Empowerment through Leadership

We want to invest in developing local leaders – especially our youth – because in doing so, we give voice to those who need it most and help build a more robust, diverse think tank to help solve our community’s greatest challenges.