zBlog

The first time I met Doug Howland, I was sitting in his office on Aurora Avenue in Shoreline – a cozy, camp-like double A frame (I actually quite like it) that will be soon replaced by an ultra sustainable, pull-out-the-green-stops office building.  He tossed a German stainless steel wire mesh catalogue in front of me and said, “This stuff is COOL!”  Our conversation branched out from there – into nuclear power plants, weird weather, inside politics in the computer industry, and the best way to caulk a joint between hardiboard and aluminum channels. 

Doug is the President of Howland Homes.  He came to Howland Homes from a very interesting and varied career – Senior Director in the Sun MicroSystems marketing group, Senior Manager at KPMG, and Senior Project Manager at Pacific Gas and Electric, where he troubleshot problems with nuclear power plants!  He is also a registered mechanical engineer.  So it comes probably as no surprise that he has an incredible natural curiousity about just about everything.

But when I was sitting down to write this, the first thing that I thought of about Doug are his values.  He clearly has a  powerfully visceral desire to do something about our environmental issues – like climate change – and not just wave his hands, but sit up, figure it out, and fix it.  He also has a heart to respond to those in need – which was immediately evidenced by his desire to donate one of the ten zHome units as an affordable housing unit.  So it was no surprise to me when at a recent community meeting Connie Marsh, an Issaquah resident and vintage clothing shop owner, described Doug as a “poet engineer”. 

It is a great pleasure to introduce Doug to you.  He is a terrific partner to be building this project with!