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Staff Bios
David Old
David is the President, CEO, and Chief Workhorse at Old Wood, and he has had a past as interesting as his personality. An airline transport pilot, seaplane instructor, commercial helicopter, and hot air balloon pilot, he left a successful career in aircraft sales and operations to “return to his roots” on the mountain. He bought his first sawmill at 25 years of age, right about the time he was racing Formula 1 motorcycles for a living in Europe and Japan, where he won 10th overall in the Camel Pro USA Series and competed three times in the Japanese Suzuka 8 Hours World Endurance Championship and F1 at Sugo.
David is an avid writer, and has published books on Japan and Complete Idiots Guides, along with a number of novels that remain unpublished in the nightstand drawer.
Though he is the entrepreneurial spirit behind Old Wood and has founded a number of successful companies in the past, David has “earned his keep” in the woods and can fell big timber, operate a skidder, and run a sawmill with the best of them. He still gets his exercise carrying 30-pound chainsaws at altitude ahead of the young guns.
A natural linguist, David attended Fort Lewis College, the College of Santa Fe and Berlitz Language Institute in Tokyo and completed an Asian Studies program at Kansai Gaikoku Gaidai in Osaka, Japan. He is married to a wonderful, tolerant woman and is the proud father of 4 kids.
Shiloh Old
VP, International Operations
Shiloh is the second generation of Old’s to make a living in and with the woods. A native Santa Fean, he studied international business and foreign languages in China and Japan before graduating with degree in International Business from a top-tier American university.
As Vice President of Old Wood, Shiloh’s responsibilities within the company are broad, and include daily operations and plant management as well as sales and marketing. Shiloh was recently named by "Hardwood Floors Magazine” as a “40 Under 40” in the wood flooring industry. He has served 6 years as an industry representative on the Technical Advisory Panel of the USDA’s Collaborative Forest Restoration Program, and was the panel chairperson for two years.
His knowledge of manufacturing systems, combined with skills in international business, have helped Shiloh become an integral part of the Old Wood team.
A US and European licensed airplane and paraglider pilot, Shiloh spends much of his free time flying in the Southwest. Downtime in the summers are spent backpacking in the Rockies, and he is an experienced backcountry skier in the winter. His rescued mutt Boss travels with him on most of his adventures.
Mika Old
Director of Marketing and Sales
With degrees in International Business and Marketing from Texas Tech University, Rawls College of Business, Director of Marketing and Sales, Mika Old, manages and provides support to several facets of Old Wood’s business operations. Mika’s contributions to Old Wood vary from web development, international and domestic trade show activities, project design and scheduling , to logistics.
When she is not spreading the word about Old Wood’s many products and projects, she puts her experience in emergency medicine to use helping the community. She has worked medical on tv and movie sets, and with the Viveash volunteer fire crew. Mika has also spent time in central and southern Africa teaching young women entrepreneurial and business development skills and working in neonatal clinics.
Mika has received 40 Under 40 awards for both the National Wood Flooring Association and the Wood Industry.
When she isn’t working at Old Wood, you can find Mika on the family ranch with her spotted dog and best friend of 12 years, Apache.
Barbara Ewing
Office Manager
As Old Wood’s Office Manager, Barb is usually the first point of contact for customers and vendors. She is the “people person” at Old Wood, and it is her job to make sure that our customers stay happy. She has trained on the production floor, and can answer any of your questions about our products or process.
A native New Yorker, Barb left the city to earn a degree in Agriculture from the University of Georgia. When not working, she is tending to her champion show dogs, a small flock of Icelandic sheep, and trying to raise much of her own food on a small, sustainable farm in the mountains in New Mexico.
The Old Wood Team
Old Wood is in a fortunate position to have few enough employees to be able to know everybody’s first names, but also to be big enough to get any sized job done on schedule. We employ technicians, artisans, builders and tradesmen to ensure that our products are made safely and correctly the first time.
Let’s face it: factories aren’t known for being historically happy places. At Old Wood however, we work hard to maintain a pleasant work environment with happy, skilled workers. Really. Whether in sales or manufacturing, our staff are experts at what they do. All of our employees go through extensive training in lean manufacturing and quality control. Weekly “safety and process” meetings are required, and give us a good chance to talk about quality and efficiency issues. Our office staff are all trained on the factory floor so that they can better answer customer’s questions and understand how we make floors the way we do. Similarly, most of our factory employees have taken site visits to some of our local installations so that they can better appreciate the final product and take pride in what they do. We do not make junky boards, we make fine floors.
Our company is blessed to have good partners and collaborators who work with us and help keep us on track. Regular involvement with foresters, economists, ecologists and tribal leaders keep us well-rounded and focused where we need to be. Sometimes it’s hard to be surrounded by so many smart people who don’t always agree on things!