Iconic Chown Hardware has operated in Portland for more than a century. Dave Chown ran the company for many years with his brother Fred, and Ahna Ward is its current CEO. In this episode, they discuss Chown Hardware's evolution, its current lines of business, its supportive company culture and the benefits - and challenges - of operating in Portland and Oregon.

In late 2025, Amy Lewin became director of arts and culture at the Oregon Arts Commission and the Oregon Cultural Trust. These entities are overseen by Business Oregon, the state’s business development department. In this episode, Amy talks with Oregon Business Matters about the important work the arts commission and cultural trust do, what she’s learned during her first year on the job, the relationship between business and the arts, and what might lie ahead.

Darren Van Lehn is director of sports development for Travel Medford, Oregon’s largest destination marketing organization. Sports tourism has become an important economic driver for Medford thanks to first-class facilities such as Lithia and Driveway Fields and Rogue X as well as work by Darren and Travel Medford to leverage them. In this episode, Darren talks with Oregon Business Matters about the economic impact of sports tourism, the future of sports development in Medford and the importance of the private sector to the region’s quality of life. 

In this episode, Economic Development for Central Oregon (EDCO) CEO Jon Stark discusses the challenges and advantages of attracting and retaining businesses in the three counties that comprise Central Oregon. EDCO has focused deliberately - and successfully - on traded-sector businesses in a handful of clusters, including advanced manufacturing and high tech. Meanwhile, learn how Prineville's focus on data centers helped Crook County's largest city recover from the decline of the region's timber industry.

In this episode, PGE President and CEO Maria Pope talks with Oregon Business Matters about the generation and distribution of electricity in Oregon, about PGE's role in serving the state's most economically significant region, about the company's commitment to renewable energy, about data center energy consumption and more.

Redmond-based Hayden Homes is the largest private homebuilder in the Pacific Northwest, operating in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana. In this episode of the Oregon Business Matters podcast, Vice President of Community Engagement and Giving Deborah Flagan discusses the company's focus on building affordable market-rate housing, its philanthropic work, the difficulty of building homes in Oregon, and Hayden Homes' evolution over nearly 40 years in business.

Michael Reilly helps keep the Eugene track magic going as chief executive officer of TrackTown USA, a nonprofit that hosts track and field events. And not just any events. TrackTown organizes some of the most iconic track and field events in the nation and across the globe, including the national and para national championships, the Olympic Trials, the Prefontaine Classic and even world championships. This work serves the sport, but the business of track and field is no small part of the regional economy. 

The Oregon Symphony, now in its 130th year, is Portland's largest performing arts organization. It entertains hundreds of thousands of people annually, many of them in Portland's Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. Oregon Symphony President and CEO Paul Snyder talks with Oregon Business Matters about the variety of programming the symphony produces, its impact on the regional economy, the importance of private sector philanthropy and much more.

Dave Larecy is chairman and CEO of Roseburg-based Con-Vey. For decades, the company has produced production lines for wood products and other industries. Con-Vey makes the machinery that other companies use to make plywood, beams, oriented strand board and many other things that make modern life possible. Con-Vey's production lines are so sophisticated and so highly automated that it has even established its own robotics business, 7robotics. Listen to this fascinating conversation about an Oregon company that manufactures machinery used by businesses across the country - and in other countries as well.

Sport Oregon CEO Jim Etzel discusses the economic impact of spectator sports in Oregon, which account for 23% more of Oregon's economic output than the national average. Spectator sports should be thought of as traded sector economic activity, attracting people and dollars from out of state, and worth a certain degree of public investment, Etzel argues.

Hillsboro Hops President and General Manager KL Wombacher talks about the minor league baseball team's history in Oregon, its new stadium and the economic and cultural importance of the team to the Portland metro area and to the state.

In 2009, apparel industry veteran Scott Hamlin founded Looptworks to address the problem of textile waste. Looptworks, which recently moved into its new facility in Gresham, transforms excess clothing and other textiles into thread or yarn that can be reused and nonwoven fibers that can be used to produce insulation and other non-clothing products. Scott talks with host Angela Wilhelms about the company's evolution, its newly acquired Global Recycling Standard certification and the challenges of operating a business in Oregon.

ATI's Specialty Alloys and Components Division in Millersburg might be the coolest company in Oregon that few people know. It produces metals that can withstand incredibly harsh conditions, and its products are used in a wide variety of products, from jet engines to MRI machines.

Oregon Business Matters talks with John Tapogna, former longtime president of economics research firm ECOnorthwest and newly installed president of the Oregon Business Council. John and host Angela Wilhelms discuss his new role and what he believes are the five major challenges facing the state: poor school performance, insufficient housing, wildfires, the state's overreliance on the income tax and Oregon's historic ambivalence about population growth.

In this episode, host Angela Wilhelms talks with Peter Skrbek, CEO of Bend-based Deschutes Brewery, about the iconic craft brewer's history, its approach to product innovation, its connection to Central Oregon and much more.

Host Angela Wilhelms talks with Cara Turano, president and executive director of the Oregon Entrepreneurs Network, about the important role of entrepreneurs in the state's business ecosystem. They discuss the major challenges entrepreneurs face, the common mistakes they make, what it's like to start a business in Oregon and more.

Jared Walczak, a senior fellow at the Tax Foundation, joins host Angela Wilhelms to discuss the organization's annual ranking of state tax environments, the State Tax Competitiveness Index. Until recently the vice president of state projects, Walczak explains how the index works and why 35th-ranked Oregon has fallen further than any other state since 2020. He also warns about the consequences of decoupling Oregon from the federal tax code.

Host Angela Wilhelms talks with Portland Mayor Keith Wilson and Portland Metro Chamber President & CEO Andrew Hoan. Topics covered include unsanctioned camping, overnight shelter construction, increasing trust in government, the city's tax burden and other issues of importance to Portland's residents, visitors and businesses.

When you go to the store to buy a beverage – whether it’s a nonalcoholic drink or a six-pack of beer – you’re aware of the brand you’re buying, obviously, as well as the store at which you’re buying it. But what you don’t see is the distributor that brought that beverage to the store – and probably stocked the shelf. Beverage distributors play an important but largely invisible role linking manufacturers to retailers.

In this episode, Oregon Business Matters host Angela Wilhelms talks with Paul Meade, chief financial officer at Columbia Distributing, one of the largest beverage distributors in the country. Columbia Distributing handles a broad mix of beverage brands, including Molson/Coors, 7-Up and many craft beers and other brands. The company's many Oregon partners include Deschutes Brewery, 2 Towns Ciderhouse, Migration Brewing and Del Rio Wines. Columbia Distributing is also the nation's biggest distributor of Red Bull.

Bullseye Glass is Portland manufacturing institution, producing colored glass used by artists around the world since the 1970s. This fall, the company won OBI's third annual Coolest Thing Made in Oregon contest. In this episode of Oregon Business Matters, host Angela Wilhelms talks with Bullseye Glass founder Dan Schwoerer about the company's history and its unique products.