Management Team

FLI Ownership and Board

FLI’s owners, managers and advisory board members have over 75 years of combined timberland management experience and an additional 95+ years combined consulting, company management, and accounting experience. FLI is independently owned by its managers and board members.

Management

Chris Fountain, FLI’s managing director, founder and majority owner, worked previously at Accenture for over ten years.  His background combines strategy, business process, financial modeling, product development, program & project management, and system integration experience for multiple Fortune 100 as well as start-up companies (including Microsoft, Hewlett Packard, Nike, Janes Publishing, Sony Music, Warner Music, AT&T Wireless, SAP and AOL.)  Mr. Fountain managed programs of over 100 members and budgets exceeding $10 million.  He oversaw seed and first round funding for multiple start-up companies.  He specialized in performance-based deals - creating opportunities to achieve strong ROIs on investments.  Additionally, Chris sits on the board of two non-profit organizations.

Bill Turner, Ph.D, is FLI’s director of forestry and an owner.  Previously he was with Olympic Resource Management (ORM), who managed over 600,000 acres and served as the Western Timberland Manager for Hancock Timber Resource Group.  On behalf of institutional and private investors, Bill has led the valuation analysis of over $1 billion of timberland properties.  He has extensive knowledge of the financial underpinnings of the timberland asset class and experience leading timberland acquisitions and divestitures, capital planning, and operations management. Dr. Turner also has experience in sawmill operations.  He has a Ph.D. in Forest Economics from the University of Washington.

Markland Fountain, director and an owner, has worked with many growing companies providing strategic direction and support to executive management in business planning, business planning, financial modeling, product development, strategic alliances, and organizational development and has been involved in over $40m of financing and transactions. Prior to working for Forest Legacy Investments he was General Manager of Kazi Beverage Company, a small beverage company. His beverage experience extends to Widmer Brothers Brewing Company, one of the country’s largest craft breweries. There he was a member of the team that oversaw a strategic investment from and alliance with Anheuser Busch, major funding from other private investors, and an aborted IPO. Markland has also consulted for a number of small and medium sized businesses on issues such as marketing, distribution, fund raising, and strategic planning.