A large group portrait of Pacific Rim Tonewoods staff standing outdoors in front of stacked logs. The team is dressed in work attire, smiling and posed in two rows.

Our Team

Eric Warner

Eric joined Pacific Rim Tonewoods in 1994, learning every facet of the business on his way to becoming general manager – and partner. The only thing Eric loves more than talking to clients and running the operations is, well, everything. Volunteer firefighter, drone photographer, and grillmaster, Eric is often the first to arrive and the last to turn off the lights.

Steve McMinn

Steve was raised in the Pacific Northwest and has worked with wood or timber for 55 years; he built his first guitar at 28. As founder of Pacific Rim Tonewoods, Steve sourced and split every log that came into the mill. Now he spends his time finding the beauty and the music in pieces of koa, maple or spruce, and researching ways to grow, and conserve, more trees.

Kevin Bruke is standing in a forest of trees, enjoying the nature around him.

Kevin Burke

Kevin likes nothing better than to hike the Pacific Northwest in search of the best logs for soundboards. He’s also into the science of growing good trees, and is our key liaison with forestry experts at Purdue, Oregon State, Washington State and other universities. A background in horticulture makes Kevin a natural fit for our work with maple propagation at Utopia and koa propagation and conservation in Hawaii.

A man stands before a pile of tonewood, posing for a picture.

Brian Sweeney

Brian has worked in the local timber and sawmill industry for nearly thirty years. He buys alder logs for resale to veneer mills in the Midwest, and figured maple logs for our own production. Quietly independent, Brian helps us track extraordinary logs back to their sources, so we can propagate them. He also runs our harvesting operation in Hawaii. Resourceful and thorough, Brian handles a number of concerns for us, from acquiring equipment to finding homes for by-products.

A man in blue clothing stands next to a variety of tools.

Steve Farrell

Steve is a millwright and our resident jack of all trades. He literally keeps us going, having tinkered with, repaired and mastered the workings of every single piece of equipment on our millsite. Steve is in charge of all our new machinery during the commissioning phase, and makes sure all of our bandsaws are sharp.

A man wearing a hat stands next to a machine, visible in the background.

David Olson

David has a Master’s degree in paleobotany, a day job as an ear, nose and throat doctor – and plays the guitar. His interest in trees, acoustics and the magic of guitar making have led him to Pacific Rim Tonewoods. For the past several years, David has been responsible for our ground-breaking research into the sonic properties of tonewoods.

Christi Schmidt

Christi handles our phones, billing, payroll, and export paperwork. Hers is the warm voice that will answer when you call. A Northwest native, Christi is a family person, an avid reader, and a community volunteer. When she’s not helping us all stay on track at the mill, Christi loves to spend time crafting, drawing and painting.

Steph Abendroth

Stephanie joined the PRT team in 2021. With years of manufacturing experience at Boeing, she was looking for a work opportunity closer to home. PRT needed help processing and grading koa, which comes with its own set of standards and guidelines. Stephanie quickly understood the wood and what our customers are looking for, and is now grading spruce
for us, too.

Jake Wells

Jake joined our team in 2018, the same year he graduated from Western Washington University (WWU). Jake is our head manufacturing engineer, handling all of our robotic applications and R&D. He has a passion to learn how things work and a focus on making systems better. At the millsite, there is no shortage of systems or projects to keep Jake busy.

Alexis stands in a tonewood lab beside stacked billets, with acoustic testing equipment in the background.

Alexis Cameron

Ali grew up in the Skagit valley and worked in aerospace for over 10 years before joining us at PRT. As an engineering technician, Ali loves experimenting and designing with the systems and processes at the mill site. A member of our small but mighty engineering team, Ali is always up for a challenge, and has brought depth to our technical capabilities.

Miranda Wallen

Miranda is a Skagit Valley local and a critical part of our team at PRT. Since joining us in 2018, Miranda has tackled many different jobs at the Mill, including grading tops. As our lead grader, Miranda understands this final value point in our operation, and meets
the needs of our customers by leading the charge to grade over 300,000
tops a year.

Young man standing in a workshop beside an industrial robotic arm and stacked wood panels.

Gabriel Weight

Gabriel is an automation engineer here at Pacific Rim Tonewoods. He’s had an interest in physics and engineering since his teens, participating in robotics clubs through high school and college. Gabriel has a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Science Degree, but Robotics remain his true passion. In addition to mechanical design, he loves to work on coding and design, to see those efforts manifest in the real world. Gabe is a valued asset here at PRT, within our regular mill operations as well as special projects that require his unique skillset.