Board of Trustees

A distinguished bankruptcy lawyer with over three decades of experience which began with her clerkship for the Honorable Bertram Goldwater at the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Nevada, Reno Division, Sallie Armstrong represents clients throughout Nevada in all areas of bankruptcy, financial restructuring, corporate reorganization, creditor rights, debtor rights, insolvency counseling, receiverships, and related litigation.

Sallie practices regularly in the United States Bankruptcy Court in both Reno and Las Vegas, as well as in state court. Her insolvency practice includes the representation of a wide range of stakeholders, including debtors in complex Chapter 11 cases, equity security holders, secured and unsecured creditors, including financial institutions, lenders, committees, purchasers, and adversary litigation defendants, parties to executory contracts, receivers, and commercial litigants. Sallie often serves as local counsel to national firms with clients in Nevada, and, as a result, has been able to participate in some of the largest and most significant Chapter 11 cases filed in Nevada.

Working with various stakeholders, Sallie helps navigate the complexities of business insolvencies whether in formal bankruptcy proceedings, litigation, receiverships, or informal out-of-court workouts.  Whatever the nature of her representation, Sallie works closely with her clients to help them find and develop the most appropriate business solution.

Known for her thoroughness and insight, Sallie is recognized as one of Nevada’s leading bankruptcy lawyers.  Sallie has had an AV Preeminent® peer review rating from Martindale-Hubbell for many years, and in 2013 she was selected as a 2013 Top Rated Lawyer in Corporate Restructuring and Bankruptcy by American Lawyer Media and Martindale-Hubbell. Sallie has been elected by her peers to U. S. News – Best Lawyers every year since 1989, and, in 2012, she was chosen as Best Lawyers’ Bankruptcy and Creditor Debtor Rights / Insolvency and Reorganization Lawyer of the Year.

Thomas Burnham moved to Reno in 2006 after receiving an investment from a local company to help grow the company he co-founded that manufactured solar-powered, wirelessly-activated crosswalk warning light systems. After his company was sold, Thomas joined the Marketing Department faculty at UNR in 2014. Prior to joining UNR, Thomas taught at Santa Clara University, worked in executive performance reporting for MCI Telecommunications and consulted with the management of an agricultural cooperative in rural Paraguay as a Peace Corps volunteer. He speaks fluent Spanish and a smattering of Guarani.

Thomas is actively engaged in the Reno entrepreneurship community, having worked for two local technology startups, served as the Metro Director for the CleanTech Open accelerator program and been a board member for the Nevada Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology (NCET). He coaches students developing business plans and enjoys helping judge business plan competitions including the Pack Pitch, the Sontag Competition, and Nevada Future Business Leaders of America competitions. 

Thomas graduated with honors from Rice University in 1988 (B.A. Managerial Studies) and received his Ph.D. in Marketing Strategy from the University of Texas at Austin in 1998. He and his wife, Lori, who is a veterinarian at Mt. Rose Veterinary Clinic, have two children; Lucy, who attends Reno High School, and Daniel, who attends Caughlin Ranch Elementary.

JP Clausen is VP of Engineering - Data Center Advanced Technology Innovation (ATI), and leads global technology, product, and process innovation for Google Data Centers. His responsibilities include Google’s data center ten-year technology outlook, modular system design, global data center product roadmap, new product introduction, industry-best lead time for data center deployment, and automation. JP’s ATI team is focusing on industrial leadership based on innovation, time to market, business flexibility, and total cost of ownership (TCO).

Prior to joining Google, JP held executive roles in manufacturing, engineering, and operations at LEGO Group, Tesla, and Zymergen. He has planned, given design input, and built sites while leading large operations teams in Hungary, Mexico, and the US. Career highlights include co-creating the manufacturing network strategy at LEGO, building the manufacturing at Gigafactory 1 from the ground up and leading powertrain manufacturing at Tesla, and creating impossible and advanced materials based on genetically engineered microbiology at Zymergen.  

JP holds a bachelor's degree in industrial engineering with a diploma in leadership from Aarhus University. He also holds a master’s degree in MMT innovation and technology from Aalborg University.

Cory Clemetson is currently co­‐owner and managing partner of Wolf Creek Golf Club in Mesquite, Nevada, which he acquired with his brother in 2003. Through their leadership, Wolf Creek has become one of the most prominent golf courses in the United States and throughout the world. The course has won numerous golf industry accolades and has been featured in EA Sports’ Tiger Woods PGA Tour video game for the past decade. Clemetson was featured as cover story in the October 2016 issue of the prestigious Golf Business magazine. Wolf Creek has proudly hosted some of the top golfers in the world including Jordan Spieth, Gary Woodland, Padraig Harrington, and Natalie Gulbis to name a few, and top golf apparel/equipment companies including Under Armour, Oakley, and Cleveland Golf for repeat seasonal advertising campaigns.

Clemetson is also co‐owner and partner of Nevdex Properties, a commercial real estate company based in Reno, Nevada. Nevdex is Reno’s premier landlord for Class An office space with 420,000 rentable square feet and a tenant roster ranging from leading local businesses to Fortune 500 companies including Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley, and RBC Wealth Management.

Previously, Clemetson spent 12 years as a sports agent. He began his career at the two top sports management firms in the world, IMG and Advantage International (now Octagon), before starting his own sports agency, Intersport, Inc., based in Los Angeles. At Intersport, Clemetson represented professional athletes including many of the top U.S. men’s soccer players who played for the U.S. Men’s National Soccer Team and Major League Soccer. Some of Clemetson’s notable clients were also past Olympians, including Cobi Jones, Frankie Hejduk, Paul Caliguiri, and Joe­‐Max Moore. Clemetson represented professional athletes in contract negotiations, endorsement opportunities and branding, and provided strategic consulting to various corporations seeking to reach key demographics through sports.

Clemetson currently serves on the Athletics Leadership Council at the University of the Pacific, his alma mater, in Stockton, California. This council was created to serve as an advisory committee to the president and athletic director, and offer strategic direction and guidance around athletic programs, facilities, finance, marketing and future planning for Pacific athletics. Clemetson has served on the board’s executive committee since 2013 and also served as the chairman of the board from 2015-­2018.

Clemetson also currently serves on the Nevada Golf Course Owners Association as a board director since 2014. His main focus on the board is representing the association on all legislative issues that involve the golf industry within the state of Nevada. Clemetson also co-­founded and currently serves as board president for the Kids For Sports Foundation in Southern Nevada, which focuses on providing financial assistance to families to ensure all kids are given the opportunity to experience the positive benefits of playing organized youth sports. Clemetson also currently serves on the board of directors and was recently elected president of Primm South Real Estate Company, a land holdings company that owns and manages property in Primm, Nevada.

Clemetson graduated from the University of the Pacific in 1993 where he played Division I men’s basketball. Clemetson and his wife, Deborah, moved from the Bay area to Reno in 2015. They have two children at Sage Ridge, and he coaches Varsity basketball at Sage Ridge and with a Northern Nevada AAU basketball program.

Mr. Gangloff is Chairman and CEO of SAF Holdings, LLC, AmeriFirst Home Improvement Finance, LLC and Summit Consumer Receivables Acquisitions, LLC.

He graduated Magna Cum Laude and second in his class from Villanova University in 1990 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering. He then joined General Electric Aerospace as a member of their Edison Engineering Program (EEP), a world-renowned technical management training program. In 1992, Mr. Gangloff was sponsored by GE for a paid leave of absence to attend graduate business school. He subsequently received Master of Business Administration (MBA) and Master of Management in Manufacturing (MMM) degrees from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management and the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science, both at Northwestern University, in 1994. After his graduation from Kellogg, Mr. Gangloff served as the sole northern Nevada interviewer for the Kellogg Alumni Admissions Committee from 1994-2000.

From 1994 until 1995, Mr. Gangloff held the position of Senior Consultant with Gemini Management Consulting, San Francisco, California. Mr. Gangloff quickly became a core member of “Analysis and Design”—Gemini’s proprietary vehicle for selling multimillion dollar consulting projects to Fortune 500 companies. In 1995, Mr. Gangloff left Gemini to establish Gangloff and Associates, Inc. (G&A)—a management consulting firm providing financial consulting services to the high-tech, aerospace, consumer product, oil and gas, banking and financial services industries nationwide. G&A’s clients included firms as diverse as the country’s two largest insurance companies, second largest energy marketing company, two leading financial services institutions (including assisting with the post-merger integration of the legacy Norwest Bank and Wells Fargo), the world’s leading PC maker, the world leader in internetworking hardware, the world leader in telephony, a leading Internet Service Provider and the country’s largest dating service.

In 2001, Mr. Gangloff founded Alternative Debt Portfolios, LLC to test the concept of purchasing small dollar, generally unsecured consumer receivables portfolios from small and medium-sized businesses (which had offered financing to consumers to help sell their product or service) and holding them to maturity as a pooled investment.

In 2007, Eric founded Summit Alternative Investments, LLC (SAI), the General Partner of the Summit Consumer Receivables Fund, L.P. (SCRF), a private investment fund for which he was the Managing Director and chief executive. In 2011, Eric founded Summit Investment Management, LLC (SIM) for which he served as the Managing Director and chief executive, which managed two Long-Short Equity hedge funds using a proprietary risk management and trading model. In 2012, Eric founded Summit Investment Services, LLC (SIS) for which he served as the Managing Director and chief executive, a company which helped other institutions source, purchase, manage and collect performing consumer and commercial receivables portfolios across various asset classes and industries. Mr. Gangloff utilized his financial analysis expertise, experience with analyzing and purchasing consumer receivables and general management skills to grow and manage SAI, SIM, SIS and their Investment Funds, and to identify investment opportunities for the Funds.

In 2013, Mr. Gangloff and two partners acquired 30-year-old AmeriFirst Home Improvement Finance, LLC (AmeriFirst) in Omaha Nebraska, and in 2016 founded Summit Consumer Receivables Acquisitions, LLC (SCRA). At the end of 2016, SCRA and AmeriFirst were merged under holding company SAF Holdings, LLC.

Mr. Gangloff currently serves as the CEO and Chairman of the Board of Summit Consumer Receivables Acquisitions, AmeriFirst Home Improvement Finance and SAF Holdings, which together comprise one of the nation’s leading home improvement lenders, consumer loan servicers and acquirers of existing portfolios of performing consumer loans. Eric J. Gangloff Business and Volunteer Bio Mr. Gangloff has been a member of the Sierra Angels since 2006, an angel investing organization which helps early-stage companies in Northern Nevada and elsewhere find investment capital, and has served on the group’s Executive Committee and Selection Committee. Mr. Gangloff has served as a finalist Judge for the Nevada Governor’s Cup Collegiate Business Plan Competition, the Reynolds Tri-State Collegiate Business Plan Competition in 2011 and 2015, and the Global Student Entrepreneur Awards.

Mr. Gangloff served as his Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) Reno-Tahoe local Chapter President in 2009 and subsequently as the Pacific Area Director from 2010-2011 and US Western Regional Director (overseeing 15 Chapters and over 1,000 members) in 2012. EO is the world’s leading organization dedicated to serving the needs of entrepreneurs whose businesses gross $1M or more per year. EO’s mission is “To engage leading entrepreneurs to learn and grow,” and its vision is to “To build the world’s most influential community of entrepreneurs.” Eric completed a 2½ year term as EO’s Global Strategy Summit Program Director, a program which utilizes EO’s best member leader/facilitators to help EO chapters across the globe plan and execute more effectively. On July 1, 2014, he became a member of Entrepreneurs’ Organization’s Global Board of Directors, a nine-person board serving the needs of EO and its 12,000+ members in more than 140 chapters worldwide and served a three-year term which involved frequent international travel.

Mr. Gangloff currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Reno Philharmonic Association, having served on the Strategy, Audience Development, Artistic, Finance and Endowment Trust Committees since 2013. As Chairman in its 50th season, Eric helps guide the Phil towards its mission—which is to produce inspirational orchestral performances of the highest quality for diverse audiences, and support exceptional educational, outreach and engagement programs.
 

David Hoffman ('05) was a member of Sage Ridge School’s third graduating class. He worked on "The Ridge," Sage Ridge’s student-led newspaper. To David, this was an early opportunity to explore his entrepreneurial interests. He attended Northwestern University, where he and a group of friends started a company called Next Big Sound and grew it into a leading provider of online music analytics. The technology proved so useful that David and his co-founders sold the company to Pandora Music in 2015. In 2017 David took time off from tech to spend time with his young family and travel. He recently started a new company, Beam, which matches homeowners with contractors to help with home renovations.

Vivian Leal has two decades of history volunteering at independent schools throughout the education of five children. Most recently she co-chaired the Menlo School Parent Education Conference on technology and the brain, which featured world class researchers and a Pulitzer Prize winner. The conference examined how being wired 24/7 affects the learning, thinking and lives of our young adults, and was attended by nearly 500 parents and professionals. Vivian was also Director of Programming at Kepler’s Books, overseeing not-for-profit Community Partnerships, Youth and Parenting Programs, and over 250 author events per year. In 2008 her team won the prestigious Pannell Award given nationally to “booksellers who stimulate, promote and encourage children’s and young people’s interest in books." Vivian holds a BS in International Politics from Georgetown University and both an MFA in Creative Writing and a Masters in Literature and Composition from UMass, Amherst. Her family joined the Sage Ridge community in fall of 2003 when they moved to Reno, and she was named to the board in March 2004. Vivian's youngest daughter is currently a student at Sage Ridge School.

Cathy received her bachelor of science degree in accounting from the University of Nevada, Reno in 1991. She passed the CPA exam in May of 1991 and spent 12 years in public accounting working for Ernst & Young LLP and Deloitte and Touche with a focus in insurance, healthcare and not for profit industries. During her tenure with Ernst & Young she spent 3 years on an international assignment in Moscow, Russia. Having worked in finance before and after college as Controller and Chief Financial Officer for various businesses she has over 25 years of experience in Accounting.

Cathy has had many years of experience volunteering and serving on Parent Associations Boards in schools her children have attended. Serving as Treasurer, Volunteer Coordinator, Fundraising Chair and Class Parent. She is currently serving as Treasurer of the Sage Ridge Parent Association having been a board member for 3 years.

Cathy and her husband Mark have a son Jackson a student at Sage Ridge since 5th grade that is currently in the 10th grade. His older brother attends college in San Francisco at the Arts Academy University, majoring in sound design for visual media.

Elizabeth (Beth) Schuler and her husband Mike are the owners/partners of Venturacci Schuler Partners, a local, ranch-raised beef business and the president of the Monroe-Schuler foundation, a private foundation that funds community development projects, youth at risk endeavors and conservation.

Beth graduated from the University of Texas with a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration, with an emphasis in accounting. Experienced in strategic planning, operations, marketing, and fundraising, Beth helped found MicroMash with her Mother.  MicroMash,  was the first computerized CPA Review and Bar Review on the market.  Additionally, they developed over 1000 continuing education courses for the accounting profession.   After selling MicroMash to a large publisher Beth left the corporate world and started a consulting firm for entrepreneurs. 

Since relocating to Nevada, Beth has focused her energy on her family and assisting nonprofit entities. She and her husband Mike have 3 children - who all attend Sage Ridge School and is actively involved with the Sage Ridge AIM Campaign. Beth currently serves as the Membership chair of the Women’s Giving Circle, and as a Trustee of the Community Foundation of Western Nevada. 

She served previously on the board of Animal Ark and The Eddy House.  Beth has been integrally involved with foster youth who are aging out, writing course curriculum and personally teaching life skill courses to help ensure a positive outcome.

When time permits, Beth and her family enjoy time out on the water at Lake Almanor, hiking and reading.

Michelle is the President of WETLAB- Western Environmental Testing Laboratory, an Environmental Testing Laboratory headquartered in Sparks, Nevada.

Michelle earned her Bachelor of Science Degree in Environmental Science (with a concentration in water resources) and Public Policy from Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA in 1996. After college, she started her laboratory career in Phoenix, AZ. In 1998, her company moved her to Reno/ Sparks to manage one of their laboratories which she did until she ultimately had an opportunity to buy it in 2002.

Along with her commitment to her company, Michelle is committed to giving back to her local community. She volunteers regularly at the Food Bank of Norther Nevada; sits on the boards of Girls on the Run – Sierras, a youth development program for girls in the 3rd-8th grades and Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) Reno-Tahoe, an organization dedicated to “engage leading entrepreneurs to learn and grow”.

 Michelle joined the Sage Ridge Community during the 2018-19 school year and currently has two children attending the school.

Robin Soran has been a proud member of the Reno community for 6 years and has two daughters at Sage Ridge School. She received her undergraduate degree from Duke University, followed by an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Robin has extensive experience in the business arena, working with both large corporate organizations such as Gap Inc. and Accenture as well as small business start-ups. At Gap Inc., she held various roles managing capital budgets of $400M for the corporate construction and architecture for Gap Inc’s fleet of stores to managing teams of 20+ employees and $200M in operating expenses for Gap Inc’s supply chain and all of its North American distribution centers. She excels at developing new processes and operations for organizations and has worked in various capacities developing the infrastructure for small business startups. Currently, she is the practice director of Reno Tahoe Anesthesia. 

Robin is passionate about education and parent education. In the Bay, she led Parent Education for the Menlo Park City School district. In Reno, she has spearheaded an entire program of guest speakers from multiple disciplines as a way to enrich the Reno-Tahoe community and provide support for parents and kids. She is the past President of the Parents Association and also extremely active in the Sage Ridge Community as a member of the school’s Challenge Success team, an initiative through the Stanford School of Education. 

When she is not working, she’s likely to be found exploring the mountains of Northern Nevada and California with her family and dogs either hiking or participating in winter sports.

Appointed: 1998, Founding Member. Currently, CEO Chargerback, leader in lost and found solutions for the hospitality and travel industry Founder, Ex-Chairman & CEO Computing Resources, Inc. Managing Member, Evergreen Capital LLC Mr. Webster founded Computing Resources, Inc. (CRI) on April 1, 1978 as a general purpose data processing service bureau specializing in automating accounting functions, with a primary focus on payroll processing for small businesses. Forming strategic marketing alliances with financial institutions in Nevada, California and the mid-west, CRI gained momentum in the 1980s by providing unparalleled customer service and investing in cutting-edge technology. CRI developed several innovations during the 1980’s including: phone-in payroll, automatic payroll, and around the clock 24/7 customer support. Mr. Webster’s continued vision allowed CRI to gain national recognition as the nation’s fourth largest quality payroll services provider, servicing over 100,000 businesses nationwide. During CRI’s 21 years as a privately held company it enjoyed record revenue and net income growth compounded annually of 22.9% and 30.5% respectively. CRI established itself as an industry leader in generating the highest profit margin per payroll transaction processed. In 1997, CRI embarked on an exciting new payroll services venture with Intuit—the makers of QuickBooks and Quicken financial software. CRI successfully integrated its proprietary tax and electronic direct deposit processing systems with QuickBooks and QuickBooks Pro. In March of 1999, CRI announced it had agreed to a merger with Intuit. Mr. Webster served as Chairman and CEO of Intuit’s payroll division (CRI) until March 2000. Mr. Webster has extensive experience developing; implementing and marketing technology based transaction-processing systems. Areas of expertise include: accounting, credit authorization, ACH payments, payroll and payroll tax systems. Mr. Webster formed Evergreen Capital LLC during 1998. Evergreen Capital is an early stage investment company that focuses and invests in start-up Internet, service oriented and biotech companies. Mr. Webster currently serves as board Chairman of Inzap Inc and Capital Resources, Inc. Mr. Webster is also a founder, Vice Chairman and director of Heritage Bank of Commerce (HTBK) located in San Jose, California. A resident of Reno, Nevada since 1972, Mr. Webster is currently Chairman of the Board for the National Automobile Museum, The Harrah Collection, and Chairman of the Board for the Nevada Policy Research Institute and past Chairman of the Financial Advisory Board for the City of Reno. Other civic affiliations include Vice Chairman, Sage Ridge School board, the Rotary Club of Reno, and Executive Board member of the Nevada Area Council for the Boy Scouts of America.
 

Steven Welch (Steve), his wife Robin and children Jordan and Madeleine, relocated from London to Reno in 2011. A key factor in this decision to relocate to Reno was the belief that Sage Ridge offered an outstanding educational option. Jordan graduated from Sage Ridge in 2014 and from Purdue University in 2018. Madeleine graduated from Sage Ridge in 2016 and attends Georgetown University.

Steve worked for 35 years at BP PLC in leadership positions in a variety of its downstream businesses, including natural gas, petroleum products and petrochemicals. He had the opportunity to lead businesses of up to 35,000 employees, up to $95 billion in sales revenues, and up to $25 billion in Capital Employed operating in up to 100 countries. He had direct oversight responsibility for numerous large, complex overseas construction projects ranging from $50 million up to $5 billion.  His leadership positions included serving in such positions as CFO Gas, Power & Renewables; COO US Refining and Marketing; CEO Petrochemicals; and Deputy CEO of the Refining and Marketing Division.

Many of these positions were posted overseas; Steve lived more than 16 years in Taipei, Taiwan; Sao Paolo, Brazil; London and Hong Kong. In each of these postings his children attended international schools where Steve had the opportunity to interact and observe the efficacy of a variety of school structures, approaches and curricula, and it is his learnings from those experiences he hopes to share in his work on the Sage Ridge Board.

Steve is active in advising and investing in a number of early development companies in the US and overseas. Most importantly, he loves spending time with his four children and three granddaughters.
 

Richard Welcome (Rick) has been a Sage Ridge parent since the 2005-2006 school year. He and his wife Mary Ann have seen both of their sons attend from lower school through graduation at Sage Ridge. Their older son, Andrew, class of 2012, is a Junior at Duke University with double major in Political Science and Global Health with a minor in Entrepreneurship. The younger son Brandon, recent graduate of class of 2014, will begin his Freshman year this fall at the University of San Diego. Rick has been a practicing radiologist physician for 25 years, earned subspecialty board certification in Interventional Radiology in 1997, and is a 25-year member of the Society of Interventional Radiology. He has been a partner in Radiology Consultants at Saint Mary’s Hospital for 14 years. Rick has been active in the last 10 years in the growth of Women’s Imaging including breast mammography, ultrasound, breast MRI and interventions at Saint Mary’s. Prior to moving to Reno in 2000, he was a member of the Radiology faculty and staff at UCLA Hospital in Santa Monica, California. He serves as a member of the Medical Advisory Board of the large Medical Professionals Malpractice Insurance Company. He was active as a Den Leader and Assistant Scoutmaster with his sons in Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts, and proudly saw both of his sons become third generation Eagle Scouts. Over the past four years his family and other families from Sage Ridge helped raise funds and then traveled to Central America and Africa to build schools in Nicaragua and Malawi. He has served on the Annual Fund Committee for the past three years and has served as a board member since 2012.