MEET THE TEAM
I
t's a good thing Matt Preston
loves to travel, because since he
moved to Oregon two-and-a-half
years ago to take over as District
Sales Manager for Certified Folder
Display Service, he's done a lot of it.
"I drive just shy of 40,000 miles a
year," said Preston, who does so
while constantly cultivating and
maintaining relationships with Certi-
fied's clients, who cover the vast ex-
panse of the state and a small slice of
southwest Washington.
In that time, Preston, who grew up
on the central coast of California near
San Luis Obispo, has become quite fa-
miliar with many of the nearly 100,000
square miles of the state, as well as its
people and unique personality.
"Oregon operates to the beat of its
own drum," he says. "We are very
prideful of our state."
While there are clusters of busi-
nesses and services throughout the
state, Preston says the biggest hubs
are the outdoor mecca of Bend and its
largest city, Portland, where he is
based. With such a large state, the
clients Preston works with range
from the Oregon Zoo and Oregon
Museum of Science in Portland, an
interactive safari theme park in Ban-
don, rafting and fishing in the state's
plentiful rivers, ATV riding on the
coast, wine tasting and, of course,
breweries, as Oregon is considered,
along with Colorado, to be where
craft brewing first took root.
His biggest client, however, is
Pendleton Woolen Mills, a clothing
company based in Portland. Certified
distributes coupon rack cards for the
company at locations across the state.
Preston wasn't familiar with Certi-
fied when he first applied 10 years
ago, while he was still studying busi-
ness management and human re-
sources at Columbia College, a
private university in San Luis
Obispo. He was looking for a job,
saw a posting on the internet and
replied with no expectations.
"I had no idea what to expect,"
Preston said. "Turned out to be the
best opportunity of my life."
He was hired as a service driver in
San Luis Obispo and continued to
work there after graduating.
"I liked that they had a lot of trust
in their employees," Preston said.
"Dennis Edmonds was my supervi-
sor and he was awesome in training,
really instilling that everything I did
needed to be with the best interests of
TRAVELIN' MAN
Oregon District Sales Manager Matt Preston has seen much of the state – as well as the world
C O N T I N U E D
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Matt Preston (3rd from
right) with his Oregon
Certified team.
