Meet the Team

For sure! Success is most always the result of a lot of preparation and training. Natural talent and toughness are just the beginning. The sport is also highly tactical: you have to thoroughly study and understand not just your adversaries, but yourself. You have to constantly adapt. As for life wisdom, there’s also my favorite Mike Tyson aphorism, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” We can sometimes be our own worst enemy when we lose our poise and overreact emotionally. I really feel like my job is to help people avoid big hits, and keep their chin down when the inevitable setbacks come along in life.

When not working, my family – including my wife of 28 years Cathi, son Tyler, and golden retriever Cali – can be found surviving “Presjak Adventures”. Our otherwise commonplace camping, rafting, and hiking trips have frequently turned into bold and sometimes risky undertakings. There was the time that Class II rapids turned into what felt like Class IV just as a friend panicked and stood up in the canoe dumping us all in the water. Then there was the 8 mile hike doubled into a 16 mile trek when the trail disappeared in the snow and we had to backtrack. You could say that our stories are always about overcoming some kind adversity, sometimes of our own creation.

• Golf almost year round; a little rain never hurt anyone
• Physical fitness, though a 2 hour 45 minute marathon is a thing of the past
• Enjoying Oregon pinots and big California reds….and dark chocolate
• Couples’ trips to the next exotic locale
• “Glamping” in the 30’ trailer
• The occasional summer ride on my Harley
• Sunday mornings at Rolling Hills Community Church

It’s certainly true that I have been an ordained priest in the Episcopal Church since 1995, and I still serve as assistant clergy at the local parish we attend as a family. It’s also true that I have an MBA and hold the CERITIFED FINANCIAL PLANNER™, or CFP®, designation. Both callings are pastoral in nature, so I don’t see them as all that different or mutually opposed. It’s where competence and compassion come together to enrich people’s lives. Bringing your money and your personal values into alignment is life’s work for all of us, regardless of one’s philosophy or spirituality.

Please don’t make me choose! I’ve listened to Willie Nelson’s “Red Headed Stranger” album and “Who’ll Buy My Memories: The IRS Tapes” a zillion times; Mozart piano sonatas (even more than Chopin nocturnes); Grant Green; and, of course, Van Halen in the David Lee Roth era. Full disclosure: I think Taylor Swift is a talented songwriter too. I cannot imagine a life without tunes, although my colleagues would like to imagine a life where I didn’t whistle so much.

• Hadley, Sadie, Gracie & Lindsey: two spectacular daughters, a fetch-obsessed-love-gushing labradoodle, and my stellar wife.
• Trying to break 83 on the golf course
• Fighting the poa annua in my perennial ryegrass lawn (call me Sisyphus)
• Being a student of Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey and Islay Scotch
• Serving the Cornell Star & Crescent Foundation and the Episcopal Church
• Finding the next great American city to explore with my family

• Husband to my lovely wife, Courtney, and father to our two crazy cats, Charlie and Joey.
• A golf enthusiast, Portland Trail Blazers optimist, and Linfield Wildcats diehard.
• An avid runner with sights set on eventually running a marathon.
• Frequently found wine tasting with friends and family in the beautiful Dundee Hills.
• Always in attendance when John Mayer or Eric Church comes to town.

Positive things happen to positive people.

Life is full of challenging moments that define who we are as people. While not all outcomes are in our control, we always have the ability to determine our attitudes. In my opinion, it is no accident that positive people who expect success, good health, and happiness tend to have those things show up in their lives. I’ve found that seeing the silver lining in each situation helps me to stay motivated, productive, and happy.

I think Winston Churchill summed it up best, “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty. For myself I am an optimist - it does not seem to be much use to be anything else.”

On Linfield’s campus, coaches and former players often said that football would be the most valuable class we took over those four years. Reflecting back on the countless hours spent practicing preparation, teamwork, discipline, and commitment, they couldn’t have been more right. Similar to playing quarterback, a financial advisor must have: the competence to help clients prepare for the future, the ability to work effectively in a team, the discipline to stay the course when markets get rocky, and the commitment to do whatever it takes to make a client’s life better.

Arriving at work before the stock market opens at 6:30 a.m. for 5 days a week allows me to watch a lot of sunrises in the Pacific Northwest. Every day is different. I have witnessed the evolution of having to look up stock quotes in the newspaper, to entering orders on paper tickets, to doing almost everything on the computer. We still love the telephone though! A lot has happened during my tenure. I entered the industry before the Crash of ’87 and had a front row seat for the tech bubble of the 1990s, the real estate bubble of the 2000s and the Great Recession of ’08-’09, and all the ups and downs of the past 10 years. No matter the headline, the sun keeps coming up every day.

I started as a Wire Operator when I was 20. No one knows what that is anymore, but it used to be the main way we communicated with the stock exchanges in New York City to buy and sell stocks for clients in Portland. Eventually I was promoted to work as Registered Client Service Associate. After 29 years of providing customer service, and helping train those who provide client service, I was invited to become a Partner of Encompass Wealth Advisors when we launched our independent firm in 2014.

In my personal life I am known as YaYa. It was the nickname given to me by my first grandchild, Annabelle, and it stuck through the second grandchild, Byron. I spend free time at T-ball games, dance class, and vacationing with my daughter Kerri's family. I enjoy cruises to Hawaii and am always ready to take the family back to see Mickey's house at the drop of a hat, or rather Mouse Ears. When not on YaYa duty, I typically play Bunco on Mondays or spend a quiet evening at home with my husband Gene and the occasional romance novel.

They’re all connected! My parents were immigrants from central casting: they knew no English but had an amazing work ethic and the desire to make a better life for their family. Because the main financial goal was to save enough money to go back to Croatia for weddings and funerals, almost every holiday between Memorial Day and Labor Day was spent camping and fishing on the Crooked River with dozens of cousins. Nowadays, the great thing about Facebook and FaceTime is that our tight-knit Croatian community can share our lives without so many expensive Pan Am Airways (remember them?!) tickets.

Yes, but we could be talking about my daughter Lana who wins over new friends every day, or my husband Owin Hays who hosts Outdoor GPS on the Fox12+ channel. What I admire about Owin is that he is a “what you see is what you get” kind of guy. Personal authenticity is really important because it earns trust. Certainly, he is respected for his competence and expertise in the hunting and fishing world, yet Owin has remained approachable and humble in his success. Anyone can tell that he is passionate about what he does, and that he is having an absolute ball. I am very proud of both my celebrities.

Even before Facebook, Instagram & Twitter, I’ve always had the philosophy that it’s a good day if you’ve made a new friend. Connections. I taught my daughter Lana this, and so our circle of friends grows and grows. In Portland, and in the Croatian community, there are probably only two degrees of separation.

No dice.