I’m Reece, a communicator, entrepreneur, and U.S. Marine Corps veteran based in the Pacific Northwest.
I love stories. Life’s rich experiences—joyful, painful, and in between—have shaped my love for telling them.
Each story I’ve been gifted to tell is different. The characters, climes, and contexts vary. Some come from service—making photos and stories of fellow Marines while serving in Afghanistan. Others are deeply personal—sharing our family journey through my wife Krissy’s battle against terminal brain cancer and our son’s rare mitochondrial disease.
As I completed 8 years of service in the Marine Corps in 2017, I came to a crux. How would I carry my love for storytelling, the craft I learned as a Marine communicator, marketer, and journalist into my next chapter of work?
Clarity came from my roots. I grew up in a family of entrepreneurs. Between my parents and four siblings, we own and operate 6 small companies. Likewise, our extended family—the descendants of Dutch immigrants to North America post-World War II—is filled with service-focused entrepreneurs. Growing up in a rural community in the Pacific Northwest, I learned the importance of small companies like these for our families, friends, communities, and country.
After serving 8 years as a Marine and returning home with my own family, life experience, and a desire to continue serving others, I embraced our heritage and ventured into entrepreneurism in 2016. Through my brand development consultancy Lede Creative, I began helping small companies to create, cultivate, and communicate brand stories. This spanned a variety of engagements, including advising Ryzer Construction Services on their brand development and collaborating with cabinet manufacturer HighCraft to refresh their brand, reposition messaging, and unfold this story on a new website. But the highlight of this work was teaming with my Dad, Bob, to launch Friesla—a company focused on creating and implementing Mobile and Modular Meat Processing Systems—and to build Friesla’s brand from the ground up: leading all marketing efforts from naming, brand development, creative direction, content development, copywriting, digital advertising, and public relations, to lead generation.
Collaboration creates opportunities. In 2019, one of my clients, data intelligence company PacificEast, recruited me to join their growing team. Starting as their Director, Government & Corporate Accounts, I helped clients ranging from Fortune 50 healthcare and financial services corporations to government contractors and nonprofits to enhance and correct data, verify identity information, reduce fraud, and meet complex compliance requirements. This bridged into a role as PacificEast’s VP, Brand & Business Development, in which I led companywide marketing, co-led the development of PacificEast’s new healthcare division, and helped brand, launch, and develop the market for a proprietary mobile caller ID branding solution.
By late 2022, Friesla had continued to carve out a niche in meat processing, propelled by COVID-era shutdowns of large meat processing plants and a resurgence in local meat processing. Recognizing our opportunity, I decided to wrap up at PacificEast and transfer to Friesla to work alongside my Dad—supporting our team and clients as Head of Sales & Marketing. At Friesla, we’re proud to provide meat producers, processors, and entrepreneurs with tools to take back control of local meat processing. I’m fortunate this affords me the opportunity to do what I love: build a brand, write copy, shoot photos and video, and serve both our team and clients. See more here.
To grow in life and business, I earned a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) in Marketing from Western Washington University, a Project Management Professional (PMP) certification from the Project Management Institute, and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) through the University of Washington Foster School of Business’s Executive MBA Program. It’s an honor to represent the UW community that provided lifesaving brain cancer care to my wife.
Few things bring me joy like telling stories. Thanks be to God for myriad opportunities to craft them.