Dwayne Thomas Email & Phone Number

I started my career as a Lighting Tech for live music. I worked as a Production Designer at Superior Stage Lighting in Portland starting in 1982. SSL was purchased by Hollywood Lights, Inc in 1995, where I worked as a designer, then account manager, then Creative Director. I engineered the start up of a new branch of HL in Seattle in 2001, and was promoted to Regional Manager. In 2004, the Owner of HL retired, and I took over as President until my departure in 2009.Since 2009 I've built Greenlight Creative from the ground up. We now serve hundreds of events every year, from Corporate Events, Fundraisers and Weddings, to Live Entertainment and Festivals. We are proud to be a "boutique" style small business, offering personalized, creative services to clients who want their events to stand out from the rest. Today we empolyee 12 FTE or PTE people, working in Oregon and beyond.The COVID 19 outbreak of 2020 has rocked Greenlight to say the least, along with every business in the Events world. In response, I founded "Live Events Industry of Oregon," a statewide coalition of events businesses. LEIO's mission is to lobby for government relief for our entire industry, which has been in a complete mandated closure, where we will remain for many months after other businesses begin return to normal. We also create a forum for industry collegues to work through the challenges of their ongoing economic challenges, and to safely and confidently navigate the gradual reopening of our industry as this happens. As the President of LEIO, now representing almost 4000 Oregon Events businesses, I've created the legislative talking points, and guided our industry towards comprehensive targeted relief from both State and Federal governments. I am actively lobbying our governments, and have built positive and responsive relationships throughout Oregon's congressional delegation.As LEIO has brought much-needed recognition to Oregon's Live Events Industry, I have created an alliance with the national Live Events Coalition, and have helped guide the onboarding of other state's coalitions such as Connecticut, Washington, Arizona, and California. And, I've undertaken a grassroots effort to create an industry coalition from the ground up in Kentucky, an important battleground state where our message is especially needed to be "up front and visible."My Specialties: Lighting design, marketing, client relationships, team leadership, mentoring and coaching, green operations, financial analysis and strategy, sales and networking, business writing, lobbying and activism.

Listed skills include Live Events, Stage Lighting, Lighting, Trade Shows, and 29 others.