Tyson Gillard

Tyson is the founder and former CEO of Outdoor Project, and currently serves as a Director on Outdoor Project.org’s board.

In many ways, Outdoor Project began as the marriage of a few of Tyson’s passions: spending time in the presence of nature, design, innovation, and building incredible things.

Much of Tyson’s youth was spent following his older sister, Lauren, through the forest, streams and stormwater drainage systems adjacent to their yard near the banks of Virginia’s Potomac River. At the same time, numerous road-trips and camping excursions to places such as Assateague Island, the Appalachians and the Everglades with their parent and in the family’s VW Westfalia would shape Tyson’s love of outdoor-minded travel. At the age of 9, the family made a transformative relocation out west to Bend, Oregon. The natural beauty of Oregon, in particular, the high desert, Cascade Lakes, and Three Sisters Wilderness would forever live in Tyson’s heart. Much of Tyson’s technical skills and survival knowledge in the outdoors would later be culminated in high school with his short but influential 2-year volunteer stint with Deschutes County Search + Rescue.

Until Outdoor Project, Tyson professional career revolved around the world of architecture. Studies at the University of Oregon and Universität Stuttgart in Germany provided the key influence for his commitment to environmentally responsible and mimetic design. Tyson’s design portfolio ranges from site planning and grandiose manufacturing facilities to product development and strategic energy use consulting.

The influence of nature and his career as a designer have merged into formulating his professional life mission: to constantly question and create solutions for how humans might more intelligently inhabit this planet and live in sustainable synergy with the natural environment.

Beyond the realm of Outdoor Project, Tyson spends most of his time with his wife Emily, daughter Mae, son River and their dog Albert living in the Sellwood neighborhood of Portland, building random things, and traveling the Northwest to be in nature and to visit good friends and family.