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LIVING IN PORTLAND

Portland is consistently found near the top of American “Best Places” lists. It’s not hard to see why. This growing city features an abundance of advantages, from year-long moderate temperatures to its focus on sustainable civic growth. Every neighborhood is packed with coffee shops, brew pubs, restaurants and bike paths. Just outside the city, you can find a wide range of outdoor activities, from world-class snowboarding on Mt. Hood to surfing at one of our state’s many Pacific beaches. Beautiful scenery surrounds Portland, from the rolling vineyards of the Willamette Valley to the hiking trails at our numerous state and national parks.

For finance students, Portland is home to a large and thriving money management industry disproportionate to the city’s modest size. As the global investment community shifts more focus away from the NYSE, toward the wide spectrum of international markets, Pacific Coast cities like Portland are providing a necessary link to the markets of Asia.

Portland is home to many of the most creative and innovative companies in the U.S. Major industry sectors include:

• Sporting/Recreation: Led by Nike, adidas America, Columbia Sportswear, and filled with a host of small, entrepreneurial goods and services providers for whom the Pacific Northwest defines "sport and recreation".


• High Tech: Major players include Intel, Hewlett Packard, IBM, and several small-to-medium sized, successful high tech firms spawned from creative, entrepreneurial Portlanders in the late 70's and 80's.


• Creative Services: Portland has a well-deserved reputation as a center for creative excellence, with some of the country's leading product design, architecture, advertising, web services, and animation firms, including Wieden&Kennedy, Allied Works, Ziba Design, and LAIKA among others.


• Food Industry: Oregon's gentle climate and abundant rainfall make agriculture and related food products a major economic source, with grains, nuts, fruit, wine and dairy products as major Oregon exports, particularly to Asian and domestic markets. In addition, we are fortunate to be one of the few regions on the planet with close access to both fertile ocean fishing grounds and prime grazing lands for livestock.


• Sustainability Economy: Portland is home to the leading edge of companies and organizations dedicated to building and supporting sustainable business practices, including EcoTrust, The Natural Step and Vestas.

To learn more about Portland, Oregon, check out the following sites:

• CITY OF PORTLAND
• PORTLAND ESSENTIAL LINKS