Meet The Team
Will Altschwager
Co-Founder, CEO
As part of a third-generation farming family from South Australia, Will developed a deep connection to agriculture from a young age. His path from family farm to investing across the agricultural supply chain helps him to bring a unique perspective to Coast Fibers.
Will earned his B.S. in Agricultural Business from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. Before co-founding Coast Fibers, he worked at Nuveen, investing in vineyards across the United States and New Zealand, and as Vice President at Sixth Street Partners, overseeing irrigated crop transactions and managing a large agricultural portfolio throughout California and the Pacific Northwest.
Angela Wartes-Kahl
Co-Founder, Head of Farming
After many years of raising sheep for wool, Angela began growing fiber flax in 2011 on their organic farm in the Oregon Coast Range.
Prior to co-founding Coast Fibers, she was co-founder and COO at Fibrevolution Inc., managed the fiber and textiles program at Oregon Tilth, and was the Vice Chair of the Organic Trade Association Fiber Council. Angela has dedicated over 20 years to promoting organic farming as a certified operator, inspector and now consultant with the Organic Integrity Cooperative Guild, which guides businesses through the USDA organic certification process.
Angela studied Agricultural Science at Oregon State University, where she focused on fiber crops in combination with textiles and merchandise management.
Shannon Welsh
Co-Founder, Head of Operations
A lifelong love of textiles led Shannon Welsh from apparel and textile design into sheep barns and flax fields in the Willamette Valley, where she rolled up her sleeves and learned what it would take to rebuild a regional fiber system from the ground up. She co-founded Fibrevolution to revive flax-to-linen production in Oregon, and today continues that work as co-founder of Coast Fibers.
She's also helped shape the wider industry through leadership roles with the North American Linen Association and the Pacific Northwest Fibershed. This work has meant reconnecting growers, processors, and makers, and building infrastructure for a supply chain rooted closer to home.
She holds a B.F.A. in Apparel Design from The Art Institute of Portland and a B.A. in History from Lewis & Clark College.