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, renowned for its “Learn by Doing” approach to education. 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

Shannon is a textile industry pioneer with a mission: rebuild fiber systems from the ground up. From co-founding Fibrevolution Inc. to co-founding Coast Fibers, she has been central to Oregon's linen revival and the broader movement toward regenerative, place-based textiles. As both Founding Executive Director and current Board Member of the North American Linen Association (NALA), and founder of the Pacific Northwest Fibershed, Shannon works at the intersection of sustainable agriculture, ecological design, and community-rooted production.

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.