Eric Lester

Pearl Bakery’s President, Eric Lester, experienced firsthand the foundations of food service, sound business management and many of the guiding principles that would later help chart the course of the bakery during his formative years in the 1970’s in New Mexico.

Flipping burgers at the locally owned Hank’s A&W in Alamogordo was the first “real” job for Eric. During this time (as a freshman in Mr. Parson’s high school class) he was introduced to sustainable practices such as recycling aluminum cans and reusing paper grocery bags. As a senior in high school, his awareness was increased as a student in Mr. Hammond’s Environmental Ecology class where plant habitat and earth conservation was taught. While studying business at college, Eric found full-time employment as a dairy and frozen food manager with Owen’s Parkway, a grocery store in Portales.

Before leaving New Mexico in the early 1980’s, Eric received his MBA from Eastern New Mexico University and would soon move to Oregon becoming a licensed CPA working with locally owned restaurant and bakery clients.

In the mid 1990’s, he would combine efforts with an artisan bread baker and a retail manager formerly with Nature’s Fresh NW, to open Pearl Bakery in February 1997. Since that time, Eric’s contribution to the bakery as President has brought continued growth and today he remains the sole founder and co-owner alongside his wife, Mary.

Eric is fascinated by family roots and loves traveling the continent (and the Internet) conducting deep searches for genealogical histories. He cherishes free time spent with family, including his parents, three grown children, and most recently, his first grandchild.

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John Woosley

John has been Pearl’s Retail Manager since 2004. His Portland restaurant career began at Wildwood, where he worked as a server. It was there that he developed a taste for artisan bread. Eventually John was drawn to Pearl Bakery’s handcrafted bread and pastries, and sunny cafe interior. He started with us as a barista and part-time driver, but it didn’t take long for him to move into the position of Retail Manager. John’s attention to detail and knack for great service are a great asset to the bakery.

Born and raised in Wisconsin, John moved to Chicago in his early twenties and became immersed in its food and music scenes. He worked in Chicago restaurants for eight years before moving to Portland. John is a music aficionado and avid record collector. He has a passion for stringed instruments and plays cello, ukulele and hurdy-gurdy.

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Santos Llanes

Santos started working at Pearl Bakery in 2000, and has since worked in almost every department. Now as the Plant manager, Santos oversees daily operations at the Pearl. Even though he’s busy supervising our wholesale bread packing and directing the sanitation crew, Santos still finds himself helping in other departments. On any given day you can find him scooping cookies, shaping bread, or assembling sandwiches.

Santos moved to Portland after living his entire life in Chumayel, Mexico on the Yucatan pennisula. Working as a pharmacist assistant, Santos left to fulfill his dream of learning English. Now fluent in English, Santos is actually tri-lingual – he also speaks his native language, Mayan of the Yucatan.

Outside of the bakery, you can find Santos frequenting shows of his favorite bands, local musicians Pink Martini and March Fourth Marching Band.