Development and Management Team
Michael Woods, Managing Partner
Michael Woods is the key founder of the Avalon Springs project, and has guided its development since inception. He has owned and operated successful resort/spa properties in the Napa Valley wine region, providing him with a unique familiarity with the historic, cultural and business aspects of the region. Woods is the founder and president of Baywood Capital Corporation. Baywood, incorporated in 1980, manages real estate investments funded by limited partnerships headed by Mr. Woods.
Since 1977, Woods has managed over 40 real estate investments. Baywood's current management portfolio of properties includes hotels, office buildings, retail buildings and apartments. Baywood's office buildings total approximately 100,000 square feet, and are located primarily in downtown San Francisco and Burlingame. The apartment and retail buildings are located in the prime areas of San Francisco, Burlingame, St. Helena and Los Gatos.
Mr. Woods' hotel properties range from the historic Mount View Hotel and Spa in Calistoga to the Inn at Eagle Mountain near Scottsdale, Arizona. Woods has also been the managing partner for the White Sulphur Spring Resort & Spa in St. Helena, California, the Carmel Valley Inn and Tennis Resort in Carmel Valley, California, the Emerson Hotel in Palo Alto, California and, the El Pizoti Lodge in Costa Rica. Under Michael’s skilled management, these hotels have flourished and grown into strong and successful ventures. Woods graduated from San Francisco State University in 1974 with a degree in business. Woods’ devotion to founding Avalon Springs comes from a deep desire to use his experience to create a truly unique, socially and ecologically responsible project. He has assembled a uniquely diverse and capable team to help him.
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Mellissa Seaman, Marketing and Educational Director
Mellissa Seaman is an original founder of the Avalon Springs project and has been especially involved with design, communications, marketing, and programming. She graduated from Stanford University in 1991, and from the University of San Diego School of Law in 1995, where she was awarded the Outstanding Public Interest Advocate award. She spent five years as an attorney in the areas of public interest law and business litigation.
Mellissa is a natural entrepreneur who founded a theatre and school of improvisation (San Diego TheatreSports) and a holistic healing arts center (San Diego Circle) before moving to Northern California to help create Avalon Springs. Since 2005, in addition to developing Avalon Springs, Mellissa has continued leading women’s empowerment groups in Northern and Southern California, and has served as a marketing and communications consultant for Baywood Capital Corp, the Calistoga Chamber of Commerce, and a number of small business owners. Mellissa’s many talents as a writer, teacher, website developer, and community leader combine a unique balance of business know-how and spiritual connection to the design and co-creation of Avalon as a development that bridges deep ecology, hospitality, and educational outreach.
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Richard Bock, Director of Spring Water Systems
Richard Bock is an original founder of Avalon Springs. Bock has been working with mineral water bathing systems for almost 20 years. His hands on experience and knowledge of spring box development and hot mineral water systems make him a valuable asset for Avalon Springs. From his early years in rural Germany his professional career has always been about the water, from pool design to teaching WaterDance at hot springs spas around the world. For 19 years, Richard has been involved with Harbin Hot Springs as a teacher, project designer, and community leader. This experience has prepared him to lead the Spring Water Systems development for Avalon Springs. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Tom Horton, CEO, Canopy Development
Tom Horton is a seasoned social entrepreneur, manager, developer, and financier. He has raised more than $100 million in early stage capital for multiple social enterprises, ranging from clean energy, organic/local food production, sustainable tourism, and durable medical devices over a 25-year period of time.
Tom founded Canopy Development in 2004 and brings more than 20 years of community-focused real estate development and project finance experience to the company. Canopy was for a period of three years majority owned by Steve Case and his venture fund Revolution. Through this and other experiences, Tom has developed a large and diverse database of important contacts from which he draws from to build, finance and support early stage development teams with innovative social businesses.
For the ten years prior to founding Canopy Development, Tom served as US Managing Director of the Trust for Sustainable Development and VP Corporate Development of the Loreto Bay Company, a TSD affiliate company. The Villages of Loreto Bay, a series of seaside villages planned for 6,000 homes and a 5,000-acre natural preserve in Baja California, Mexico, is the largest sustainable resort community under development in North America. Tom managed the initial financing for the 2.6 billion dollar project and also served as the first Sustainability Officer for Loreto Bay, helping establish the Loreto Bay Foundation and drafting the aggressive sustainability standards for the project.
Prior to his work for TSD and Loreto Bay, Tom worked as a Program Director for the Rodale Institute a non-profit organization that works with people worldwide to achieve a regenerative food system that renews and improves environmental and human health.
Tom also formed and continues to run Sustainable Resources Inc., a company that develops and finances businesses that can make fundamental change in the way people live their lives. One of SRI’s projects is Icon Wheelchairs Inc., which recently closed on its seed financing and anticipates initiating manufacturing its unique modular and adjustable wheelchair in Holyoke MA within the next several months. Tom lives with his wife and three children in Northampton, MA. Tom is a joint venture partner in developing Avalon Springs.
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Sam Spencer, Canopy Development
Sam Spencer is a Maine based real estate developer and entrepreneur. Sam has worked with to refine the development and financial plans for Avalon Springs. Through his own companies, Spencer Development and Spencer Monks Development, and as Vice President of Harper’s Development, he has focused on redeveloping large former manufacturing and mill properties into commercial space, usually through public-private partnerships, and has been involved with several energy projects. Recently he has been working with Canopy Development in Northampton, Massachusetts on several real estate development consulting projects. He previously served four years on the White House staff, helping oversee President Bill Clinton’s political appointments in the government and as Special Assistant to Vice President Al Gore. He has been Maine’s elected representative to the Democratic National Committee since 2004. He is also President of the Portland Development Corporation, the city’s loan and economic development authority, and Board President of Opportunity Maine, an education policy non-profit. Spencer is a graduate of Harvard and Harvard Business School.
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Chuck Johnson, Construction Project Manager
A student and practitioner of passive solar design and natural building since the mid-1970s, Chuck has been an avid hot-springs aficionado since he co-founded and built the family bath-house/spa Teton Hot Pots in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. In 1989, Chuck founded Artisan Builders, serving as a general contractor, designing and building custom homes with natural and sustainable materials. He later expanded into environmentally sensitive land development and founded the award winning Neshobe Farm community in Vermont. Chuck has been involved in the initial renovation phase for Avalon Springs, and serves as consultant and project manager for design and build of various aspects of the eco-cabin installation. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Arkin-Tilt Architects is an award-winning Architecture firm specializing in energy and resource efficient design. Their projects embody a marriage of thoughtful design and ecology, creating spaces that are comfortable and lyrical, with particular attention to the integration of the built and natural environments. Arkin-Tilt has extensive experience with alternative construction systems, including straw-bale and rammed earth, renewable energy systems, greywater, and non-toxic and recycled materials. A natural fit for the Avalon Design Team, their projects include residential and commercial, park buildings, religious facilities, and eco-resort planning and design.
Exos Design is an International Environmental Design Group focusing entirely on earth-friendly landscape and garden development that utilize the principles of permaculture. Co-founders Doug Bullock and Scott Godfredson design productive permaculture landscape systems for clients around the world. They assisted the Avalon team in creating the Permaculture Master Plan, the product of extensive research, analyze, and report on the natural resources, challenges, and opportunities available on this particular piece of land.
The initial four years of visioning and design were guided by a Core Council of six devoted founders. This council included: Michael Woods, Richard Bock, Mellissa Seaman, Deidre Sommers, Iva Tashlick, and Sandeep Goel.
Michael Woods (see above)
Richard Bock (see above)
Mellissa Seaman (see above)
Iva Tashlick brings over three decades of experience in the fields of massage, healing, and wellness education. She helped create a women's circle with an active spiritual community center in Maryland, and for years has created spirit-based ceremonial gatherings providing deep grounding for transformation. A lifelong student, Iva enjoys celebrating and practicing healing in many forms. email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Sandeep Goel is President of LightBearer Investments, an investment management firm with a focus on socially conscious, Earth-friendly technology and alternate energy investments. Sandeep served for 15 years as the CEO of a U.S. based computer software and Internet Company with international operations. Sandeep’s passionate interests for the past 25 years have included writing, communication, physics and meta-physics, ceremony and spiritual gatherings, cosmology, environmental/green/alternate technologies, electro-mechanical engineering, large-scale complex systems design, clean sustainable energy and permaculture. email:
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Ajaya Deidre Sommers www.alchemyoftheheart.com - Ajaya Deidre Sommers grew up in a Sufi community where she developed a deep reverence both for spiritual practice and community living. She has been a professional healer since the age of 18, and is a gifted intuitive practitioner in many modalities including Breath Therapy, Bio-dynamic Craniosacral, Energetic Balancing, Core Embodiment Meditation, Integrative Counseling, and Aquatic Bodywork. She founded Alchemy of the Heart, a sanctuary for conscious evolution, in Calistoga, California, and continues to lead workshops and trainings in California and Hawaii.