About Us
Thank you for your interest in Sage Root Consulting!
Holding multiple certifications, we are a father and daughter consultancy with nearly forty years combined experience in the human resources and compliance, restaurant, and private and public business spaces. Underpinning our professional experience, we are both foodies and farmers at heart. We have a ½-acre organic family farm that runs year long. We often recipe test just for fun. We’ve taken hundreds of cooking classes from various PNW chefs. And we enjoy restaurant dining at all levels—from roadside diners and cafes to the upscale and Michelin starred. Our substantive professional experience, combined with our personal literacy of food and agriculture makes us a unique fit to support restaurants, bars, wineries, food distributors, and other small- to medium-sized businesses with all of their HR and compliance needs.
We also love to work with jobseekers at all levels, and within all industries! Building resumes that are effective, professional branding, interviewing prep, etc., can certainly be daunting. We can help! We have interviewed thousands of people over the last couple of decades, and we can provide customized guidance on what typically works well, and what typically doesn’t.
Ryan McMackin, Co-Founder
Ryan is a Society of Human Resources Management Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP) who has managed the HR and overall corporate/compliance functions for a number of businesses within the hospitality, manufacturing, alternative energy, and logistics sectors over the last thirty years. He has held EVP, VP, and Executive Director titles over the last two decades, and he has done extensive volunteer work at Portland State University, where he has given multiple guest lectures on HR, and where he has and still serves as an official mentor to a number of business students. Ryan has vast experience with all factions of HR and compliance including strategic planning, M&A, talent acquisition and retention, performance management, compensation and benefits design, training and development, legal compliance, both collective bargaining and union avoidance, and insurance/risk management. He has built well-roundedness through hard work, humility, and through experiencing both the “highs” and the “challenges” within the HR landscape—be it the excitement of watching people flourish and grow in their careers, to navigating both class-action and single-plaintiff lawsuits. Ryan is approachable, down-to-earth, and loves relationship building. He has food handlers cards in both Oregon and Washington and can safely be in kitchen areas. See verification of Ryan’s SHRM-SCP certification here on Credly.
Chloe McMackin, Co-Founder
Chloe is a ServSafe-certified and HACCP-certified professional with significant experience working in restaurants and professional kitchens. Having worked fast food, at sit-down eateries, and in fine dining, she has worked front of house, back of house, as a line trainer, and as a professional cook. She knows the daily ins and outs of the restaurant space, and personally understands the unique challenges within the industry. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Food Studies from The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington and she finished two years of college-accredited culinary school. Separately, she also completed a full “Food as Medicine Program” at Oregon’s National University of Natural Medicine. Chloe has a keen understanding of restaurant and food and alcohol handling compliance. She is OLCC and MAST certified, and she has her food handlers cards in both Oregon and Washington and can safely be in kitchen areas. Chloe loves to build relationships and is excited to support you!