Highland Woodworking Support Team

The mission of Highland Woodworking is to help our customers become better woodworkers. To accomplish this, we depend on the wide-ranging skills and experience brought to the job by our exceptional staff.

Chris Bagby, Owner & CEO
A 1973 graduate of Georgia Tech, Chris co-founded Highland Woodworking in 1978 with Sharon Bagby. He originally provided custom millwork services before focusing mainly on marketing. His other interests include photography, tennis and thru-hiking backcountry trails, including the Appalachian Trail, Pacific Crest Trail and Continental Divide Trail. Though he no longer teaches yoga classes, he does some yoga himself every day (and recommends it to all).

Sharon Bagby, Owner & CFO
Sharon graduated from Georgia Tech in 1974 with a degree in Management Science. She and Chris worked together at King Hardware in Atlanta before starting Highland Hardware in 1978. After retiring in 1995, she rejoined the company in 2008 where she manages day-to-day operation of the business.

Kelley Bagby, Marketing
Kelley joined Highland at the young age of 2, when Chris and Sharon opened the store. Throughout her childhood Kelley helped around the store, so it was only natural to return to the business later in life. Kelley is responsible for the weekly emails as well as many of Highland's other marketing endeavors.

Molly Bagby, Customer Service Manager
Molly has been involved with Highland Woodworking since she was born and to this day remembers taking naps in the shipping area. She is now Highland's Customer Service Manager for Online Sales. She loves cats!

Don Baumann, Sales
Don joined the Highland staff in January, 2014 after a 40-plus year career as a salesman in the Information Technology industry representing firms such as Dell Computer and Hewlett-Packard. He developed his love for woodworking after taking a beginning woodworking class way back in the late 70’s. He gradually acquired more skill and more and more tools and began making things for family andfriends. Today he has his own small business and enjoys making custom furniture for neighbors and friends. Don spends his time enjoying his family, playing golf, traveling, building furniture and sharing his knowledge and experience with Highland customers.

Phil Colson, Assistant Manager
Before joining Highland Woodworking in 1984, Phil was a dancer, stained glass designer and horticulturist. His father was a master craftsman, and Phil has worked with wood all of his life. He's always ready to share his vast reservoir of woodworking knowledge. Visit his woodturning website at www.philcolsonwoodturner.com.

Blair Downing, Purchasing Manager and Sales
Blair graduated from Georgia State University in 1996 with a BA in History, and joined Highland soon afterwards. When he's not reading, golfing, or going to Atlanta Falcons games, he is turning on one of the five lathes in his basement. He also owns a 1966 Mustang whose restoration is a longterm work in progress.

Jon Doxey, Cashier
Since 2007, starting at a local health food store, Jon has worked in retail as a cashier for nearly seventeen years. He believes that a great transaction completes a great shopping experience for customers at Highland Woodworking.

Patty Elder, Shipping
After a decade of bartending, Patricia Ann found herself in the local Atlanta Arts Festival. For the past two decades, she's been appearing daily at Highland Woodworking, putting the HIP into SHIPPING!

Michele Grenet, Graphic Artist
Michele started off as our catalog cover artist, but now she handles production of the entire Highland Woodworking catalog--and she's the reason it looks unique among woodworking tool catalogs. A BFA graduate of the University of Georgia, she went on to study art in Italy before returning to Atlanta. She enjoys traveling, gardening, tending her horses and playing tennis.

Sabiha Mujtaba, Wood Carver and Instructor
Sabiha has been a full-time woodworker & carver for 20 years. She is a member of the Furniture Society, and her work has been shown in American Craft Council Shows, in the Decatur Arts Festival and the ACC Southeast. She was featured inFine Woodworking Magazine Design Book Seven. She is represented by Shidoni Gallery in Santa Fe, NM. Visit her website at www.chrysaliswoodworks.com.

Travis Remington, Tech Support, IT and Education
Travis discovered woodworking later in life. After nearly 20 years of working in IT, he bought a flatbed CNC instead of a sports car for his mid-life crisis. Since then, he has worked his way backwards from digital, to power, to hand tool woodworking. Enamored with the principles of Bauhaus and inspired by the work of Aalto, Nakashima and Rodrigues, Travis designs and builds things as a converged woodworker; incorporating hand, power and CNC tool work as needed into a final unified object. At Highland, he leads the 21st century technology transformation, arranges and schedules classes, researches tech support questions, and attempts to schedule contractors to come and work on the roof.

Sam Rieder, Assistant Manager
A savvy woodworker and lover of fine tools, Sam rejoined the Highland staff in 2008 after returning from a few years of living in Denmark. He previously owned and operated retail stores on two different continents. When not busy assisting customers, Sam works tirelessly making our Atlanta retail store a delightful showplace for fine woodworking tools.

Steve Walker, Sales
Steve is one of the newest members of the Highland Woodworking family. He has been a woodworking hobbyist for over 20 years. He and his family live in Marietta and enjoy gardening, reading and baseball.

Bill Worden, Sales and Purchasing
Bill worked for many years as a professional counselor before coming on board at Highland back in the mid-1990s. In addition to serving customers, Bill also manages our extensive woodworking book department. He's always receptive to hearing about new woodworking books to add to our selection. In his leisure time Bill enjoys gardening, hiking, writing music and playing the guitar.