Grant Pemberton

Age: 35

Job title/company: General manager, Nicks Handmade Boots.

Education: B.A., Eastern Washington University; M.A., EWU; international M.B.A., Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Business; Fudan University, Shanghai (noncredit program). 

Tell us about your career so far. I spent the first six years of my professional career in China as a university professor. In 2010, I returned to the U.S. to assist Scanivalve Corp., in Liberty Lake with their Chinese business development. After three years, I joined Honeywell Electronic Materials in the Spokane Valley as an analyst in the quality department, where I received my 6Sigma Green Belt.  

I served at Honeywell for three years until I was approached with a unique opportunity to join xCraft, a Coeur d’Alene-based drone company which was highlighted on the ABC show Shark Tank, to help them establish their China operation. We took the product from a prototype state, to on the shelves of BestBuy, in just a six-month period.  

Then, in late October, having become a bit burnt out on technology and China outsourcing, I was approached with an even more unique opportunity: help develop a local handmade boot company—Nicks Handmade Boots.  I currently serve as the general manager.    

What are your aspirations?  On the personal side, I want to be a faithful and loving husband and father to my wife and children. Professionally, I aspire to see Nicks Handmade Boots become a model for on-shoring and the reemergence of craftsmanship in the greater Spokane area.     

Tell us about your mentor, or someone you look to for inspiration. My grandparents come to mind. They were true entrepreneurs in the 50s. My grandmother, Evangeline Pemberton, built a successful business without a college education and still closes the books for that business at the age of 92. She was traveling to places like China in 1980, right after China reopened to the West. My late grandfather, JC Pemberton, was a machinist/inventor and took me under his wing when I was in high school as his apprentice in his “Skunk Works” shop at Felts Field in Spokane. I was privileged to spend so much time with them, which was foundational to forming my view of work and family.

What generational stereotype do you feel strong about? None come to mind.  

Something interesting/random about yourself. I am a bit of an old soul. I like cars, motorhomes, and motorcycles from the late ’70s and early ’80s. Also, I am fluent in Chinese.