Management and Key Consultants
Ryann J. Day
Title: President and Chief Executive Officer
Responsibilities: General Management and Operations
Born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, Ryann was introduced to golf at a very young age. He has traveled extensively, playing some of the oldest and most famous links courses.
Ryann has been a member of Washington’s Sand Point Country Club since 2010 — including serving as a member of the club’s board of directors in 2018-2020 and as club president in 2019.
Ryann is the owner of RJ Day Construction, a custom construction and residential development company, and Owen Henry Windows and Doors, a window and door dealership focusing on high-end direct and contractor sales.
He holds a bachelor’s degree from the Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington. Ryann lives in Seattle with his wife and four children.
David McLay-Kidd
Title: Golf Course Design Consultant
Responsibilities: Golf Course Design
Born and raised in Scotland, David has been around the oldest and finest golf courses in the world. As the son of a superintendent, he saw behind the scenes what made these courses stand the test of time and what intrigued generations of Scottish golfers.
It has always been David’s passion to manage courses with ecological benefit and sustainability at the forefront of his mind.
From a childhood spent on and around golf courses and their many characters, David looked to begin a formal education. He won a place at the prestigious Writtle College on the outskirts of London where he studied horticulture and landscape design — the closest discipline he could find, as studies in golf design did not exist.
He interned with Southern Golf Construction, Europe’s largest golf construction company and learned about the process of construction and gained an insight into design and the conventions that existed.
For almost 10 years, David travelled the world assessing sites for golf. He worked with consultants involved in the process of developing golf courses including market analysts, master planners, architects, engineers, ecological consultants and land-use and planning attorneys. Insight gained from these relationships gave David the last vital piece he needed for his education: what the development process looks like from the client’s perspective.
As well as acting as the development group’s golf development expert, David was also the in-house golf designer. This role became more of his focus in recent? years. David’s golf course designs include Bandon Dunes, Gamble Sands, Saint Andrews Links – The Castle Course, Tetherow Golf Course, and TPC Stonebrae Country Club. David lives in Bend, Oregon, with his wife Tara and daughter Ailsa.
Mark Merkelbach
Title: Professional Wetland Scientist & Project Manager
Mark Merkelbach is Professional Wetland Scientist (PWS) and a civil designer and with 17 years of consulting experience in the public and private sectors. He works primarily in Washington, Alaska, Oregon, and California. He has been involved in all phases of wetland delineation, assessment, mitigation and monitoring (with the Washington Department of Ecology and US Army Corps of Engineers). Mark has designed and permitted two wetland mitigation banks in Washington and Alaska. He also has an extensive experience as the ecology lead working with stakeholders and designers in developing master plans. His projects are driven by ecological design principles that balance the needs of local fauna and flora with the built environment.
David D. Dicks
Title: Environmental Counsel
In his years of private practice as an environmental attorney and facilitator David Dicks has developed significant legal and policy expertise focusing on solving environmental problems. Growing up on Hood Canal gave David a passion about Puget Sound and salmon recovery. David is an Endangered Species Act and Clean Water Act expert and has vast experience with all environmental laws including the National Environmental Policy Act, and Washington State's Environmental Policy Act and Shoreline Managment Act. His practice focuses on Puget Sound restoration, salmon recovery, environmental mitigation, hazardous waste clean-ups and other natural resource projects.
David has helped clients across the West achieve major successes and was selected by his peers for inclusion in Best Lawyers in America in 2007 and 2008 before leaving the practice of law to become the inaugural Executive Director of the Puget Sound Partnership (2007-2010). In that role he was instrumental in the start-up of the new state agency and the development of the Puget Sound Action Agenda - the science based roadmap for Puget Sound cleanup and recovery. After returning to legal practice he played a major role in the cleanup of Port Gamble Bay on Hood Canal. Recently, he played a key role in the permitting and development of the Blue Heron Slough restoration project in Everett, WA. The project restores 357 acres of former farmland to estuary habitat that is crucial for salmon recovery. See: Seattle Times - Puget Sound Salmon Habitat Restored With Tribes Leading the Way
David’s reputation stems from his deep understanding of environmental law and policy and his ability to work effectively with scientists and decision makers to craft durable solutions to environmental problems.
He received his BA with honors from Stanford University and his JD and Environmental Law Certificate from UC Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law. He was an Affiliate Associate Professor in the School of Marine and Environmental Affairs at the University of Washington from 2013-2021.
