Top Women Profile Series: Tara Takano
Tara Takano says her entrance into the world of lumber started with a visit to a temp agency. But her journey to rising the ranks at Oregon-based Hampton Lumber, where she works as a domestic sales support supervisor in Portland, stretched around the world.
After completing her bachelor’s in psychology, the native Oregonian spent time in South Korea teaching English. Afterward, she traveled extensively throughout Southeast Asia, which “broadened my view of life,” Takano says. “My biggest hobbies are traveling anywhere and everywhere.”
After arriving back in the States, Takano was unsure which path to pursue. So, she visited a local temp agency in Portland and asked for one stipulation: a company with a good culture and supportive work environment.
According to Takano, she’s found that and more at Portland-based Hampton Lumber, which was founded in 1942 by Bud Hampton.
Rising, and bringing others with her
Takano says she started at Hampton on the invoice team. After doing that for a few months, she landed a sales assistant role, spending about six years helping Hampton traders sell their Grade 3 and lower lumber. Now with the company over seven years, her current role is a domestic sales support supervisor. Takano oversees Hampton’s domestic sales assistants, which entails “a lot of management and process and problem solving,” as well as “helping my team succeed with software issues <be it Epicor’s LumberTrack or Teams> and working with traders, figuring out what the traders need and helping them achieve their goals.”
Takano is also focused on bigger-picture issues. When asked about challenges she’s had to overcome, Takano is passionate about bolstering other women in the workplace.
“Some of the biggest challenges I’ve faced are things like confidence, impostor syndrome and not asking for what I want or need.”
She offers an example pulled from her initial interview at Hampton, where she said something about “not tooting her own horn.” The interviewer conveyed that now was, absolutely, the right time to toot her own horn.
Takano shares that women may sometimes lack the boldness or confidence to speak up at work “with the way society is and what we’re told growing up.” Having a lack of visible role models in traditionally male-dominated industries makes it even more difficult. “It’s something a lot of men take for granted, that they see people who look like them in positions of power all the time.”
However, Takano is seeing notable gains as far as better representation and more opportunities for females to thrive in the lumber world. “The industry is changing and improving dramatically, I’ve already seen that in my time here.”
Takano is helping to effect that positive change.
Elevating women in lumber
To empower women in the industry, Takano helped found Oregon Women in Lumber (OWL), a “coalition dedicated to championing and elevating women in the forest products sector by providing a supportive network advocating for inclusivity and offering tailored resources and mentorship.”
She says the idea for OWL came from a retreat for women in the lumber industry she attended. It was an exclusive (expensive) event, so Takano wanted to offer something more inclusive and accessible. She says she was expecting maybe 50 attendees for OWL’s first event, held in May 2024, but over 100 women representing a broad swath of lumber and lumber-adjacent fields turned up.
“We want to empower women in this industry and help them network,” Takano says, adding that OWL aims to offer more workshops focused on overcoming hurdles women encounter in the workplace and in the lumber industry specifically. “We want people to leave with solid, tangible skills. We have a once-a-year workshop but want to start a mentorship program and regional cohorts.”
OWL’s next event is slated for Monday, May 12, 2025.
Shaping the future
In an industry that’s quickly evolving, Takano shares that it’s a great time for women interested in shaping the future. “There’s a huge need for housing moving forward. It’s a good industry to advance your career in,” she says.
Her advice? “Find a company that supports women and provides ample opportunities. Thankfully, Hampton has been very supportive of women in the workplace.”
Yet, there’s still plenty of work to do in the world of lumber regarding gender equity and leveling the playing field. Takano mentions mills, in particular. “In the lumber industry, there’s a large deficit in the mills. There’s great opportunity there for mills to reach another 50 percent of the population.”
Amid ongoing labor shortages, companies would be wise to make opportunities more attractive and accessible to women.
There’s ample opportunity in the C-suite, too. “We also need more higher-level execs, VPs and owners. We need them as role models younger people can look to.”
To get a foothold and an upward trajectory, as with most industries, it’s about building relationships. Takano says it’s vital to create relationships with supportive, uplifting people. “Seek out mentors, and be a mentor to younger people,” she says. Be direct, and ask: How did you get to where you are today? Can you give me advice?
Sometimes that requires boldness. “Be brave. People might say no, but most people want to help and be supportive.”
