John Waechter serves as managing director and partner at Delafield Hambrecht, an investment firm in Seattle. John joined Delafield Hambrecht in March 2007, and brings over 20 years of finance, sales and marketing, operations, and senior management experience to the firm.

Prior to joining Delafield Hambrecht, John served as CEO of Saltmine, Inc., an interactive design and development software firm headquartered in Seattle, WA. Saltmine, a portfolio company of Waechter Lufkin, LLC., was sold in 2006. John co-founded Waechter Lufkin in 1997, and served as Principal of the Seattle-based Broker Dealer specializing in seed-stage private placements.

Prior to this, John served as Vice President of Marketing and Operations for Northland Communications Corporation, a national provider of cable and internet services.

Prior to Northland, John helped form the data and video communications division of GTE, and he began his career in sales and marketing with the Xerox Corporation. John graduated from Whitman College and received an MBA from the University of Washington.

He is the co-author of Conquering the Seven Summits of Sales: From Everest to Every Business, Achieving Peak Performance.

John Waechter reached the summit of Mt. Everest (29,035 feet) on May 25th 2001. With the ascent of Mt. Everest, he successfully completed climbing the highest peak on each of the world's seven continents, becoming the 58th person to conquer the Seven Summits. The other six mountains are Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa, Mt. Kosciuszko in Australia, Mt. Elbrus in Russia, Mt. McKinley in Alaska, Mt. Aconcagua in South America, and Mt. Vinson in Antarctica.

John's presentation focuses mainly on his ascent of Mt. Everest, but also includes pictures and stories of these other mountains.