Townsend Belisle

Townsend Belisle is CEO and a Partner at Porter One. He is responsible for operations, finance, and marketing; and in curating new client experiences.

Townsend has been in the creative and services businesses for over 20 years. 

He is also CEO and an Executive Producer at Haystack Needle, a strategic design, production and branding agency he founded in 2008. Haystack supports leaders in the luxury, finance, healthcare, consumer and real estate sectors. Prior to founding Haystack, Townsend was an Executive Producer at various design and production agencies.

His previous career was in entertainment, working for Merv Griffin before developing the branding platform for William Morris Agency (now Endeavor) and representing talent such as Naturally 7 and John Legend.

He began his career in the hospitality business working many service roles at the famous Woodstock Inn, a former RockResort. He waited tables and climbed the ranks to become captain, maitre’d, manager and eventually an innkeeper at fine dining and hospitality establishments in Saratoga Springs, Martha’s Vineyard and New York City.