The Treehouse Story

The Treehouse Green Gifts marks the fulfillment of a long-pursued dream of Oakland-based Maureen O’Neil.  After graduating from Cal with a degree in Political Science and Public Policy in 1996, Maureen worked in government, education, and high-tech for several years, but still felt that she hadn’t found a career that she was passionate about.

While she spent a year in Barcelona teaching English as a Second Language, Maureen decided five years ago that she wanted to start her own business, and at the same time support the arts.  With this in mind, she enrolled in San Francisco State’s MSBA program in Entrepreneurship, and would have graduated in December 2006 had she not become involved with Net Impact, a socially-responsible club for business students, and then switched to San Francisco State’s newly-created Sustainable Business program.  She expects to be one of the program’s first graduates in December 2007.

Concurrent with her studies, Maureen was able to apply what she was learning as manager of Pot-Pourri, a family-owned craft gallery that celebrates and promotes American Craft.

An eco-friendly gift store seemed to be the perfect combination of Maureen’s interests in sustainability and the arts, and she completed the business plan for The Treehouse as part of her culminating project at San Francisco State University.

This dream would remain unattained were it not for the incredible support Maureen has received from many people; she is eternally grateful to her mom, dad, Aunts Millie and Lori, Uncles Denis and Kay, Christopher Diez and the Diez family, Professor Murray Silverman, many wonderful friends, and Ben.