Our Great People

Barry was born in Newark, New Jersey, 22 years to the day after the Japanese Emperor surrendered World War II, on August 14, 1967.

Two weeks later, his parents moved to California, because who wants to grow up in New Jersey? The flight was before planes had seat belts, so Barry rolled around in the cabin surrounded by secondhand smoke.

Barry’s parents divorced when he was little, and he grew up with his father, while his younger sister grew up with his mother. Growing up with a single father who was a software engineer and a huge gambler, Barry learned to deal Blackjack at age 8, so his father could practice counting cards. On the weekends, Barry would get dropped off at Circus Circus in Vegas to play arcade games, while his dad put that card counting practice to use.

After baseball, soccer and football didn’t stick, Barry joined the wrestling team in high school, as a 4’11” 89-pound freshman.

Senior year, he once lost 13 pounds in 3 days, and then was so weak he lost his match 13-0. He eventually became wrestling team captain, which helped him get accepted to the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis. There, Barry got a degree in control systems engineering, and then selected the submarine service upon graduation. Right after graduation, Barry spent 2 weeks in Europe with his roommates and visited 13 countries, put 5,000 km on the rental car, and slept on the beach of the Med. Then he returned to Southern California for “hometown recruiting duty” which is the easiest assignment in the Navy, and that was the summer he met Melinda, who had graduated from the same high school two years before Barry, but they didn’t know each other in high school, and they were married two years later.

In Orlando, Barry graduated at the top of his class at nuclear power school, despite spending more time playing volleyball than studying.

He served onboard three nuclear submarines in the Pacific Fleet, including three 6-month deployments, a tour as engineer officer, another as Weapons Officer (where he did carry the “special” keys), and a 1998 collision that sank a South Korean fishing boat (Barry was in the engine room, and they did save the fishermen). He is also one of many Navy officers who saw UFOs over the middle of the ocean.

After his last submarine assignment, Barry and Melinda moved from Hawaii to Boston, where he earned his MBA from Harvard Business School, because the weather in Hawaii was just too nice and the people were too laid back. After two years with obnoxious Boston drivers and Red Sox fans, they moved to Atlanta, Georgia, where Barry worked for Boston Consulting Group and “got” to fly about 50 weeks per year to exciting cities like Philly, Newark and Houston. During this time, William was born in 2004 and decided not to let Mom or Dad sleep for his first year on Earth.

In 2006, Barry decided to join the homebuilding industry right at the start of the worst housing recession in history.

He joined Centex Homes, managing land, strategy and marketing for Jacksonville, Atlanta, and Nashville, and learned all the exits on Interstate 75 between Tennessee and Florida. In 2008, the Gittlemans moved from Florida back to Atlanta, and Barry spent four years helping John Wieland Homes narrowly avoid bankruptcy, eventually helping with the sale of the company in 2012. Then Barry started the Fischer Homes division in Atlanta, which involved significant land acquisition work out of the home basement office, and a lot of interviews in Starbucks throughout Atlanta, eventually growing the division to 13 neighborhoods and 200 homes per year.

In 2016, the family moved to Utah for the opportunity to lead Hamlet Homes in growth mode coming out of the Great Recession.

Barry is one of four managers who purchased Hamlet Homes from the founder in January 2017. As President and CEO, he is responsible for the overall corporate strategy and vision, culture, architecture and home design, customer experience, and neighborhood homeowner associations.

In his free time, Barry enjoys movies, reading, and playing backgammon, or sometimes trying not to throw up while following Elliott uphill on a mountain bike.

Barry is a board member for the Salt Lake and Utah Homebuilders Associations, and a member of the Military Committee for the National Ability Center. Barry currently resides in a Hamlet home in Draper with his wife and son, where they have the most amazing views of the Salt Lake valley. His current and previous home were both built by Hamlet, and he’s proud to live in a neighborhood where Hamlet is actively building and many of his neighbors are Hamlet customers.

Elliott is the oldest of the 4 partners, having been born on the 24th of July in 1965. Growing up in Utah, he thought the fireworks were just for his birthday. He is the youngest of 5 children and was raised by a single mother. His oldest sister is 18 years older than him. He was born the year she graduated from high school. His brother is 15 years older and didn’t know his mom was pregnant until she was on her way to the hospital.

He had a great life growing up in Springville, Utah, living in the same house until he graduated a Red Devil from Springville High School in 1983. He left that fall for the dorm life at the University of Utah. That was the beginning of 21 moves over the next 14 years, including stops in Seoul, South Korea, Gaithersburg, Maryland, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and ending in Draper where he has lived in the same house for the past 22 years.

He and his wife Andrea met in junior high. There is some debate about exactly when and where this happened, however. Andrea remembers him in 8th grade. Elliott remembers first meeting in 9th grade when, according to Andrea, she had “developed” over the summer. They dated through high school and then on and off for another 5 years before Andrea finally made him commit. They were married in 1988. They have 4 children (3 girls and 1 boy) ranging in age from 22 to 30 and 5 grandchildren (3 girls and 2 boys) ranging in age from 18 months to 8 years.

Elliott likes the outdoors. One of his favorite activities is mountain biking, especially in the deserts of Southwest Utah. Another activity he has recently found again is skiing. Fun fact: he actually majored in skiing the first winter at the U. This was back in the days when you could ski weekdays for $5.00 with a student ID. Those days are long gone, but the skiing is still good. He has found it is only 30 minutes from the office to Solitude, so don’t be surprised if you can’t find him in the office if it’s snowing outside.

Elliott graduated from the U in 1990 with a BS in Accounting. He’s been BS’ing about accounting ever since. He wanted to be an attorney, but after 7 years, a wife, and a baby, he decided to give the accounting thing a try. Who really wants to be an attorney anyway? He went to work right after graduation for a Fortune 500 company in Southern California. After working there for a couple of years, he decided he needed to get some letters behind his name (MBA or CPA). The CPA route seemed to fit better so he studied for the CPA exam and got a job at KPMG, one of 8, at the time, world-wide accounting firms. After working there for a year, he and Andrea decided it was time to get out of California and headed to Las Vegas with their two oldest children, Brynn and Derek. He worked for another of the Big 8 firms, Arthur Anderson, in Vegas for 3 years, leaving in 1997 to become the CFO for a local homebuilder. Courtney and Danielle (Dani) were born in Las Vegas. He started working for the local homebuilder just in time to tell them they were bankrupt. That led to a move to Utah and several jobs in the construction industry over the next 11 years. During this time, he was the Controller for Layton Construction Company and was a founding shareholder in another commercial contractor called SIRQ, which was started in 2004 with a bunch of former Layton guys.

He started at Hamlet in May 2009 with Michael Brodsky telling him that he may only be here for 30 days before the banks shut the whole operation down. It was 30 days at a time until September 2011 when they reached a final agreement with their lenders and had officially survived the Great Recession. He worked with Michael, Phil, Jon, and others over the next several years rebuilding Hamlet Homes until, in January 2017, he was able to buy the company along with Barry, Jon, and Phil. Buying the company, working with his three partners, and the rest of the Hamlet team has been the best part of his career. He looks forward to many more years with the Hamlet Family.

Jon Southern was born in the year of our Lord 1973. Born into a large family, he had to scrap and fight his way through his childhood. He is the 4th of 9 kids and loved spending time with his family and friends as a teenager.

In his 19th year, he served a 2-year mission for his church in Munich, Germany and realized how much larger the world was outside of Utah. Before his mission, the farthest he had traveled was a day trip to Tijuana, Mexico. After his mission, he had several different jobs – working at a Silver refinery, working at the Varsity Theater as a projectionist, and working for Guest Services at BYU.

At some point during this long and lonely part of his life, he met Tiffany Gustafson who was to become his wife. They met in November of 1995 and were married the next year in June. Probably the best decision he ever made was to ask her to marry him. As time progressed and life happened, eventually Tiffany and Jon had 2 children. Holly was born in 1998, and Piper was born during the Salt Lake Olympics in 2002. As a family, there were yearly trips to Disneyland, Disney World, Yellowstone, Bear Lake, Fish Lake, and Zions National Park. Jon worked many hours to advance his career while (luckily) Tiffany raised the kids (so they actually turned out normal). His wife and kids are his inspiration and the reason he has wanted to be successful in life. Jon and his family live a very nomadic life having moved 21 times in 22 years of marriage. Two of their homes were built by Hamlet Homes, and they have loved every minute of it. They always felt that home is where the family is and where you lived did not matter.

Jon loves to spend time with both his wife and kids as well as his own brother and sisters. When possible, he and his father go out to golf as a hobby since they are both terrible at it. Although his mom does not approve, Jon loves to go to Las Vegas or Wendover to gamble (usually playing Craps or Pai Gow Poker). He recently tried Texas Hold’em and is hooked. One of his dreams is to play in the World Series of Poker before 2022. He and Tiffany usually spend Thanksgiving there enjoying a weekend on their own or with friends.

Jon loves to work with his hands either building homes as a framer or completing woodworking projects for the home. Jon attended BYU’s construction management program from 1994-1996. He started in the construction industry working for Acadian Builders, a framing and general Contractor, in 1996. He worked from the ground up, starting as a laborer in the company with four employees. After nine years with Acadian, he was the Lead Framing Supervisor directly overseeing 30 employees and managing three additional Framing Supervisors.

Jon joined Hamlet Homes in 2004 as an Assistant Supervisor in the Production Department. Since that time, Jon has held the title of Production Supervisor, Homebuilding Manager, and finally his current position, Vice President of Construction. He now oversees and directs all of Hamlet Homes’ Homebuilding, Purchasing, Estimating, and Warranty activities. He loves working with a great team of people to see projects come together. This was the main reason he decided to be an owner of Hamlet with his partners. Working with all the great people at Hamlet brings him a great sense of fulfillment.

In 2000, Jon received the Subcontractor of the Year Award from Panda Homes, and in 2006 he was named the Supervisor of the Year from Hamlet Homes for closing 74 homes and having over $14 million in revenue.

Tami Ostmark is our VP of Marketing, our only Female Owner, and Utah’s 30 Women to Watch Award Winner.

She has been known as the company therapist, party planner, problem solver, creator of all things equal, prize junkie, gift giver, collaborator, leader, and marketing and business specialist over the years. And while some may think she is the life of the party at the office or at work or business functions, her most favorite place to be is at home with her family.

Tami met her husband, Cory, way back in 1990. He was her best friend then and is her best friend now (just with the added title of “spouse”).

They grew up together and raised a couple of pretty cool kids together, too. Their daughter, Taylor, and son, Cameron, have been the highlight of their lives, and they have spent the better part of their marriage at either dance or baseball. While they still plan to spend a lot of time with their kids (adult kids now), they are also excited about being empty nesters!

While home might be her favorite place to land, traveling is where her heart is.

Bear Lake family trips since she was born are right up there on her list, but sometimes 2.5 hours away is just not far enough. Her parents instilled a love of travel in her when she was young, and that carried into adulthood. She has traveled and worked all over the world, and after dozens of stamps in her passport, she plans to spend the second half of life exploring even more. Now, that would be much easier if they had a lot of money, so trips to Idaho for lottery tickets or Vegas to play the odds are also on the calendar every now and then.

Tami believes every moment is creating a life experience, and she loves to create experiences for people. She is at her best when creating special experiences for those she works with and works for.

She is also a teacher. If you study communications, hit her up (she might know the answers to your tests). She has been teaching on and off for many years and is looking forward to watching those young adults and what they will do with life. The future is bright, people.

In addition to teaching, volunteering, and public speaking, Tami started her career in real estate marketing for Wardley Better Homes & Gardens about 25 years ago.

She has held some big positions at big companies, trying to break the glass ceiling and make a place for women in a typical man’s world. She was the General Manager/Marketing Director for Jordan Landing Shopping Center, Marketing & Business Consultant, Vice President of Marketing for KSL Broadcast Group, and prior to Hamlet Homes, oversaw the Global Business and Marketing for Overstock.com. Tami was awarded one of Utah’s 30 Women to Watch in 2023, along with top 50 Women Leaders of SLS by Women We Admire Magazine, and Salt Lake Magazine’s Top 10 Women in Business.

She is proud of all the accomplishments in her work life and knows that each of them has made her a better person, a better leader, and led her straight to where she is today. Funny how things come full circle in life, and she ended up back in real estate marketing – this time for THE BEST Homebuilder in Utah!

John Peterson is a farmboy straight from the fields of Declo, Idaho. He grew up wild and free and his wife has been trying to tame him since. He was born as the first boy after 6 older sisters. A family legend says when the nurses placed a little blue bow on his head, his father threw it away exclaiming, “Finally, no more bows!” 2 more little brothers would follow for grand total of 9 children. John’s love of building may have come from having such a large family in that they would often be told to “go make your own fun.” With endless space, a large shop, and too many tools to count on the farm, John quickly learned his imagination was the only limit. He spent his days building forts to play in, ramps to jump off, and go-karts to chase down dogs and other small animals (his brothers.)

While in his teens, John was privileged to work with and learn from true craftsman builders. He started as a framer constructing large potato cellars throughout South-Eastern Idaho and through the years, progressed to custom homebuilding. He spent many years learning and performing many individual trades: framing, trim carpentry, flooring, drywall, roofing, siding just to name a few.

While homebuilding may have been John’s first love, he found other interests along the way. John loves to golf, shoot guns, wakesurf, and snowboard. He started ballroom dancing while in college at BYU and turned that into his professional career for the next 10 years. Through dance, he met his beautiful wife, Julie Petersen (yes, it was spelled wrong until she met John) and he whisked her away from all her other suitors and they have been partners in dance, life, and raising children for the past 21 years. John has 5 children: Mikayla 27 – recently finished graduate school and now a pharmaceutical researcher, Jacee 21 – on the tour team at BYU extending the family legacy of ballroom dance, Jackson 19 – attending UVU and all-around good guy, Maddie 16 – also a dancer and lover of all things cow related, Rigdon 9 – just wants to do everything his older brother and sisters do.

Although other interests have come and gone, John has always had building in his blood. His grandfather and father were both very handy and built many homes, shops, and outbuildings on their farm from scratch. Julie will say that John definitely inherited some handiness from them and is often found doing a project for family or a neighbor. One of the things John has loved in his career is creating beautiful dream homes for families; sometimes starting from nothing more than a drawing on a napkin.

Joining the Hamlet Family in 2013, John found a perfect fit for his talents, experience, and goofiness. With his days of swinging a hammer behind him, he can often be found roaming the Hamlet jobsites in his trademark white pants eager to train and help our team build GREAT homes for our GREAT customers.

Nate Kingdon was born in SLC, Utah in the lovely month of November 1975. Nate was the youngest of 4 siblings and was absolutely adored by his family. Everyone wanted baby snuggles. Nate was a challenging kid and tried to work his way out of doing things from a young age. He had trouble keeping his shoes on during school and his mom would get calls from school about his disruptive behavior. Class clown is how Nate likes to describe it although his teachers would say otherwise.

All of his siblings loved Nate. That is until he was the first kid to get a color tv in their room. Being the youngest of 4 kids, he was spoiled. By the time Nate came along, parenting went out the window and his siblings often complained about how much he could get away with. Not to say he didn’t get into his fair share of trouble because, he was no stranger to that.

Nate lived for baseball growing up. That was all he wanted to do. His dad was a big baseball player and he passed that passion down to Nate. Another thing that was passed down by his dad was his ability to talk to people. Anyone, anywhere. He was a natural salesman, just like his dad. Things didn’t come easily for Nate. He struggled in school and had to make the most of his “average intelligence” (another story for another day). He garnered his work ethic at a young age as his desire to do well in school so he could drive and play baseball was a high priority.

Nate met the love of his life at the ripe age of 15 at a Jr. High Party. She wore a levi mini skirt and a white sweater plus she had big brown eyes, swoon. Lindy did her best to set him straight but it was a big task. It took years to work her magic but eventually he settled into being a great dad to his amazing kids along with continuing to try and impress her. Like the time he tried to do beadboard for his kids bedroom. That ended with a lot of curse words and the hiring of a professional to finish the project AFTER their first child was born. He is lucky he is good at sales because he is definitely NOT handy.

Nate enjoys spending time outside. In his free time he will be found on his bike in the mountains or skiing some fresh Utah Powder in the Backcountry (his mom hates that). He also enjoys a golf game every now and then. He’s horrible at poker but likes to think he can hang with the big dogs at work. His family is his life and his 2 kids keep him busy with cheer, tumbling, acting/singing, ukulele, guitar etc etc. He loves every minute of it.

Nate initially joined Hamlet in 2004 as a sales rep in training. He sold 19 homes in a short period of time and was quickly promoted to a full blown Sales Representative. He was awarded the SAMS Rookie of the year award for 2006! He continued working with Hamlet for 7 years and left to another builder during the downturn. Hamlet recruited him back once the market started to improve when they were putting together their A- Team to build the company back. All together, Nate has been at Hamlet for over 15 years! Nate has sold over 500 homes with Hamlet and loves the building process and getting to be a part of peoples most important purchase in their lives.

Nate is currently our Broker in both Utah and Idaho in addition to our Sales Manger and part owner of Hamlet Homes. He’s always wanted to be able to boss people around. He always wanted a younger brother so he could boss them around. That never happened so this is the next best thing. Haha.

Philip Mosher is Vice President of Sales and Owner of Hamlet Homes. He received his bachelor’s degree in Business Administrations from Rider University and has over 33 years of Real Estate experience. Obtaining his first License in New Jersey while attending school. Entrepreneurially at heart, tie loathing and a desire to turn better ideas into reality.

Having worked coast to coast in Real Estate, owning his own company, and lots of lessons in between, he has landed right where he wants to be. He has a passion for all things film and music, is super competitive, usually has a great hand at a poker game, and is known for his “philisms” that could make it onto any t-shirt, bumper sticker or as famous quotes.

He possesses extensive capabilities and depth of experience across the Real Estate space. Philip was instrumental in Hamlet Homes’ revitalization during the downturn, assisting in the disposition of non-performing assets, acquisition of new land opportunities and commercial sales and leasing. Utilizing his well-rounded skills and vast industry knowledge, he enjoys a team-oriented approach to solving problems and ensuring positive growth within the organization.

Philip is a member of the Utah Home Builders Association, previously serving as President of the Sales & Marketing council and Licensed Utah Real Estate Broker.
His varied interest include spending time with family, Bass guitar, Ping pong, reading ancient philosophy, wine, and travelling.

An Idaho native and mildly handsome descendant of Thor was born and raised in Nampa, Idaho. Travis is the youngest of 5 children. Most of his childhood was spent outdoors enjoying the freedom of rural Idaho in the 80’s. That freedom afforded him the opportunity to build some pretty epic forts on the creek near his childhood home. These forts were his first taste of creating something with his hands. They were followed by many bike ramps, tree houses, homemade pedal cars and anything that his imagination could come up with.

Following high school Travis attended Utah Valley University where he received his BS in construction management. Shortly after graduation he was hired by Pulte Homes in Naples Florida as a construction supervisor. With the Icelandic blood in his veins Travis decided the Florida sun was too much to bear and returned West to Utah where he started his career with Hamlet Homes. During the great recession he co-founded a successful general contracting and painting business serving the Wasatch Front. Travis took a break from homebuilding to serve as a police officer in Springville, Utah for 5 years.

When his Idaho roots called, Travis answered, moving back with his wife, realtor extraordinaire Whitney, and four children; Ben who, despite being taller than Travis, can still be dunked on by his dad, Claire, volleyballer and dad’s personality clone, Will, a footballer with a hankering to smash the opposition, and Sophie, our dancing queen and resident favorite. When he’s not building homes, you can find Travis in the stands or on the sidelines cheering on his children.

Back home in Idaho, Travis founded a custom home building business, Snake River Homes, in the Idaho Falls area. When Hamlet Homes decided to expand operations to Idaho it was an opportunity to reunite with old friends and be part of a great team.

Tyler Mudrow was born and raised in Utah. He is the middle child of an older brother and younger sister. It’s said that children who are born with both and older and younger siblings are resentful because they are somewhat ignored (firstborn favorite and baby princess). He assured us this is not the case WHATSOEVER and that at least he was born with his good looks and athletic capability. He is not only an Eagle Scout, but he also served a 2-year LDS mission in the Bible Belt itself in good old Jackson, Mississippi. During his service, he experienced Hurricane Katrina which is an experience he will always remember and never forget.

Tyler loves to hang out and be with his family. He considers himself the luckiest man in the world because he found not only his wife but also his best friend, Chelsie. He loves his little family that consists of Krew, who is 9 years old and his new baby princess, Payslie, who is just 6 months old. Krew has recently developed a love for sports, and Tyler thrives on this. He loves watching Krew play and compete in sports. Payslie, who he calls his “little bug”, has already stolen his heart and has him wrapped around her little finger.

Tyler grew up playing sports at a young age and always had a disadvantage; he was always put in leagues and teams with his brother who was two years older than him. He was almost always the youngest child in the league and usually the smallest. This didn’t deter or intimidate him. One year on his older brother’s baseball team, he was the only one on the whole team to not strike out all season. He still considers this to be one of the biggest and greatest accomplishments of his life. He also grew up playing golf, tennis, and basketball. He played tennis in high school and was playing varsity as a freshman. He made it to region and state in all 4 years that he played there. He says that if you don’t believe him, you can drive to WX tennis courts and see his name posted on the plaques they have hanging up. Did we mention that he ALSO played varsity basketball and was a starter? These are all moot points compared to the one accomplishment of not striking out on his brother’s baseball team as young boy. To this day, he loves anything to do with sports and still has that competitive nature. In fact, there is a major ping pong competition between Tyler and one of Hamlet’s owners, Phil Mosher. Tyler remains on top and will do anything to make sure it stays that way.

Prior to joining Hamlet Homes as an Assistant Controller in December 2019, Tyler worked for Major Drilling for almost 8 years. He started there as a Staff Accountant straight out of college. He graduated from the University of Utah with his bachelor’s degree in accounting. He worked his way up to Senior Accountant and later to Assistant Controller. While working full time at Major Drilling, he pursued his master’s degree and earned his MBA. He loves the finance side of things and likes to see the numbers behind the business. He loves working at and for Hamlet Homes and considers them family.