Born in the Midwest, I grew up hanging out with friends and family, playing a lot of hockey and learning to love nature and the outdoors.  Oddly enough, a movie changed the course of my life.  Jeremiah Johnson was playing at the student union theatre in college one night and I caught the mountain bug!  I left the Midwest behind and earned a college degree at University of Arizona and then an MBA at Southern California. That was the start of many outdoor adventures, with a lot of climbing, hiking, biking, skiing and surfing.

I tried my hand at my dad’s business while in school, as an insurance agent with Northwestern Mutual Life, but found no passion there. After graduating I became a CPA (sort of my PhD in finance), then started my first company, a consumer products business, and liked that much better. I joined Nestle Carnation in brand management, reorganizing the dairy division into the future Nestle Ice Cream Division, NA. Packing up the family we moved from Manhattan Beach to Fresno and I became the VP of Marketing for a national food company. I played a lot of hockey in Fresno but didn’t spend as much time at outdoor adventures. After the food company sold, I had an epiphany. A very wise gentleman by the name of Charlie Harreus encouraged me to shed the trappings of corporate America and forge out on my own. Passion and purpose became part of my life again, and after a few months of searching, I discovered the latest trend in active living, indoor sport climbing.  It was new, and quite frankly, fascinating. Over the next 12 years I built a company, Rockreation, with my business partner, Jeff, which became one of the largest climbing gym operations in the country, introducing thousands to the great sport of climbing. It also provided me the flexibility to take adventures with my 3 kids and be with them while they grew up. Who wouldn’t want to have climbing gyms as their playground??
Rockreation and I parted company in 2004 and I sought new horizons, starting a private equity investment firm, Open Water Ventures, investing in active lifestyle businesses, mentoring college students, writing and lecturing.  I kept my toe in the climbing gym waters by providing business development and risk management consulting services to climbing gym owners.

Here I am today…….still seeking out new adventures while trying to create value in the world!