Over my career I have found I have a passion for many things but a couple stand out to me. One is building, mentoring and retaining world class teams of talented, engaged designers and content strategists. The second is solving UX challenges from deciding the right interaction on a page, to leading a full product redesign or developing a holistic strategy for developing a design system.
Outside of work I love spending time with the family, devouring information on digital design, and keeping my skills sharp by working on personal design projects. I also enjoy experimenting with new digital products and programs since people are doing some amazing things. For over ten years I also served as the chairman of the board for the Global Community College a 501(c)(3) non-profit.
LEADERSHIP PHILOSOPHY
I can say with 100% confidence that people are happier and more productive when given a clear vision and goals. I also fundamentally believe most people want to do a good job and be proud of the work they do. Too often in my career I have seen leaders actually impeded employees from doing their best work by not setting clear goals and expectations. I truly believe the best leaders enable their team to do the best job possible and adeptly remove roadblocks or course correct projects getting off-track.
PERSONAL INTERESTS
Family
Camping | Hiking | Cooking | Hiking
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Relaxing
Reading | Writing | Gaming | Learning
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Video
Anything Sci-Fi | Netflix Originals | HBO Series
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Audio
Classic Rock | Contemporary | Audio Books
MY STORY
I was born in California but at an early age we moved to Singapore where we lived for 3 years before moving to Saudi Arabia where we spent another 4 years. When I returned to the US I went to high school on the coast in the redwoods of Northern California. During those years I was exposed to a number of jobs from landscaping and construction to working at the Mendocino Mineral Water bottling facility and roasting beans for the Thanksgiving Coffee company. I also started my first side business importing items from China and selling them to local stores.
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After high school I went to Sonoma State University where I received a Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communications with a focus on Media. I was so interested in Psychology that I ended up with a Minor because of the amount of courses I took. During this time I also earned my EFL/ESL teaching certification while working at a TEFL training school in San Francisco.
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After graduating with my BA in Communications in 1996 I applied for a marketing assistant position at Monster Cable. They noticed I had built some Web pages for personal projects and being the early phase of the Web, offered me a Webmaster position as an alternative. I jumped at the opportunity and have been designing and building digital experiences ever since.
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A few years later I went back to school at John F. Kennedy to earn my Masters degree in Management. During this time I was working in San Francisco and experiencing the hay-day of the dot com boom. Although I have a strong passion for design I found myself wanting to take a larger role in influencing the strategic direction of the products. I also discovered I really enjoyed building and leading project teams. I was lucky enough to work at a variety of companies that afforded me that opportunity.
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Fast forward to now and I am seeking the next chapter in my professional career and company that I can call home and make a significant impact shaping it's digital products.
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