Me

I am grateful to have lived with, worked with, and developed rich friendships with people from many cultures, countries, and walks of life. My work experience is diverse as well. I’ve been an optician, a pharmacy tech, a pharmacy manager, a software implementer, a consultant, and a technical leader in both non-profit and commercial orgs. This has included working extensively with numerous medical systems, industries, and disciplines. It has allowed me to meet fascinating people — the innovative, quirky, creative, reclusive, and outgoing alike. I am very direct but am kind. I work by providing insight, solving problems, and building relationships based on trust, demonstrating a genuine desire to assist, and calmly working through the problems while always focusing on solutions. I have a self-deprecating approach to engaging, and a (very) dark sense of humor that keeps people on their toes. My lovely wife calls me an “acquired taste,” which is her wonderful way of saying that I am eccentric, may be understood until you get to know me, and am very much an independent thinker. Servant-leadership is not a buzzword to me. It’s real, and it drives my leadership decisions. The people I lead are more important than I am. Period. I have several things that have had the most significant impact on me (in chronological order):

• My time in Guatemala.

• My faith.

• Working with psychiatric patients.

• Meeting and learning from my wife.

• Raising and learning from my kids - a subset of them being autistic.

I am a realist and a “closet optimist”. That means I believe in the power of growth, excellence, and improvement. I have been accused of being a pessimist, but it has always been by people who do not understand me or care to get to know me. Realism is not pessimism. Realism is a prerequisite for growth and wisdom. Pessimists are lazy, and I do not believe laziness is ever acceptable.