I grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia as the third of seven children – five boys and two girls. My mom ran the household with incredible strength and patience, while my dad, an Army veteran, worked as a tool and die maker managing a small business with several military contracts. I still remember him bringing home a munitions clip his company produced for a Gatling gun used during the Vietnam War.
We didn’t have much, but we wanted for nothing. The rules in our house were simple: do well in school, play at least one sport, learn an instrument and start working as soon as you were able. My dad’s mantra was constant: “Don’t be afraid to work.” And it wasn’t optional.
Sports, music and hard work came naturally to me. School… not so much. I was a proud “C student,” more focused on hunting, fishing, drumming, hockey and running my lawn care business. Things shifted in high school when a science teacher pulled me aside and asked, “What on earth are you doing in Track 3? You should be in Track 1.” I shrugged and said, “If you say so.” That small moment, being moved to a more challenging academic track, opened my eyes to a different academic path and new expectations.
It was my teachers and classmates who introduced the idea of college. By sophomore year, everyone was talking about it, and to my surprise, it felt right for me. I attended Drexel University, drawn to its cooperative education model—five years of alternating six-month academic terms with six-month paid work experiences. I interned at General Motors, IBM and even Wawa. Those diverse experiences cemented my passion for business, leadership and technology.
My career began in field sales at AT&T, a role I loved for its autonomy, competition and customer interaction. I married my college sweetheart and together we began a global professional journey that took us overseas to Seoul, Hong Kong and London and in the U.S. to Philadelphia, Stamford, Beverly Hills, Boulder and eventually our home in Fort Collins. Over the years, I’ve held leadership roles in public and private companies large and small that included CMO, CTO, CIO, SVP Strategy and Business Development, COO and CEO, and earned an MBA from the University of New Hampshire and an MS from MIT along the way.
One of the defining chapters of my career was helping lead Global Crossing out of bankruptcy, rebuilding the company, taking it public again and ultimately navigating its acquisition. It was a whirlwind decade that taught me more about resilience and leadership than any textbook ever could. I stayed on for seven additional years through further acquisitions, always driven by mission-focused work and the opportunity to guide diverse, high-performing teams.
Of all of the things I’ve had the privilege to achieve in my career, by far what I am most proud of is the life my wife and I have created for each other and our children. No matter the demands of the mission or the job, our family has always been the one thing that is never compromised. That remains our guiding principle today, and it’s something I encourage in every team I’m fortunate enough to lead.
I’m honored to guide this next phase of the Invictus mission and excited for what we will accomplish collectively as Red River. I look forward to meeting every one of you as we shape our future together.