Growing up in a small town with a population of about 1,100 people, living the life I have lived thus far was never in the realm of possibilities. For almost a decade of my early life I lived on a farm in this small town, surrounded by open fields, cows, horses, and the occasional peacock (yes you read that right, one of our Amish neighbors owned peacock). That period of my life, along with working demanding summer jobs in a local cabinet shop and at a local landscaping company, ingrained a set of values that I am proud to carry with me today.
The exciting details of my education and work experience can be found in detail on the “Résumé” page above, but I believe some details are important to include here to get a full picture of who I am as a person. I graduated from Indiana University in 2017 with a B.S. in Sport Management. My time at Indiana University was an immensely important part of my life. Not only is this where I discovered my ability to connect with people while cold calling in the athletic ticket office, it is also where I discovered my affinity and skill for marketing and building a marketing plan through a creative process. I greatly credit that discovery to one of my favorite professors at IU, Ann Bastianelli. Perhaps the greatest highlight of my college years, and the one that changed my life in the best way possible, was meeting my wife. The last two things I listed changed the course of my life, for the best. My wife’s job has allowed us to live in Europe the last three years, and quite frankly has enabled us to live an incredibly unique life that I am very thankful for.
2017 through 2021 was an amazing, indescribable time of my life. I traveled to 35 countries and 3 continents, I learned how to live with uncertainty, I learned so many things about so many different cultures that have opened my mind in so many different ways, and most importantly I learned how to live outside of my comfort zone and adapt to unfamiliarity on the fly.
In my free time I enjoy:
- Sitting down and reading a good book (almost exclusively non-fiction)
- Taking a hike in nature with my wife and our dog, Ruthie
- Watching any sporting event I can get my eyes on
- Going for a long run (currently training for a 10k)
- Cooking up a new recipe
- Spending time with family and friends
Since April 2021, I have been working in corporate governance and proxy voting, with the largest proxy advisor service in the world - ISS Governance. I have spent the last several years working in Client Success, servicing hedge funds, institutional investors, and asset owners in their day-to-day proxy voting and governance operations. I find great joy in finding creative solutions to solving problems for my clients in a quick and thorough manner. If I can make my client's day, then I consider that a job well done. The beautiful thing about Client Success is that it is a bit of an intersection between customer service, project management, and sales. This type of role has really helped develop me into a well-rounded employee. After one year at ISS, I was given the opportunity to be promoted to Team Leader in our West region. In this role, I have a team of four awesome employees and oversight of about 400 of ISS' clients, which comes out to about $10 million of annual renewable contracts for ISS. Most of my team's clients are in the hedge fund space, but some also include institutional investors and other types of asset owners. Being a manager has been a challenging learning curve, but a learning curve that I have thoroughly enjoyed. Being responsible for my employees' development, and finding opportunities for them to have their work recognized, is something that I have truly enjoyed. It takes a much different mindset when you become a manager, and based on the feedback I have received, and the results from my team, I have done a great job navigating these first couple of years in the role.
