Board member | Strategist | Retired owner | Aspiring author
Most board members have seen these situations. I've lived them - from insolvent acquisition, through a public company exit, to two years inside one learning how that world actually works. I know both sides of that table.
Let's talkAreas of expertise
Turnaround & growth
From $1M insolvent to $40M exit. A full manufacturing operation - engineers, machine shop, welding, assembly - run under real pressure for twelve years.
Entrepreneurship
Conceived and built four distinct brands inside an existing company - including an international JV with Malaysian partners.
Culture & ownership
Built an ownership culture before the ESOP. The structure formalized what already existed.
ESOP & transitions
Executed mid-stride as a growth strategy, not an exit plan. Fewer than 0.1% of US businesses have an ESOP - and almost none did it mid-career as a growth strategy.
M&A & Exits
Five transactions. Acquisitions, a JV exit, and a sale to a public strategic acquirer - then two years inside one.
Operating systems
EOS (Traction) implementation, meeting discipline, open book management, accountability and structures that outlasted the tenure.
The Bets
These are bets I'd make if I had to do it all again. Some I read. Some I heard. Some I learned the hard way. And a few didn't even become clear until after I retired.
01
Begin with the end in mind
Begin with the end in mind.
If you don't know what success looks like, you're navigating without a destination. The clearest thing I can do as a leader - or as a board member - is define what we're actually trying to build.
02
Hope is an underrated virtue
Hope is an underrated virtue.
Hope is the predecessor to belief, and belief is where strategy begins. The leaders who stripped hope out in favor of pure analytical rigor built precise, efficient, uninspiring organizations.
03
Find the good. Live there.
Find the good. Live there.
What you choose to focus on is not just a mindset - it's a leadership decision. Teams that anchor on what's working, and build from it, move faster and pull harder.
04
The customer is the north star
The customer is the north star.
Not a slogan. An operating principle. Every strategic question eventually comes back to it - what does the customer actually need, and is the whole organization oriented around that answer?
05
People buy in to what they help create
People buy in to what they help create.
Directives get compliance. Involvement gets ownership. The more people felt that their fingerprints were on the outcome, the harder they worked to protect it.
06
Assume best intent
Assume best intent.
The shift from blame to curiosity is one of the highest-leverage moves a leader can make. People were usually doing their best with what they had.
07
Business is personal. Always.
Business is personal. Always.
Business is made of people. People remember how they were treated - especially when things got hard. The leaders who compartmentalize the human side don't protect themselves. They just make worse decisions.
08
Ask more than you answer
Ask more than you answer.
The best leaders are not the ones with the most answers - they're the ones who ask the best questions. Curiosity earns trust and surfaces the real problem, not the stated one.
09
Be concise
Be concise.
The more words, the less effect. If you can't say it clearly and briefly, you haven't finished thinking it through. Clarity is a form of respect.
10
Set people up. Own it when it goes wrong.
Set people up. Own it when it goes wrong.
Before you conclude that someone failed, ask whether they were set up to succeed. Most underperformance is a systems problem dressed up as a people problem.
The story behind the seat
NCC Automated Systems was a conveyor system manufacturing company heading toward zero. I saw something in the people and the bones of the business - and bet everything on it.
What followed was twelve years of building, failing, rebuilding, and ultimately creating something worth sharing - literally.
Read the full story ->In progress
Fight to Serve
Where Toughness, Kindness, and Humility Collide
A leadership memoir about thirty years of learning that the fight and the service were never opposites - they were the whole point.
Having stepped away from day-to-day operations, I work with a small number of companies where I can genuinely contribute - not just attend meetings.