I’ve been married to the love of my life for 21 years—we’ve been together for more of our lives than not at this point, and we’ve seen some shit. Through it all, we’ve chosen each other. We’re parents to the most amazing nine year old boy who reminds us daily that he’s our greatest teacher.

I’m the husband of a yoga therapist; so, humility, empathy, compassion, mindfulness, adaptability, curiosity: that’s how we live our lives and that’s how I lead.

I had a manager once tell me I needed to “sharpen my elbows.” What that philosophy did, instead, was turn my stomach. To me, leadership is a constant exercise in mindfulness, empathy, emotional intelligence and psychological safety. It’s about building bridges, not burning them. It’s about not being the guy that everyone flips off when you turn around and walk away. Leadership is also about surrounding yourself with people smarter than you—and admitting it— and then finding the balance between guiding, coaching and getting out of the way.

Engaging, gregarious and persuasive, I’m a relationship builder who understands that success is never a one-(wo)man show. It takes a village—especially in an enterprise. I listen more than I speak, and am able to truly hear people and receive opinions, feedback and ideas. I crave collaboration. I’m adept at collaborating effectively across a variety of disciplines and bringing teams together around a shared purpose.

I believe in data- and research-driven informed design, design systems and collaboration; taking chances and “failing” early and often; making the right decision even if it’s the unpopular one; guiding my team to shape our path forward, and then enabling and empowering them to evolve and excel.

I need to be in a constant state of evolution—always learning, always growing. Here are some of the things that are currently top-of-mind for me.

I’ve been through a merger, two acquisitions, 5 re-orgs, 8 rounds of layoffs and 15 years of self-employment.

The work I’ve done and teams I’ve led have contributed to millions in dollars of revenue growth. This includes:

• $7.5MM in total revenue for a Webster Bank line of business through the use of service design and a test-and-learn approach aimed at understanding customer needs/pain points. This included the introduction of a unique phone number and proactive chat feature, both with specialized expert support.
• $2.5MM+ in revenue for a major frozen foods distributor in the Northeast. Took an offline and error-prone process online and automated, from order intake to warehouse fulfillment.
• $2MM+ in online sales for a Beverly Hills fashion designer via a customized ecommerce system
• $15K per day and $7MM in revenue for a personal & commercial lines insurance company
• $3MM+ in sales for a customized online system for a specialty insurer
• $860K in revenue for an optometric buying group, by creating a custom administrative tool and bringing offline processes online

• Outcomes Over Output: Why customer behavior is the key metric for business success – Josh Seiden
• Org Design for Design Orgs: Building and Managing In-House Design Teams – Kristin Skinner, Peter Merholz
• The Making of a Manager – Julie Zhuo
• Crucial Conversations – Joseph Grenny, Kerry Patterson, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler, Emily Gregory
• Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World – General Stanley McChrystal
• Leadership Is Language – L. David Marquet
• How to Lead When You’re Not in Charge – Clay Scroggins
• Design for How People Think: Using Brain Science to Build Better Products – John Whalen
• Designing with the Mind in Mind: Simple Guide to Understanding User Interface Design Guidelines – Jeff Johnson
• Designing for Behavior Change: Applying Psychology and Behavorial Economics – Stephen Wendel
• Sense & Respond: How Successful Organizations Listen to Customers and Create New Products Continuously – Jeff Gothelf, Josh Seiden
• Lean UX: Designing Great Products with Agile Teams – Jeff Gothelf, Josh Seiden
• Design Leadership: How Top Design Leaders Build and Grow Successful Organizations – Richard Banfield
• The Facilitator’s Guide to Participatory Decision-Making – Sam Kaner
• Atomic Design – Brad Frost
• Designing for Touch – Josh Clark

Nielsen Norman Group

• UX certified, with a specialty in UX Management.

Interaction Design Foundation

• UX Management: Strategy and Tactics – Credential ID 55973-2020-267407 – top 10% of class
• Design Thinking – Credential ID 55973-2020-293700 – top 10% of class
• Human-Computer Interaction – Credential ID 55973-2020-267405

IBM

• Enterprise Design Thinking Practitioner

Ugurus, LLC

• Business Strategy Bootcamp Graduate & Mastermind Group Member – 2013-2016