I have enjoyed an amazing life in St. Louis County and look forward to maintaining this quality of life for future generations. I grew up in Shrewsbury as the youngest of four children. I attended Affton Public Schools, Cure of Ars Catholic Parish, and St. Michael’s for CYC sports. I then attended SLUH for high school and DePaul University in Chicago where I graduated with a degree in Finance. I married my beautiful wife, Erin, in 2010 and we have four incredible children Vivian, Hazel, Olive, and George. We currently live in and love our community of Sappington. We spend a lot of our free time carting kids around to various activities, at family events, or swimming. In between work and our busy schedule I volunteer at our parish, St. Catherine Laboure, with our men’s club and as a lector for mass. I have also volunteered with Mission St. Louis whose vision is to empower individuals for social and economic growth through relationships and opportunity to break the cycle of poverty in our communities. As mentioned, I have four small children and my income-earning years ahead of me. I have a lot of skin in the game and have not been happy with the direction of politics and society. I am running to maintain this seat to make a positive change for our families and community.
Having the benefit of a robust professional life places me in an advantageous position as a legislator. Coupled with my volunteer work, I have gained the skills necessary to serve others, while keeping colleagues motivated to achieve shared goals. While I’m not a seasoned legislator, I view this as a positive. Past legislative experience doesn’t necessarily translate into effectiveness in serving constituents. We’ve seen many examples of politicians with years of service, who, despite their practical experience, strive to be little more than a rubber stamp once in office. They nod along to get along and have poor voting records. Your support for my campaign obliges me to produce results, and I will use the passion I bring to my professional and volunteer endeavors to my service as your representative.
In my professional career, I helped launch a St. Louis branch for an advertising firm recognized by Inc. 1000 as one of the fastest growing advertising firms in the country, followed by managing revenue and operations for a $5M technology business in Maryland Heights. Currently, I manage risk and benefits for Fortune 500 companies, middle market companies, and small businesses. Throughout my career, I have created opportunities for clients and executives alike by listening intently to their needs and facing challenges head-on, all with the goal of producing effective solutions to those challenges. The professional references on my resume are a testament to the skills I have acquired in developing relationships with a broad spectrum of people. Appreciating the need to serve my community, I volunteer as an Ambassador for the Association of Corporate Growth, a Mentor for Capital Innovators, and am an Investor for Greater St. Louis, Inc.
Effective leaders share the same skills as effective legislators. Both depend on the ability to communicate an objective to people who don’t always share the same viewpoint, and both know how to inspire and bring the best out of those whose support they need to achieve those objectives.
