Texas has been home since 1999 when I first arrived in Austin for an internship at a local tech company. As many people do, I fell in love with the weather, people, and environment.

I actually grew up in the south suburbs of Chicago, so my sports loyalty still remains firmly with the Cubs, Bears, Bulls, and Blackhawks. I have no problem rooting for Texas teams as long as they aren't playing my hometown favorites. Following in the footsteps of my father, I decided to pursue an engineering degree at Rochester Institute of Technology in New York. Besides an avalanche of snow every winter, Rochester was a great place. Miss the Dibella's subs and a variety of hot wings from many places. Graduating with a BS in Microelectronic Engineering, I quickly headed back to Texas, working for the same tech company, but at their facility in the Dallas suburb of Allen. Two years of Big-D is all I could handle, and transferred back to Austin and have been here ever since. In 2004 I took a job with a German company that builds equipment for the semiconductor industry. Over the 5 years I was with them, I racked up over 1,000,000 American Airline miles flying all over the world.

As you can imagine, that much business travel becomes tiresome. So in 2009, I quit my job (was that so wise in the middle of a recession?) and enrolled in Acton School of Business in downtown Austin to get my MBA. Cramming an MBA into 9 months was exciting and well worth the lack of sleep. Learned a great deal about the management and financial side of business that I was never able to experience in my tech jobs. Today, besides drumming up FLEX Austin business, I am working on a couple of other start-up business ideas. Hobbies include golf, gardening, and motorcycles.