Board member | Strategist | Retired owner | Aspiring author

I bought a company $1M insolvent, built four brands inside it, gave half of it to my employees via an ESOP, and sold it for $40M.

Most board members have seen these situations. I've lived them — from insolvent acquisition, through a public company exit, to two years inside the public company that acquired us. I know both sides of that table.

Let's talk

transactions across both sides

$6M -> $40M

revenue growth through ownership

brands built from scratch

$40M

exit to public company

~$17.5M

distributed to employees at exit

Areas 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.

Begin with the end in mind

Hope is an underrated virtue

Find the good. Live there.

The customer is the north star

People buy in to what they help create

Assume best intent

Business is personal. Always.

Ask more than you answer

Be concise

Set people up. Own it when it goes wrong.

Read the story behind each one ->

The story behind the seat

One company. Thirty years. The whole arc.

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.

I bought a company $1M insolvent, built four brands inside it, gave half of it to my employees via an ESOP, and sold it for $40M.

One company. Thirty years. The whole arc.

Let's find out if there's a fit.