About Me

Growing up...

I grew up moving around in the south moving between Alabama, Arkansas and Virginia (two more times in Virginia) until we moved to Lilburn, Georgia about 15 miles east of Atlanta when I was in first grade. We were there for six years until the end of sixth grade for me. I played baseball, soccer, tennis and swam. Between my two younger brothers and all of our friends we always had some kind of pick up game being played in the side yard of our home. There was lots of soccer, tennis ball baseball and even some tackle football.

Early 1980's

Moving North

We moved to Naperville, Illinois when I was in 7th grade. I lost my southern accent in less than two months. Kids are cruel! I continued playing soccer through my senior year of high school and was the recipient of the Red and White Award for Soccer at Naperville Central Hight School. My very first real job was at The Doughnut Shoppe in 8th grade. I opened and closed the store on weekends until one day the owners closed up "the joint."

August 1985

College

Illinois State University - Pre-Engineering/Physics. Joined Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity where I was the treasurer my third year and lived in the house. Transferred to The University of Illinois fall semester 1995 where I majored in Civil Engineering and raced for the IBRC (Illinois Bicycle Racing Club). Graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering in May, 1997.

August 1992 - May 1997

Bicycle Racing

I raced at a high competitive level for a few local teams (Wild Thang Cycles, Mack Racing, Turin) for a few years after college. I raced criterium, road and track races and upgraded to a category 2 the summer of 1997. One of my biggest accomplishments was placing 13th in the Illinois state criterium championship Pro/1/2 race in 1998 which was good enough to make me the 3rd place Illinois rider that year. Training was tough when I started working a full time job in August 1997. I'd ride my bicycle a couple of days a week into work in Chicago from my parent's house in Naperville which was about 36 miles each way.

Summer 1997

Software Consulting

I decided to take a job with Andersen Consulting after college as an analyst. They advertised that they would teach me everything I needed to know about computer programming. It was a great company with a lot of potential, but I was looking for something a little smaller with a bit more focus.

August 1997

Starting a Family

I met my lovely wife Gail in 1999 and we were married in August 2000. Our son was born in 2002 and our two daughters in 2003 and 2008.

1999-Present

Microsoft Technologies

I moved over to a company in Chicago known as Parian in late 1999 because I was feeling a bit like a number at Andersen Consulting. Parian had recently been bought out by Getronics which was a large company, but the Chicago office had a very small consulting company feel. I learned a lot about Microsoft development there and from that point on in my career primarily worked with Microsoft technologies. I moved around to a couple of other consulting companies in the early 2000's; namely Genisys which was bough by Perficient while I was there and then Magenic which has subsequently been bought by another large company. Notice a trend? I obtained a Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer certification while working at Magenic and gained a lot of knowledge and experience in designing, building and testing full stack web applications.

1999-2008

Software Engineering

I moved on to work for two different companies as a full time employee, continuing to work with Microsoft technologies mostly doing full stack web development.

2008-2021

Recreational League Soccer Coach

When my son started playing soccer I saw the need to go back to my roots and help coach. In 2008 he started playing in the 1st grade recreational league and I coached the team with a good friend in the neighborhood. What started out as wanting to help him learn the right way became a true passion. I began coaching my oldest daughter's recreational team in 2010 as well.

2008-2010

Competitive Soccer Coach

In 2010 when my son was in 3rd grade we decided to combine the better players of three recreational teams to form a competivie travel team. The other coaches knew a club that had one older team and took us in under the umbrella of his club. I volunteered with two of the other coaches to get licensed and took the US Soccer E licensing course.

I happened to meet a coach at a club in Downers Grove that was looking for help and I signed on as a floater for them in an effort to learn and carry that over to my son's team.

2010

USSF Soccer Referee

I wanted to know what soccer referees were being taught to become referees so I decided to get certified myself. I started reffing as an AR for 9v9 and center for 5v5 matches. Eventually I worked my way up to centering 11v11 matches, started reffing high school IHSA and now referee college matches for ESRC. I've centered D3 matches and have been an AR and 4th official on a few D1 matches. It's very challenging and fun!

2012

USSF Soccer Referee Assignor

The club I was coaching for was not happy with their assignor for various reasons and asked me to become the club's referee assignor. I got certified and put my technical skills to use. The following season I was asked to assign for a park district recreational league.

2014

Mortgage Professional

I left my software job in 2017 and got licensed as a mortgage professional. I did this full time for a few months, but with interest rates climbing I decided to go back to software development. Luckily I talked to a friend that encouraged me to take my license to Parlay Mortgage and keep it active so that I could do loans part-time.

2017

Legion of Loan Officers

After working with a lead generation company and learning a lot about the CRM (customer relationship management) software that company was utilizing I connected with Nick Carpenter at the Legion of Loan Officers. I learned a lot more about marketing and running social media ads.

2020

2021

I left my software job again in 2021 and work as a mortgage professional while running my soccer referee assigning business. I'm a referee at the college level and enjoy refereeing with two of my children and also enjoy watching my third and youngest still playing soccer.

2021

2023

I learned about a home inspection business for sale at the end of 2022 and decided to make an offer. We closed on the business at the end of March and started operating it on April 1. HouseMaster Home Inspections is a franchise business that started franchising in 1979. The franchise I purchased and now operate is is HouseMaster serving Chicagoland and Northwest Indiana. We have the same 3 great inspectors working for us that have been with the company for about 15, 20 and 30+ years. We plan to continue to expand the business and provide many new services on top of the basic home inspection.

2023