I was ten years old when I first realized I needed to grow up quickly. Already having moved countries twice and attended a new school every single year, there was little stability in my life. My parents were separating, and I was moving into a one-bedroom apartment with my father, who had dropped out of school when he was fourteen years old. It was clear that I needed to be the adult in the household. It was my first lesson in leadership – you can’t lead anyone unless you first learn to lead yourself. And I did. I became a straight-A student, Student Body President of my large public high school in Los Angeles, and the first in my family to attend college.

Another leadership lesson came at age seventeen, enrolling at UCLA and working full time to support myself. I learned the importance of responsibility and seeing myself as causal in the world. After graduating from UCLA, I started law school at the University of Michigan and married my college sweetheart, an amazing woman who I am still deeply in love with and married to almost thirty years later.

I loved law school but not practicing law. After a year of practice, I left law behind and somehow convinced McKinsey & Co. to take a chance on me. Looking back, I was certainly lucky. But I was also decisive and believed in myself. More leadership lessons. After four incredible years at McKinsey, I spent the next twelve years as a Partner at two San Francisco-based private equity firms, Genstar Capital and Gryphon Investors, where I sat on almost twenty boards and had a front-row seat observing CEOs in action. Shortly after turning forty, I left private equity and began the first of two successive CEO roles, where I began to forge my own leadership and life philosophies.

Almost ten years ago, I discovered Trium and my calling. Bringing together my life and career experiences in a powerful way, I help CEOs and their leadership teams build enduring businesses. I also serve as the CEO of Trium.

Today, my wife and I live in the Bay Area as recent empty nesters, having raised and launched three wonderful children, each flourishing in their own unique ways. We love the Bay Area and relish the adventure of travel, often using live music as an excuse to see the world, particularly if it involves our favorite group, Rufus du Sol.