Why
We need bold, ethical, competent leaders to bring us together through an inevitably turbulent future; but they’re a rare breed.
I’m leveraging my four decades of diverse leadership experience to create more of them - now.
After a life spent leading high performing teams and large organizations across all three economic sectors, I hit the reset button.
Rather than look for another organization to steer or another team to lead, I decided to go into business for myself - leveraging my forty years of leading through tough challenges to coach a new generation of bold leaders.
My experience leading people, from small teams to complex organizations, has taught me that leading boldly doesn’t always make you popular. So my philosophy challenges many conventional ideas about leadership.
A Bold Leader has to know when to challenge the rules, then write new ones; how to make the right call when it’s unpopular, then lead into an uncertain future and how to comprehensively assess risk, then mitigate it and press on.
Who
Education
My formal education laid the foundation for this approach. I learned the basics of ethical leadership while earning a bachelor’s degree in physics as a student-athlete at the United States Naval Academy. At one of our nation’s top schools, I studied ethics, management, leadership, philosophy, science, engineering and international law. I also earned 4 varsity letter in Track & Field, setting a school record in the 800m that lasted for 18 years.
Over the course of my subsequent 31 years in uniform, the US Navy and generations of accomplished leaders formally invested in me through a leadership continuum that taught me leadership from squad-level tactics to complex interdisciplinary strategy. In fact, the capstone of my formal leadership education was earning a master’s in resource strategy from the National Defense University’s Eisenhower School.
Multi-Sector Executive Experience
However, it was the school of hard knocks that shaped my personal approach to leadership – getting my hands dirty, questioning the status quo, developing a thick skin and nurturing a high risk tolerance while developing the skills necessary to mitigate that risk. My personal brand of leadership has been tested in diverse and challenging leadership environments, including roles in command of Combat Air Crews in a US Navy Maritime Patrol Squadron, consecutive tours as Director of Congressional Affairs/Legislative Liaison and Director of Collaborative Warfare for Navy Aviation at the Pentagon, Commanding Officer of Naval Air Station Fort Worth Joint Reserve Base - a joint military air base, CEO, American Red Cross’ North Texas Region, and President & CEO, United Way of Tarrant County. In addition to founding my own coaching practice and consultancy, I served as CEO of Simple Leadership Strategies - a DFW-based management and leadership training company - during two crucial growth years.
Adventure
My experiences aren’t all in Navy aircraft, the office or a boardroom, either. My wife Barbara and I recently returned from three years cruising the Atlantic, Bahamas and Caribbean aboard our sailing catamaran La Vie Dansante. This adventure was a life changer for us, teaching us to rely on each other through adventure, fear and uncertainty. It also taught me the value of pursuing life on my own timeline, and pursuing it with gusto.
When Barbara and I moved back ashore in the Summer of 2021, I started looking for a new team to lead. While considering my next professional role, I saw leaders failing - in government, industry and the social sector - from incompleteness in three key traits - character, confidence and clarity. I knew I could help, so I decided I would.
Now living in Central Texas, I devote my time and energy to passing along decades of leadership experience, from a unique perspective, to aspiring leaders with a spirit to be bold. My blog, podcast, and coaching practice are geared to established leaders working through unique challenges or seeking continued growth, and my role as CEO at Simple Leadership Strategies is focused on creating leaders at every level in an organization.
Community Leadership
I’m also a an experienced board member, currently serving on the Air Power Foundation’s Board of Advisors and having served as Vice Chair of North Texas Leaders and Executives Advocating Diversity (LEAD); Governance Chair of Fort Worth’s Continuum of Care Board and as a founding director of the Tarrant Transit Alliance, LVTRise and BoardBuild. I’ve also served on the Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl Executive Council; the Fort Worth Blue Zones Project Advisory Council and the Fort Worth Executive Roundtable. From 2012-2014, I led the commissioning of USS Fort Worth as Commissioning Committee Chair, then transitioned that body into an independent 501(c)3 non-profit organization, serving as its first President.
Award Winning CEO
The Secretary of the Navy awarded me the Legion of Merit for bold leadership at NAS Fort Worth Joint Reserve Base, and The Fort Worth Business Press recognized me as Fort Worth’s Top Non-Profit CEO in 2019 for innovative reinvention of the area’s United Way.
How
If you’re looking for someone to coach you, your successor, or the chief executive of the organization you lead as a Director, you can dig a little deeper into my coaching here.
If you’re a top executive needing help with your board, check out my board performance consulting here.
Of course, the best way to figure out if I can help is to talk through it. Schedule a Virtual Coffee Discovery Call and we’ll take a closer look.
All discovery - no hassle and no sales pitch.