Candidate Biography (submitted by campaign):

I was born in Scranton PA, grew up in Staunton, VA, and worked 4 concurrent jobs to pay for my Bachelors Degree from Radford University. After college, I decided not to move to wherever the job required, but instead to the city I most wanted to be in -- Charlotte -- and found my career shortly after. I am married to my college sweetheart Krista, and we work every day to ensure Charlotte will be even better for our children than it has been for us.

I work as a Vice President within the banking industry; identifying, measuring, and managing risks. This experience has enabled me to identify problems, quantify the impact, design a solution, and manage the implementation from end to end. I also provide innovation and research consulting to the Life Sciences and Pharmaceutical industry. I believe these private sector skills are desperately needed within government today to ensure we get back on track and find long term solutions.

I have been dedicated to serving this city over the years on the Charlotte Business Advisory Committee (City Council appointee, provide input from the business community to Council, on key city issues, initiatives, and projects), City of Charlotte Community Relations Committee (City Council appointee, educate and advocate on issues of human and race relations), 2007 City Council District 1 Candidate, Founder of StrengthenCharlotte (local advocacy group focused on issues of crime, roads, & efficient government spending), Founding member and co-chair of Engage Charlotte Voice within the Chamber of Commerce (political education and advocacy group for young professionals), and Board of Directors for North Carolina Heroes Fund (a non-profit dedicating to assisting North Carolina's military)

Charlotte doesn't need politicians right now, it needs leaders. Anyone who has been to a forum or read any of our websites knows, we all are essentially saying the same thing. I believe it is not what we say, but what we do that defines us. While others have been talking about jobs, I have been hosting job fairs; while others have been talking about crime, I have been developing neighborhood watches; while others have been talking about roads, I have been organizing marches on city hall for more funding; while others have been talking about charities, I have been organizing 28 mile bike rides through all 7 districts for nonprofits. My grandfather, a WWII vet, had great pride in how America was when he served in the 102nd division of the Army. It was a place where every citizen had a sense of ownership, and wanted to make personal sacrifices to ensure better days. My approach to leadership is about less government and more accountability to ourselves, our city, and our neighbors.

In this economy, we must ensure long term jobs come and stay in Charlotte, but I believe business owners don't want one time government handouts and subsidies They want to go where the streets are safe, where the roads are good, where the taxes are low, where the employee pool is strong, and where it is simply easy to do business. We must create a more customer-oriented model of government -- we need to be more like Lowes and less like the DMV. The single most important action we could accomplish would be implementing zero-based budgeting, where every dollar spent must be justified by merit, not merely because it was spent the prior year.