I trained as a materials chemist, then migrated toward leadership, adding an MBA and taking on roles where the job is deciding what a new material is good for, who needs it, and how a team gets it built.

These days that's at Specialty Materials, a boron fiber and composite materials maker outside Boston. Before that I was at Eastman Chemical, working on new products and market expansion in specialty fibers and polymer coatings. Earlier I ran operations at Deposition Technology Innovations, a PVD (physical vapor deposition) plant making solar-control window films and transparent conductive films.

I'm also a co-owner of The Sign Topper, a frame for real estate signs. My part was getting it made: finding the shops, getting extrusion dies built for the legs and injection molds built for the frame, and getting both into production. You can buy one on Amazon.

Kentucky native, now in Massachusetts by way of Montana and Tennessee.