As a kid, I made architectural drawings, crafted scale model stadiums out of cardboard and whatever I could find in the garage, and spent hours on model airplanes, paying as much attention to how they looked as how they went together. I also had every baseball player's stats memorized from the back of their cards. The kid who obsessed over aesthetics and had every batting average memorized. Both have always lived in the same brain, and I've been able to find the balance between both halves.

That combination, the aesthetic and the operational, is probably the most honest explanation of what I do for a living.

I gravitated toward design because I think visually and care deeply about how things feel to use. I gravitated toward leadership because I've always been the person organizing the team, figuring out the structure, thinking about how the pieces connect. I was a team captain before I knew what a design org was.

What I've spent 20 years learning is how to make those two things work together inside companies. Design doesn't struggle because designers aren't talented. It struggles because the systems around it don't support it. The processes are wrong, the team is underfunded, the work can't be measured, or nobody has made the case to the people who control the budget. I fix that.

I care a lot about the people doing the work. The low attrition on my team was never a goal I optimized for. It was a byproduct of building an environment where people felt like the work mattered and someone was paying attention. I think that's just what good leadership looks like.

I've spent my whole life in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul area. I grew up and built my career here. I've known who I am for a long time, and that's enough to build from.