Born: Chicago, IL

College and major: University of Florida, Bachelor of Science in Telecommunications

Position: Founder and CEO of Nitel

“I oversee the direction and strategy of the business, particularly as it relates to finance, sales, and HR.”

“I’ve been a martial artist for about 35 years – pretty active in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. And I recently started auto-racing, so I’m a beginner driver right now and trying to learn how to drive a race car.”

“I’m going to go with Moscow. It’s kind of one of those places I never thought I’d be able to travel to – growing up in the cold war, I didn’t figure I’d be in Moscow any time. It was a group trip, so there was a lot of entertainment and dining and unique architecture and just a different place in the word, so it was really a special trip.”  

“When I was a kid, it was probably my grandfather. I lived in his house for a number of years, and he kind of gave me my work ethic and just the basics that a boy needs to learn as a kid.”

“Well, easy to say building a business is a personal accomplishment, but probably like most fathers, I would say my pride and joy are my kids.”

“I just think they do really good things for truly deserving people. And as I met a lot of the kids, I feel like they’re really great people who I guess were born into a really unfortunate circumstance. And they really deserve the break; they deserve the help.”