I was born in 1979 in Portland, Oregon, the second child of a multigenerational Oregon family. My mother was a public health nurse and administrator at the Multnomah County Health Department, and my father was a licensed pilot and aviation mechanic. He later started a small Oregon-made products business where I worked during summers and school vacations. My older sister is a PhD Special Education teacher in a Title 1 elementary school in Portland.

After graduating from Benson Polytechnic High School, I continued working in movie theaters. 
Although I briefly attended Louisiana State University, I decided that college was not for me and returned home to sharpen my technical skills in the cinema Industry. I moved to Vancouver in 2001.

During my tenure at Cinetopia, from the original “Dinner and a Movie” Multiplex starting in 2005, I continued to advance, eventually designing, budgeting, and overseeing the construction and operational openings of new multiplex theaters. I also met my wife, Amber, while working at Cinetopia.

In 2016, during a resurgence of the cinema industry, I joined Christie Digital Systems. I excelled with their global implementation project for Dolby Cinema and quickly became the go-to site manager for installs and calibration of the cutting-edge laser-based projection system. In this role, I traveled all over the United States, Europe, and the Middle East. My experience has helped me hone my ability to know when to advise the people who were turning the wrenches, and when I needed to step in and turn the wrenches myself.
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