About Me
Why I’m running for the Board
I am running for election to The Sea Ranch Association board of directors to help conserve the many good things we have while helping our community adapt to changing government regulations, new environmental challenges, and new opportunities to improve how we mesh with the natural environment. I am a practical and thoughtful person with a strong set of core values; these qualities are a good match for what will benefit our community.
My motivation for running: to contribute to a highly functioning and collaborative board. A well functioning board will better serve Sea Ranchers, leave a better The Sea Ranch for future generations, and resolve differences on controversial topics with less acrimony. I love working to bring people together to increase understanding, to help people to see things from other perspectives. My wife, Annie, introduced me to The Sea Ranch a few years ago. She has been coming here since she was nine. Like most, we and our kids fell in love with The Sea Ranch, the place, its ideals, and Sea Ranchers themselves. I would like to give back, now, some time, talent, and patience to help.
My life passions
One of my life-long passions is long-distance hiking. I’ve walked about half the Pacific Crest Trail and hope to finish it in the next few years. While much of it is spectacularly beautiful, there are, unfortunately, now large sections that are burned. Several factors contributed to this, one of them being the way the forests were managed. There is a lesson there, in my view, that has some applicability to the way we manage our forests to best conserve the natural environment while also protecting the structures and people which live within and near our forests.
Another passion of mine is flying, flight instruction, how to make flying safer, and to reduce environmental impacts. In the last year I spent considerable time and effort, with others, to address issues around the The Sea Ranch Airstrip. That had a positive effect by significantly reducing the aircraft noise affecting Sea Ranchers who live close to the airstrip. This effort also gave us a detailed picture of who was using our airstrip and aircraft activity.
My experience
I have retired from full-time work as an engineer and executive at Apple, Intel, AMD, Ford, and several start-ups. Before that, I was a researcher (post-doc) and instructor at MIT.
In my professional work in recent years, I led groups of about 500 engineers, project managers, business leads, technicians, etc. in many locations and from many cultures. I was responsible for annual budgets of around $130m and worked with attorneys and contracts often. This experience I think also has some application to being a board member.
I know how important it is to listen to, guide, mentor, protect, motivate, etc. the folks who do the real work. In the case of TSRA, that would be our Community Manager, the fine organization she leads, and the many wonderful and dedicated volunteer Sea Ranchers.
For a family trust, I have managed forest land and a cell site for the last 38 years. That is experience that also has some application to issues we face. I introduced our previous and current Community Managers to the attorney on whom I rely and that connection resulted in TSRA gaining a better negotiating position with the tower operators and that in turn should result in more revenue from the cell site on TSRA property.
In closing
I have experience, passion, commitment, and time to serve on the The Sea Ranch board to help conserve what is so great about The Sea Ranch and to nudge things that are in need of help (e.g., utility power reliability) in a better direction. I welcome your questions and thoughts and I look forward to meeting many of you during the campaign.