upsideguy

I wanted to memorialize my background and political philosophy as a benchmark by which my political integrity and credibility could be measured. In short, just so you know where I am coming from.

Forgive my self-indulgence, but this is my page and you came here. Hopefully this will add some perspective when I get your blood pressure up in the battle of words and ideas.

Coming soon - my political platform.. major issue by major issue

Political Philosophy II:

I am a huge believer in a progressive tax system and the social safety net. Social security, medicare and medicad are all noble programs. We also should have national health insurance.

I am an entrepreneur. I understand the risks and rewards of starting a business. America was founded upon and its strength still derived from entrepreneurs. Government policies and programs should be oriented to ensuring the most favorable environment for entrepreneurial success. As 80% of all job growth comes from small business, it is in everyone’s interest to organize laws and regulations to ensure their success. This does not mean laissez-faire policies, as certain regulations help to level the playing field, including the Sherman Anti-Trust act. Unfortunately, government policies are too often are organized to protect big-business, which 1) does not really create jobs, 2) corrupts the political process and 3) tend to exploit.

Political Philosophy I: I bill myself as slightly liberal, though on some issues I am extremely liberal and others very conservative.

The core of my political philosophy is the Gospel (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John). I suppose I subscribe to the notion of not so much “What would Jesus Do?” , as he was not political, but rather “What did Jesus Say?”. From my reading of the Gospel, I get a political philosophy that first sets the premise that everything is so but by the grace of God. We are not successful or failures by our own works, but by the grace of God.

We will always have the poor, sick and imprisoned among us. Our role is to serve each of these as we would the Lord.

I believe a government in a free society is but the administrative arm of that society. Therefore its role to serve and facilitate the comfort of its people. In that, we call upon those to whom much is given and expect them to realize that among them much is also required (See Matt. 25).

Personal: I am a married father of two. I have been married to the same woman for 25 years. It is my only marriage. I have a son in the engineering honors program of Colorado University and daughter of high school age. We have homeschooled each of our children since kindergarten.

I am a very strong Christian. I was raised Methodist, but I am more of an evangelical today (though that term has a lot of baggage, even with me.) I consider myself to be a mature Christian, and thus do not get into all of the legalistic, self-righteous, holier-than-thou trappings that go with many evangelicals, most of whom are politically wrong-thinking (IMHO).

I live in suburban Denver CO. I have been a CO resident since 1981.

For kicks, I am a pilot, avid skier, mountain climber, huge baseball fan and bad golfer. I love to travel. I have been to 22 countries on 4 continents.

Career - Part III After taking most of 2009 off and traveling, I started a business as a multi-franchise owner in the senior in-home care services industry. I am still working on this project. It is in the start-up phase. We “enjoyed” a loss in 2010, therefore I paid zero income taxes last year, and will not have to pay any income taxes until my losses have been fully recovered, probably in 2012.

In August 2017, I sold my business. At the moment, I am retired or semi-reitred.

Career - Part II: In '99, I went to work for a B2B Internet start-up as employee #5. We raised $100MM during the .com boom. My initial job was business development, where I did mostly merger and acquisition work. We bought 9 companies in US and Canada, and sold two. I left this employment in '02, but continued as a consultant and later served on the board of directors. I rejoined in '07 to ready the company for sale, which we completed in '08. I did well enough to be in the highest tax brackets from '95 to '08, paying a ton of taxes in particular in '08, when we sold the business (if my taxes were income, the tax on the tax would be in the highest brackets).

During my consulting career, I did a fair amount of business strategy consulting for a boiler-room style mortgage banking loan originator. The firm had large credit lines with Countrywide Financial and Lehman. This gig put me squarely in the trenches of the mortgage industry melt-down/credit crisis of 2008.

Career - Part I: After graduation, I went to work for a big-8 CPA firm in NYC, earning a CPA license. Two years later, I moved to another big-8 CPA firm in Denver. I worked on the audit side of that business, with an expertise in extractive industries (oil and gas and mining) and entrepreneurial services. After six years in the big-eight, I moved to a Controller role in a venture capital funded software company. I became the CFO of the firm two years later and stayed there for four more years.

For most of the ‘90’s, I hopped between ‘gigs’ as a CFO and COO of various small tech companies, working as a strategic consultant between these gigs. One of my gigs was that of a CFO of a software development subsidiary of a multi-national entertainment company. This job included direct reports in Germany, Singapore, UK and Australia and was responsible for a distributor relationship in Chile. During this time I did a fair amount of international traveling.

Education and Background: I grew up in suburban Albany NY. I graduated from one of the top local high schools. I was a well-rounded bloke… did well in school, sports, extracurriculars (boy scout, paperboy and good church going kid). I was appointed to the US Air Force Academy and attended for a short-time, but finished my undergraduate at SUNY/Albany, where I earned a BS in Accounting with a minor in Economics (18 credits).

While at college, I was very involved in a public interest research group (PIRG), an on-campus consumer/political activist group conceived by Ralph Nader. As a member of this group, I delivered testimony before the New York State Legislature on the subject of mortgage-banking redlining.

I wanted to memorialize my background and political philosophy as a benchmark by which my political integrity and credibility could be measured. In short, just so you know where I am coming from. This is my page. Remember, you came here.