I grew up around people who built businesses.
My grandfather was an electrician who grew his business from the ground up and later sold it. As a kid, I went with him to job sites. I watched how he treated customers, how he led his people and how a business could provide a good career for others. I come from a family of entrepreneurs. That example made ownership feel possible.
My grandfather taught me to anticipate what my manager would need next. He meant learning the work, paying attention and bringing a useful answer before someone had to ask. He expected initiative backed by preparation, and the follow-through to match whatever I said I could do.
I’ve carried that into how I work with a business. I’m willing to speak up, make a recommendation and take responsibility for the next step. I look beyond the immediate assignment to what will help the people relying on me succeed. When information is missing or a proposed direction may not serve the goal, I raise the concern and work through it so we can act with confidence.
For nearly ten years, I built custom homes and later focused on remodeling around the Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri. When my first daughter was born, I went back to college. I started in construction management, then changed direction after about a year toward manufacturing, operations and lean methods. What interested me most was how an entire operation worked: where time and money went, what held people up and how the business could run better.
I earned my bachelor’s degree and, years later, my MBA in Operations Management. Building a family, continuing my education and finding my direction took time. Each part of that experience still informs the way I work.
My career crossed the boundaries between functions.
My work has spanned production-floor operations, operational excellence, customer service, logistics, production scheduling, sales and operations planning, and integrated business planning. About a decade ago, I was one of three people who helped establish an IBP organization, shaping its processes, systems and organizational design.
My production-floor work includes several operational-excellence projects. In a recent converting-department project, I worked on efficiency, product flow and changeovers, carried out gemba walks to understand the work directly, and corrected safety violations.
I’ve led planning as a manufacturing network changed from 13 sites to seven mills, retained roughly 39,000 tons of annual business through three closures, and taken an enterprise scheduling platform from selection through implementation and performance measurement. I’ve redesigned responsibilities, developed people and built tools for everyday work. That experience helps me see how a decision in one function changes the work somewhere else.
Software now gives me another way to act on what I see. I have six unattended automations running in operational work, have built scheduling and load-planning tools, and develop personal applications of my own. I use AI in development and analysis, alongside operating judgment and review. Understanding the business problem is still where the work begins.
Explore the professional work and personal projects
That is the reason for the collective.
Allelon comes from the Greek word for “one another.” It reflects how I want this business to work: people bringing their strengths, taking responsibility for what they deliver and helping each other succeed.
The collective is built from people I’ve known, worked alongside, been in business with or managed over more than a decade. These are some of the strongest people I’ve encountered in my career. I know their abilities, where they need support and the work I would trust them to own.
I’ve spent my career analyzing workflows and workforce needs. I’ve also seen how much capability can sit unused inside a job description. The collective makes those strengths available to businesses through work that is clearly defined.
Allelon Working Collaborative connects those needs through clearly agreed work. A business might need a recurring function, a few hours of experienced judgment or a larger change carried through. A colleague might contribute a specialty, a defined project or time alongside other commitments. The arrangement should make sense for both.
I manage every client relationship and stand behind everything we deliver. When another member contributes, I remain responsible for the agreed output and for working through any issue with the client.
Investigate. Plan. EXECUTE. That is how I want the collective to operate. We learn what is happening, agree on the change, then work alongside the client’s people to make it happen. We stay accountable for the work and use the operating results to judge whether it helped. We agree on clear expectations and outputs with the client. We bring the underlying experience and take responsibility for preparing ourselves through a focused handover.
That can mean supporting employees through a difficult change, carrying a function after colleagues leave, or helping rebuild a team while the business keeps running. The relationship can last through the transition or continue as long as the work calls for it.
I can also take on an agreed interim executive or senior operating role while a business searches for its permanent leader. I work with a named executive sponsor, clear decision authority and regular reviews, keeping a record of decisions and commitments for the eventual handoff. Explore interim leadership.