Who I Am (The Biz Doc) & What I Care About

Today, I am in Private Equity, investing in sitting on the boards of companies founded by entrepreneurs.  I am also an adjunct professor, and best of all – a father, husband and servant-leader.  I live by a simple credo: to leave people and companies better than I found them.  Along the way colleagues dubbed me the “Biz Doctor” which became Biz-Doc which is the origin of my Twitter handle.

My driving passion at this point in my life is to support great companies, teach and coach (from founders/CEOs to corporate leaders).  I have the same scars on my back that they do from years of leading and growing companies.  From this background and additional study, I help CEO calibrate their focus and execution as they drive the value of their own companies.  These CEOs typically start out with an idea and passion and a couple years later, perhaps after a pivot or two, end up trapped “inside” the business by HR, Operations, Finance, etc.

These leaders often need help getting back to driving value. Why?  In the life cycle of any business, there are a number of perfectly normal chasms to be crossed.  For many start-ups that are moving into life as established firms, this means adding a true COO and optimizing their organization.  NOTE: this does NOT mean hiring a bunch of people and spending tons of money.  It does mean that the org chart may see changes to get ready for next-stage growth.  In the end, the CEO is freed-up from a specific set of issues to devote the majority of their time to what they do best – be it product or business development.  The CEO drives the value of the enterprise while also “being the CEO” and leading and casting vision, which is usually what they did when they founded the company!  I absolutely love it when I get the opportunity to work with CEOs and facilitate this change.  For more illumination, please see this post.

So – this website contains my blog, originally titled “It has Come To This”, and, as you probably noticed, the central topics orbit around leadership /career.   So it goes, I opine on personal development, leadership, management and the like.  Once in a while I might compose a post about things stuff that matters to me but doesn’t perfectly mesh with those categories.  I hope you enjoy that material and find it useful anyway.

Most of the time you will see a couple new posts per week.  Please stop-by -or- get automatic notifications of new blog content using RSS or, better yet, email.

I am also the author of The Rat, The Race and The Cage, a book about how to take a look at what makes you unique and use that information to make great career decisions.  It has sold well but the real privilege has been to give away thousands of copies to executives, college students and working professionals at many different levels and walks of life.

My Bio – The Longer Story

Currently I am active with Ambina Partners, a leading private equity firm focused on middle market companies.

Previously I was Chief Administrative Officer for Beacon Healthcare Systems a small startup that develops compliance and appeals & grievances software for Medicare/Medicaid.  Before that, I was privileges to work with Patrick Bet-David as President and COO of PHP Agency, a groundbreaking financial services organization focused on life insurance that Patrick founded.  PHP is changing the game in life insurance with a highly diverse team of agents who are establishing their own offices. 

Before that I completed an extended engagement as the President & COO of  a mid-market VAR of enterprise solutions and services for migration and archiving of email in regulated industries.  I helped the CEO optimize his company, re calibrate his operating plan and vision and refine his leadership style.

Prior to that I was CEO and Co-Founder of Premier Digital Publishing, an enabling technology provider for eBook distribution. That company was also an eBook publisher of nearly 500 titles for over 40 authors.  We exited via a sale of the booklist to a larger publisher in 2014.  I will miss the publishing side but love how we disrupted the distribution technology.

Until its sale in 2011 I was CEO of GoTV Networks, a provider of feature-rich smart applications. GoTV was the go-to partner for brands, agencies and media owners including the NFL, NASCAR and Univision.  I had a great team and we were able to take the company through a complete financial turnaround and then an exit by acquisition.

Before joining GoTV, I had the privilege to serve as Executive Vice President, Marketing and Corporate Development at JAMDAT Mobile. Inc, the largest wireless games publisher in the world.  I was a core member of senior management team that drove the March 2001 start-up to its highly successful IPO in 2004 (later acquired by Electronic Arts).  That was a fun ride and we blazed early trails that the Angry Birds and friends follow even today.

Prior to JAMDAT I was Vice President of Incubator Development in the wireless division of Sprint.  I also oversaw the Sprint incubator joint venture that invested in wireless companies including JAMDAT and Boingo the global WiFi company.

Along the way, I discovered a knack for helping friends and colleagues make great career choices and find job satisfaction.  This came to life in The Rat, the Race, and the Cage, a result of over two decades developing mentoring techniques and career tools that have benefited his staff, colleagues, friends – and now readers!

Long before venturing into the business world, I somehow completed a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration – Marketing from California State University, Northridge followed by an MBA from Pepperdine University where my team set the record for enterprise value created in the business simulation project which was the final part of the capstone class (an early sign of my passion for startups).

Today, I call North Dallas, Texas home along with my wife, Kim, a teacher and scratch golfer and two wonderful daughters.

Where to Find Me

Click on the Contact link and send me an email.  I usually respond with in a day or two.  You can also connect with me on LinkedIn or follow me on Twitter.