Experience

Valoya (Greenlux Lighting Solutions)

• Finland
• Biotechnology Research
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Applications Director

  • Feb 2023 - Present



Global Garden

• United States
• Wholesale
• 1 - 100 Employee

• VP of Lighting Technology

  • Jan 2021 - Feb 2023



FOHSE

• United States
• Appliances, Electrical, and Electronics Manufacturing
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Chief Horticultural Officer

  • Nov 2018 - Feb 2020

  FOHSE Inc. is a leading LED Grow Light Manufacturer based in Las Vegas, NV. FOHSE was a startup which means I wore many hats… many more than listed below. As the Chief Horticultural Officer, my primary responsibility was to ensure FOHSE’s client partners were successful in their cultivation facilities. This meant that I traveled to countless grows across the United States training the grow staffs on successful cultivation techniques. Many of these growers are new to LED grow lights and I made sure they knew how to deploy and grow with them. Secondly, I often visited grow facilities in a consulting role (post-install) helping solve issues. With my experience, I can short cut the troubleshooting and get the grow back green quickly. A third role was assisting clients in the pre-construction phase. Everything from simply providing a light map through complex reviews of their architectural drawing came across my desk. You would be surprised by how many people don’t know where to locate a floor drain!! Additionally, I had begun some research on photosynthetic rates of the cannabis plant with a Li-Cor 6800 instrument. Since FOHSE preaches a high photon density methodology, we needed to prove that the plant still fix carbon at high light intensities. Show less



Technical Gardener Inc.

• Greater Denver Area

• Chief Executive Officer

  • Sep 2017 - Oct 2018

  Technical Gardener Inc. is a full service horticulture consulting company. Customers include: Ascend Horticulture (Nov 2017 - March 2018) LED Grow Light Design Consultant - I designed and developed a next generation LED Grow Light with unique features to be considered disruptive to the current market. The final design was delivered to the client. Colorado Kind Holdings LLC. (Sept 2017 - Nov 2017) Head Grower Consultant - I was hired to revamp the grow operation with goals of reducing labor expenses and increase yields. When the project was competed labor was cut in half and yields were steadily increasing. Show less



Warehouse Farms

• Greater Denver Area

• Chief Horticultural Officer

  • Apr 2017 - Sep 2017

  Warehouse Farms is a start-up company who’s mission is to grow the tastiest AND most nutritionally dense micro/leafy greens through vertical farming techniques. Our customers include some of Denver’s finest restaurants. As one of two principals in the company, my responsibilities are focused on the “day-to-day” operations of the grow facility. This includes: maintaining the master planting schedule, staffing, training, development of grow techniques, documentation of all practices (SOP’s). Unfortunately when it was time to move from the prototype stage to production our investors pulled out. Show less



Independant Cannabis Consultant

• Arvada, CO

• Principal

  • Mar 2008 - Apr 2017

  Major projects include: Marketing, strategy and alpha-level testing for a new LED grow light manufacturer. Grow room design and operations for a solar light harvesting indoor garden start-up. Designed and built an e-commerce website for a Colorado-based garden supply company. Alpha testing for a fully automated/computer driven hydroponics system. Major projects include: Marketing, strategy and alpha-level testing for a new LED grow light manufacturer. Grow room design and operations for a solar light harvesting indoor garden start-up. Designed and built an e-commerce website for a Colorado-based garden supply company. Alpha testing for a fully automated/computer driven hydroponics system.



Grow Light Express

• Online Hydroponics Store

• Founder and Owner

  • Sep 2008 - May 2015

  Although my previous retail store was not successful enough to make it worth continuing, the online portion was gaining traction. Because of this I decided to open Grow Light Express. In the beginning it was very successful. This gave me free time to work with local customers with grow room design as well as ongoing consulting from hobby scale to some very large operations. Grow Light Express also gave me just enough free time to write my first book - The LED Grow Book. Unfortunately due to uneducated competition the margins fell out of the online hydroponics stores and it became less financially sound and was closed. Thanks to everyone who shopped with me! Show less



Plant Me A Fruit Tree - 501(c)(3)

• Long Beach, CA

• Founder and CEO

  • Jan 2012 - Apr 2014

  Being compelled to feed people, I came up with a unique idea in food production. In Southern California its common to have a strip of land between the street and the sidewalk. Most of the time this land was just grass (and usually looking poorly). My idea was to plant fruit trees in this underutilized space with all the fruit to be donated to the hungry. I was already working with a food bank, donating 400-500 pounds of food annually, so distribution was ready to go. The food bank also partnered with an organization who would harvest trees so all I had to do was plant the trees and prune them. I ended up leaving California two months after receiving my 501(c)(3) status and never got to fully implement the program. Show less



G&G Organics and Hydroponics

• Compton, CA

• Founder and Owner

  • Jul 2006 - Mar 2008

  G&G Organics and Hydroponics was a retail indoor gardening center. So maybe one of those entrepreneur classes while pursuing my MBA kicked in and I decided to leave a perfectly good corporate career and work for myself. It was definitely one of the most difficult decisions I have made. This experience did teach me a unique lesson - I really enjoy negotiating with the city offices to get a business started. Some of the highlights include: Launched and managed this single-location organic gardening center, including all operational, financial, and marketing activities needed to support the business. Used search engine optimization and marketing (SEO/SEM) techniques to push most items to the top of Internet search results, and generate a sustained sales increase. Won Best TV Ad 2007 award from the Progressive Gardening Trade Association. Designed and built dozens of hobby and commercial grow rooms including training. Maintained a large demonstration grow room which provided an opportunity to test new products and well as a place for hands on training for employees and customers. Show less



Experian

• Information Services
• 700 & Above Employee

• Business Continuity Manager, Sr. Project Manager, Service Owner

  • Nov 2001 - Jul 2006

  Experian is one of the three top-tier credit agencies. Experian was definitely one of the most challenging environments in that I have worked. My division was operated in a mixed-matrix management style. This meant I had very little control of the critical resources I needed to complete projects. Basically any of them could tell me to take a hike and there would be little I could do. It took a lot of negotiating to accomplish some tasks. Business Continuity Manager (2006) I was hired by the business continuity director because of my vast knowledge of the infrastructure and my relationships with the folks that maintain it. I could accomplish a months worth of tasks with a few walks on the right floors. The role consisted of: (1) identifying mission-critical infrastructure elements and developed disaster contingency plans and (2) Implementing a disaster planning database to enable complete, straightforward recovery planning. Sr. Project Manager/Service Owner, Systems Integration and Architecture Group (2001-2005) While originally hired to be a technical hands-on-keys type, I quickly transition into project management and service ownership while climbing the corporate latter. Major projects include: enterprise e-mail, intranet, integration of new subsidiaries, webcasting/collaboration, and Blackberry wireless email service. Job title changed by assignment, additionally including Sr. Systems Engineer and Sr. Systems Architect. Show less



Exodus Communications

• IT Services and IT Consulting
• 1 - 100 Employee

• UNIX System Administrator, Systems Engineer

  • Nov 1999 - Mar 2001

  Exodus Communications was the pioneer of the computer hosting industry. Exodus was one of my favorite jobs. I was there during the end of the dot-com era and the industry had attracted some wonderful talent. I was privileged to work with some highly intelligent, highly motivated people. While there I held two positions: UNIX System Administrator and Senior Systems Engineer (2000-2001) Austin, TX I was responsible for assisting customers maintain their UNIX-based servers and other resources in the corporate data center. I implemented customer-premise servers connected to the network, including integration, backup, monitoring and troubleshooting. Senior Internet Systems Engineer (1999-2000) Santa Clara, CA This was a great opportunity to both learn as well as train junior level staff while assisting customers with a wide range of problems. The team grew from less than 12 to over 40 people while I was there. I quickly became on of the final escalation points LAN/WAN/Firewall/Switch/DNS problems to OS configuration problems for our customers. Show less



Movo Media Inc

• United States
• Public Relations and Communications Services

• Network Engineer

  • 1998 - 1999

  Movo Media was a voicemail messaging service. Movo Media existed because the internet was still in its infancy. Movo allowed "those in the lifestyle" to have a place to meet. Users would call into these systems and send and retrieve message from potential "friends". Yes I know what your thinking...and yes I do have many great stories! Overall I was on a team of 5 that administered, upgraded and provided troubleshooting for 180+ unmanned remote interactive voice response systems located throughout the United States and Canada. This required the development of remote monitoring capabilities as well as support for the corporate Windows-based LAN, Cisco-based WAN, and UNIX-based telephone systems. Show less



IBM, Catapult Education Division

• Los Angeles, CA

• District Technician

  • 1997 - 1998

  Catapult was an educational arm of IBM. When I arrived at Catapult the place was a mess. I was responsible for classroom computer setup which at the onset required to walk with floppy disks (and the occasional CD when lucky!) to 13 computers per classroom with up to 6 classrooms per training center of which there were 3 in my district - not an easy task. I quickly automated the software install by setting up a menu driven (sort of an early intranet) via disk imaging. When I was don't the instructors could initiate the refresh for the next days classes. I went from working 12+ hour days to simply making sure the training manuals were on site for classes. Time to move on to another challenge! Show less



Amgen

• United States
• Biotechnology Research
• 700 & Above Employee

• Assistant Scientist

  • 1996 - 1997

  Amgen is a leading Biotech company. At Amgen I was responsible for sample preparation, analysis and maintenance for LC/MS and NMR instruments for the Small Molecule Drug Discovery Team. The team employed a novel approach to sample preparation through combinatorial chemistry techniques. During any down time, I assisted senior staff members in organic sample preparation for backbone and substitute components. Amgen is a leading Biotech company. At Amgen I was responsible for sample preparation, analysis and maintenance for LC/MS and NMR instruments for the Small Molecule Drug Discovery Team. The team employed a novel approach to sample preparation through combinatorial chemistry techniques. During any down time, I assisted senior staff members in organic sample preparation for backbone and substitute components.



Lonza Pharmaceuticals

• Los Angeles, CA

• Chemist / Project Manager

  • 1996 - 1996

  Lonza is a manufacturer of fine pharmaceuticals. I came on board to be a member of a team to conduct a Cleaning Validation Study to be submitted to the FDA. I was quickly promoted to run the team which required a complete restaffing. I hired 2 full time chemists and 2 interns to work for me. Ultimately the study was accepted by the FDA and implemented. Instrumentation used: GC/MS and LC/MS Lonza is a manufacturer of fine pharmaceuticals. I came on board to be a member of a team to conduct a Cleaning Validation Study to be submitted to the FDA. I was quickly promoted to run the team which required a complete restaffing. I hired 2 full time chemists and 2 interns to work for me. Ultimately the study was accepted by the FDA and implemented. Instrumentation used: GC/MS and LC/MS



Getty Conservation Group

• Marina del Rey, CA

• Junior Scientist

  • 1994 - 1995

  The Getty Conservation Group is the scientific arm of the J. Paul Getty Museum. I was hired as an intern during my senior year and continued for several months post graduation from Loyola Marymount. I had two major roles while there. First I extended a library by hundreds of samples of pigments and binders used mostly in oil based paintings through IR/visible microscopy. In my second role, I was responsible for sample analysis of indoor air quality for material selection of display cases through LC/MS. Most of this work was used for material selection for display cases for the new (at the time!) Getty Museum. Show less