I started in employee benefits at the #3 global brokerage as an intern who won the national sales challenge, earned a full-time producer role, and built a book of business in Dallas in under three years. Then I got recruited to OYO, the fastest-growing SoftBank portfolio company in the world.
At OYO I was a Senior Commercial Manager who scaled their U.S. hotel portfolio from 6 to 376 properties in six months. I helped build the underwriting algorithm with SoftBank’s team to assess and deploy CapEx, grew the team from 4 to 43, and closed the Hooters Hotel in Las Vegas. When the global COO relocated us to Palo Alto to lead a vacation homes launch, I went. When COVID hit, I adapted. I moved through Domio, pre-IPO Paycor (one deal from Presidents Club), and Coupa (publicly traded, Thoma Bravo buyout) building emerging market divisions before returning to what I know best.
I came back to benefits at the #6 global brokerage, took over a large retiring executive’s book, grew it, and earned the Vice President title covering both employee benefits and commercial lines. Dual licensed. From there, I was recruited to VP of Employee Health & Benefits at the #1 insurance brokerage firm on the planet, where I was rebuilding a $1.5M book in my home market of Detroit before pivoting to going all in on Lightning Strategies.
Through SoftBank board rooms, SaaS sales floors, and brokerage C-suites, I held Bitcoin. Accumulating since 2017, watching it deliver returns no reserve instrument could touch while the benefits industry kept recommending the same losing strategy.