Biography
I was born, and grew up, in England, and moved to the US in my early 20s when I was offered a job teaching at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. While at Clark I also gained an advanced degree, and far more importantly, my future wife, Mindy. She is American, and we decided, with the blessings of the US Government, to make our life in the US. I became a citizen during the Reagan Administration.
Mindy and I settled in her home state of Connecticut, in Berlin, where our two children, Sara and Ryan grew up (we are now lucky enough to have a grandchildren). Mindy worked as a Children’s Librarian in Berlin, while I pursued a career in Information Technology that progressed from being the CIO at Teleco, a Meriden-based company, to running large international consulting businesses with the companies Gartner, Sybase and SAP; all tasked with improving public and private organizations’ use of technology. My career saw me responsible for running businesses in the US, Europe and Asia.
We moved to Southington several years ago after our children left home. I ran for, and was elected to, the Board Of Finance (BOF) in 2017 and then re-elected in 2019 and 2021. I was concerned about the effect of the State finances seriously impacting our town, and I wanted to use my experience in fiscal management, gained from running large business operations, for the Town’s benefit. I also had the time to spend working on the Town’s finances as I had recently retired.
I have worked hard to keep the finances of our Town on a solid fiscally responsible basis during my terms, especially during the pandemic. For the last five years we have lived within our means. Needed infrastructure, such as a new library, and services, such as the Police and Fire Departments, have been funded from our growth in the tax base in Town, while there have been no tax increases apart from any dictated by property revaluation. And this has been done without plundering our reserves, which have grown healthily during these years.
In 2022 it is now time for me to move on to Hartford by representing Southington in the 81st District and fight for responsible fiscal management on a State level, as well as dealing with the threats to wider issues such as our security, our planning and zoning and some aspects of our culture.
