Details

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What is your position within your company?
I am chief operating officer of Upstate Roofing & Painting Inc., Rochester, N.Y.

What is the most unusual roofing project you've performed?
Most recently, our company performed a full tear-off in the dead ofwinter. The roof is on a building located at the bottom of a river gorge near a large waterfall (pictured here) that produced a constant frozen mist. Temporary enclosures had to be used when the wind decided to blow the wrong direction.

Why did you become a part of the roofing industry?
I previously had worked as a construction coordinator for a heavy highway contracting firm and decided I wanted to become an estimator. The timing worked out—Upstate Roofing & Painting had a position available.

What was your first roofing experience?
A coal tar tear-off with fiberglass insulation. I stepped on a rusty nail and had to get a tetanus shot the first day. The old construction coordinator job looked pretty good at the end of that day.

When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
An architect

What is the most high-tech thing in your home?
Solar panels on my roof

If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?
Dubai, United Arab Emirates

List three words that describe you.
Fun, focused, friendly

What quality do you most like in a person?
A person who is proactive

What are your biggest pet peeves?
Dirty vehicles (winter is a tough time of year for me) and people who make excuses

What three condiments always are in your fridge?
Because of my children, ranch dressing, ketchup and barbecue sauce

If you could invite any three people (dead or alive) to dinner, whom would you invite and why?
PGA golfer Phil Mickelson so my son and I could get some needed pointers; Ellen DeGeneres because my wife and daughter would give me no other choice but to invite her; and Elton John because I like a little music while eating dinner. Frank Lloyd Wright just misses the cut; I am a huge fan of his craftsman design.

What is your roofing industry involvement?
I am a 2011 Class 4 graduate of NRCA's Future Executives Institute (FEI). Most recently, I have been elected to serve a three-year term as an NRCA director. I also serve on the National Roofing Legal Resource Center's board of directors and NRCA's FEI Committee and Young Contractors Committee, which NRCA is forming this year.

People would be surprised to know …
My wife and I attended the 2011 Grammy Awards and walked the red carpet—twice!