I was born in Fort Collins, CO.   After college we relocated to Southern California, March Air Force Base, as my father was a pilot.  After the war, we relocated back to Colorado where my father was general manager of the Western Motor Inn, owned by his father.  This is when I learned that my grandfather was a “business man”, he owned several businesses.
I grew up in the west suburbs of Denver, CO from 3^rd grade until I graduated from college.  After graduation, I packed everything I owned into my Toyota Corolla and drove to San Diego, CA to find a career.  I found a job as a resident manager of a 200 room garden style motel.

About a year later I was recruited to be the General Manager of a Howard Johnson Lodge in San Jose, CA.  After that I was recruited as the General Manager of The Sheraton Inn and Conference Center in Springfield, MO.  It was there in Springfield that I discovered the fine art of paintless dent repair.  I was never going to be someone to work with my hands, I was in management, but I have always had the entrepreneurial desire, and I clearly saw the potential in this PDR industry.

I was one of the youngest general managers in the company and I was being offered a promotion to a larger hotel in Rhode Island, but the lure of the entrepreneurial dream was too great. Not wanting to live the rest of my life wondering what would have happened if, I took the gamble. I quit my job and like years before, relocated to Southern California to start my new business.  I worked in Southern California for about 12 years, fixing door dings for used car dealerships.

Amazingly, I really enjoyed working with my hands and the satisfaction I felt from applying this extremely difficult and time consuming process.  And, I was making good money.  I started out in the beginning with the goal of making anything more than zero, because when I started out, I was only able to repair a dent to a satisfactory level about 50% of the time.  My policy was, if you can still see the dent, no charge.  The more I worked, the more I made and the more I saved.

In 2002, Cindy and I sold our CA businesses and escaped to go traveling.  We relocated to Nevada, a no income tax state, and hit the road.  We circumnavigated the United States and crisscrossed back and forth.  We toured through Italy, France, Spain and England.  After almost 2 years of traveling we were ready for a new business adventure.

Cindy was an Interior Designer and General Contractor when we lived in California and in Nevada.  In 2005, Cindy won the first HGTV Designers’ Challenge filmed in Las Vegas.  It was a block wall basement that she turned into a Disneyesque western saloon, complete with an upright piano that housed a remote control big screen TV that rose out of the top of the TV.

We were instantly busy with interior design and remodel work.  I was her project manager and right hand man for 3 years.  When the 2008 recession hit, our work in Las Vegas slowed to a trickle.

It was at that time that a friend of mine called me and told me about a hail storm where he was fixing hail damaged cars.  With Cindy’s reassurance, I went on the road to work and study the hail business for two years. Being away from home for extended periods of time is hard.  We made it a habit to call each other several times a day and meet up every other weekend.

In 2011 Cindy and I closed our remodeling business and we opened Universal Auto Hail Repair.  We started with one pickup truck.  Cindy, being a business brain as well, developed the systems and ran the office while I fixed the cars.  We recruited our son, Nathan and my father, Roger to come sell.  Today Nathan is our general manager and Roger is our estimator and wise councel.  Along with our sales team, office, shop team and the loyal PDR techs that help us every year, we have grown to become an industry leader in auto hail repair.

Every Thanksgiving we have a big celebration with the whole family at our house.  From the Grand kids through great grandparents, we enjoy a week of celebration and catching up.  We usually host 21 people in total.   We have done group cruises and one of our dreams is to take everyone on a tour of Italy.

Together we are a powerful force to be reckoned with.  We both have entrepreneurial spirits, unequaled work ethics and a driving force to succeed, all the while helping others to succeed along the way.