What is your job here?
President.
What are your favorite things about working at Wisteria?
The creativity, the chaos, the challenges, the non-stop craziness–did I mention the craziness? It’s never boring at Wisteria. It’s also a lot of fun seeing a product go from an inanimate idea in someone’s brain to an actual product that someone loves. There are so many interlocking parts to the catalog business that require so many different skills from so many different people; it’s a thing of beauty when it works. I enjoy battling every day to make Wisteria better, to make ourselves better.
What is one thing about you people probably don’t know?
I’ve had a lot of varied job experiences in my life. Before I started Wisteria, I was the Associate Producer for a documentary film, spent two years as a Teaching Fellow at Harvard, started and ran a faith-based non-profit organization called “Serve Across America”, went to business school and worked as a business consultant with a Big 6 Accounting firm. I’ve also been a bank teller, busboy, and camp counselor. Nothing, however, could have prepared me for starting or running Wisteria.
What is your favorite place to visit?
India and North Carolina.
What is the one place in the world you’ve never been but would love to go?
Iran, Siberia, Ireland, Scotland, and Northern Canada. I’d also love to go back to New Zealand, a wonderful country.
How would you describe your personal style?
I have a pretty eclectic style–I find so many things interesting and beautiful and worthy of attention. I love discovering things that are interesting to me. I think that came from my parents–my mom collected French antique furniture and my dad collected random things (corkscrews, rubik’s cubes, old stereos, etc.). So my interests lie somewhere in-between. Basically, anything that has form and function. Shannon keeps our house organized-if it weren’t for her having her way with our house, the entire place would look pretty much like an extra-large stall at a flea market.
I’m known for:
Coming up with lots of things that need to get done.
What is your favorite Wisteria item?
That’s hard to say. I love everything. If I didn’t love it, it wouldn’t be in the book. So, to paraphrase Lyle Lovett, “I love everything.”
What is your most treasured item?
A wedding book that was put together from all the people that attended our wedding. Each person who came to the wedding put together a page that described my relationship (or Shannon’s) with that person up to that point. It was an unbelievable record of friendship that had spanned our entire lives.
How many/what languages do you speak?
Uno.
My one indulgence is:
Naps.
Craziest food ever eaten:
Probably raw lobster that was still twitching when it was served.
Favorite spot in my house:
The couch in our den at 5 o’clock in the morning, before anyone else has woken up, with a cup of coffee and the morning paper.
Favorite food:
Cheese grits (heavy on the cheddar) with Tabasco sauce.
My pet’s name is:
Sammy and Lilly
Favorite place to watch the sun set:
Anywhere. If I’m actually paying attention to the sunset, I’m living right.
Random facts about yourself:
I like to make lists and then I promptly lose them. I hated vegetables growing up and now I can’t get enough of them. If I could convince Shannon, I’d buy an empty lot and have a small farm. I raise bees. I was flying back over the Atlantic during 9-11 and had to land in Newfoundland. I have a new business idea about every day or two. One of my grandfathers was a Baptist minister and the other was a tenant farmer in South Georgia. I’ve been pretty lucky/blessed most of my life.
