Board Member Bios

Home Parish:

St. Jude Catholic Church (Peoria)

St. Jude Catholic School

Family:

I was born and raised in a small town in Ohio. I attended Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic School, where my mother worked for 46 years in administration and who played a huge role in the development of my catholic faith. My wife, Rachel, and I currently live in Dunlap, IL with our four children – Lucas, Patrick, Jacob and Grace – all of which attend St. Jude Catholic School. Our (very) busy family enjoys all types of sports, staying active and enjoying the Outdoors.

Career and Work:

I am currently Founding Partner of UpField Group, a Midwest based management consulting and private investment firm. I have over 15 years of financial consulting and private equity investment experience and enjoy utilizing my skills to help the companies we work with meet their growth goals. I am a graduate of the University of Notre Dame (MBA) and a licensed CPA.

Reasons for serving on the FIRE Foundation board:

In 2020, our son Patrick was diagnosed with Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) and, since that time, has obtained certain services privately and from our local public school that are not currently provided by the catholic school all of our children attend. It is very important to our family that Patrick and others have the ability obtain the assistance they need to thrive while benefiting from all that we believe a Catholic education can bring to young students.