Ruminations on Cooking, Outdoors, and Personal Milestones

1. I LOVE to cook: grill, roast, bake, smoke, you name it, I want to do more of it.

2. I enjoy the outdoors — hiking, camping and building fires— all stemming from my days and nights in the Boy Scouts.

3. Two years ago, I hit 2 hole in ones in the same round of golf. It was incredible and it will probably never happen again (I really hope it does though).

4. My favorite athlete will forever and always be Derek Jeter: class, grace under pressure, a through and through winner. GO YANKEES!

5. I was the last among my group of friends to get high-speed internet. Thinking about the dial-up days brings me mental pain. Now, I seek to always be in front of the technological curve.

6. To this day, the best cheeseburger I ever had was at Ferdi in Paris

I love large family gatherings, being able to get all 18 of us together (plus some surprise guests) and most importantly eat! Our big one is Christmas Eve and my special part is making around two dozen pizzas in the early stages of the night, from the traditional pepperoni to the fig, rosemary, pecorino romano pie.

14. I’m incredibly fortunate to have had the opportunity to work on two landmark skyscraper projects in New York City, the Manhattan West and Hudson Yards developments, and have an actual role in transforming the skyline.

15. I’m a breakfast food connoisseur: give me a bagel, waffles, pancakes, French toast, but skip the eggs, not a fan.

16. Every trip I take, my Nikon camera is at my side. I 'm on the constant hunt to get "the shot," even if that means telling a London cabbie to pull over during rush hour to get the perfect angle of Tower Bridge opening with the Gherkin positioned perfectly in-between.

17. One of my favorite weekend activities is having large group dinners with friends. We enjoy trying different restaurants or hosting everyone potluck style with each person bringing their

The most interesting share of stock I own is for the Green Bay Packers NFL team. It was a gift from a college friend and it now forces me to have an interest in the Packers success…too bad it doesn’t pay a dividend when they win a game.

19. I currently live in New York City and get excited about my morning subway commute so I can listen to podcasts. Some of my favorites are: The Ringer network of podcasts (sports, movies, politics, music), the Bon Appetite podcast showcasing diverse culinary personalities and the latest thought-provoking episode of This American Life. I’m always on the lookout for new insights across various viewpoints.

20. I ask “why” a lot…“why does this work like this,” “why are we doing things this way”. When I was younger, I thought I was becoming annoying, now asking why challenges myself and others to actually think about things differently and hopefully spark new ideas.

21. I’m an early bird and I set two alarms, 15 minutes apart…the “good morning alarm” and the “get out of bed alarm.”

22. The most mentally stimulating course I’ve ever taken was “Leading Alignment and Agility” about how leaders build competitive advantage within their team/organization and utilize neuroscience-based techniques to unlock performance and adaptability within