Background

All of my children, three boys, were born at Greenwich Hospital, where my wife, Cassandra Tribble, M.D., has been a staff physician for the past 14 years.

Our kids attend North Street Elementary School and Central Middle School.

Two of my boys play football in the Gateway Youth Football League with the Riverside Gators, where I help coach. All three boys play in the Greenwich Flag Football League, in which I help coach. They also played basketball in the Greenwich Basketball Association. One of my sons is an avid skateboarder who frequents the Greenwich Skatepark.

I am in my second term as a member of the Board of Trustees at Greenwich Public Library, during which time we presided over the construction of the new Byram Shubert Library.

Professionally, I have a Bachelor of Science degree from Carnegie Mellon University and a Master of Science degree Stanford University, both in engineering. I’ve had extensive experience with management and executive positions in engineering, apparel merchandising, licensing, marketing, and sales, during a 20-year career that included major global enterprises such as IBM, Nike, NBA Properties, and Benetton Sportsystem. I left corporate America to form my own business, Black Fives, Inc. (BlackFives.com), which owns the trademark rights to the historically important African American basketball teams that played before the NBA, and which takes the lessons and experiences of those early pioneers to engage, teach, enlighten, and inspire people today. I started that business here in Greenwich, where it is incorporated and operates today.

On a personal level, I have deep insights into the valuable role played by culture, ethnicity, tradition, nationality, race, and varied experiences. My mother was a European immigrant in this country, and became a naturalized U.S. citizen after waiting 30 years to see if America was right for her. Her father worked as a clerk in the local Town Hall while her mother was a seamstress.

My father grew up on the South Side of Chicago. His father was a Pullman porter who was functionally illiterate, and his mother was a “domestic.” Yet he was the first in his family to finish high school, graduating a year early, and then got a college degree at age 20 before joining the Army and serving in U.S. military intelligence as a Russian translator.

My parents were married in Germany, after a courtship that began when my father met my mother in a jazz club there. They began raising a family, and I was born in Vienna, Austria, while my father was getting his Ph.D. a the University of Vienna with the GI Bill. We also lived in the Belgian Congo, where my father taught college, and in Germany, where my relatives still live today, before moving to the Boston area where I went to elementary and high school.

I speak German fluently. Yo hablo un poquito Español, pero yo quiero practicar mas.

My brother is retired from the U.S. Army as a first sergeant, and has since served as a contractor in Afghanistan and in the Philippines. Another brother is the head of footwear design at Puma AG in Germany, the popular athletic shoe company. My sister is a director within the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. Another sister is retired from a 25-year career as an internationally known ballet artist.

For hobbies, basketball is my favorite sport. I enjoy playing pick up hoops at the YMCA or at Bible Street. I enjoy baseball too, and I’ve played in the town softball league. I also like photography. I’m a member of the Greenwich Arts Council, through which my “bee’s eye view” photographs of flower blossoms were recently exhibited in their Arts to the Avenue program at Cashmere, Inc. and at Greenwich Hospital. My photos have also been exhibited at the Montgomery Pinetum in Cos Cob.

For more on my early childhood history and family background, please see this article.

Our campaign also created this related mailer about my background and community involvement.