I'm first and foremost a son, husband, and father. I have a beautiful Lithuanian wife and two precious young children. I've lived in Lexington, Kentucky most of my life and must admit that it grows on me more and more every year. The horse farms are gorgeous, the bourbon is tasty, and the basketball is, well.. not so great at the moment (but the Cats will be back, rest assured).

Here's the nutshell version of my life since 1998. Graduated from Miami of Ohio and wasted no time in taking a 28 day, 13 country organized bus tour of Europe. I fell in love with the tour guide, and we randomly chose Cyprus as a place to settle. We taught high school, lived in a beautiful village where the locals graciously accepted us, and spent the weekends riding mopeds and going to the beach. The best part about Cyprus was that we would leave our doors and windows wide open (not just unlocked) whenever we left the house, and when we returned, not only would all of our "stuff" still be there, but there would be bags of clementines that the neighbors had picked waiting for us inside-- beautiful people, beautiful island.

Unfortunately, the headmaster/owner of the private school where we taught got into major money troubles and stopped paying us, so we made the move across the big pond to re-settle in Lexington. We married exactly one year after we met and had a daughter shortley thereafter. I was lucky enough to land a job with a start-up broadband internet provider. One year later, they went bell-up, so I found a job with another tech start-up-- this time a software company. It was deja vu all over again. They, too, went belly-up after one year, so I convinced two of my co-workers to start a small firm of our own focused on multimedia CD-ROMS, DVDs, and web applications.

We did quite well, but I wasn't happy. I was eager to fix all the world's problems, not deal with shallow and superficial clients all day. I decided to go back to school see if one could learn how to fix the world by studying social inequalities. To pay for school, I taught graphic design and video editing at a community college and worked as a research assistant at the University of Kentucky Appalachian Center. My wife worked as well, and in 2003 our son was born. While studing, I met someone with Ashoka who turned me on to social entrepreneurship for the first time. Ever since then, I have been fascinated by the work of social entrepreneurs around the world.

I recently finished up my two Masters--one in sociology and one in international development. I also recently landed my dream job heading up a start-up NGO called Global Gain that will help philanthropists (individual and institutional) find worthwhile projects to support in the developing world. We will conduct due diligence as a free service and work closely with both philanthropists and the organizations they support to become long-term value-added partners. I'm truly honored to be doing what I do, and I hope Global Gain can make significant contributions to the world as we grow and evolve.

After attending the ONet Chicago conference 2006, I now understand that ONet is the most incredible online community anywhere. It is full of passionate and interesting people who are dedicating their lives to making the world a better place. This community is truly inspirational, so I hope to become more engaged with the people I met, as well as the rest.