Chief Executive Officer
GREATER WASHINGTON DC  |  USA

I have been on both sides of the desk: selling ideas, solutions, and services to clients, and being the one who was “sold to.” That experience shapes how I lead Trusted Advisor Associates today—with a focus on what actually works when you are the one in the room trying to build a relationship.

For most of my career, I was a consultant and business leader delivering complex solutions across multiple industries—including director-level roles in business development and client development at a Fortune 200 IT company. I know what it is like to be measured on client retention, account growth, and satisfaction scores. And I know how much easier all of that becomes when trust is present.

When I first attended a Trusted Advisor workshop more than fifteen years ago, I was skeptical. I had built a successful career without explicitly thinking about trust. But as a client of Trusted Advisor Associates, I experienced what changes when trust becomes intentional: deeper customer loyalty, faster account expansion, and teams that actually want to collaborate.

Today, as CEO of Trusted Advisor Associates, my goal is to help other professionals and organizations achieve similar gains through improved client focus and trust.

I have an MBA from UVA’s Darden Graduate School of Business, and bachelor’s degrees in Business Administration and French.

My Trust Story

Early in my career, I led a project where we made an error in our data analysis. We caught it, corrected it, moved on. Two weeks later, the head of the affected department—a retired Army colonel—called me in for what I assumed was a routine status meeting.
Without preamble, he looked me in the eye and asked: “So, are you stupid, or just arrogant?”

I felt my face flush. My first instinct was to defend myself—to explain that we had already fixed the problem, that our methodology was sound, that he did not fully understand what we were doing. Instead, I took a breath and did what I had been trained to do: I made my case. Calmly. Thoroughly. With data.

I was articulate. I was prepared. I was, I thought, at the top of my consulting game.
And the more I talked, the less he listened.

By the time I left his office, I realized two things. First, he did not trust my recommendations. But more than that—he did not trust me. And no amount of data was going to fix that.

That is when I learned something I have seen play out hundreds of times since: people do not trust us because our advice is good. They take our advice because they trust us. My expertise was not the problem. My instinct to lead with it was.

I have thought about that hour many times since. How much better could our work have been if I had started by listening instead of defending? If I had acknowledged his frustration before proving my competence? If I had focused on the relationship instead of the data?

That experience is a big part of why I do this work today. Because I have been the smart, capable professional who could not figure out why the client was not listening—and I know how frustrating and lonely that feels.

My Trust Temperament™

The Professor