Born in Richmond, New South Wales, Australia. Immigrated with parents to Mount Airy, North Carolina. I have been involved with various aspects of agriculture through education, work experience. Having lived in North Carolina, Virginia, various locales in Kansas, south central Louisiana and now back in North Carolina gives me a broad scope of different agricultural systems and commodities. Crop consulting and contract research in Louisiana and personally farming and ranching in western and northeastern Kansas give me an understanding of agricultural production. The past several years, as a Kansas Farm Management fieldman, I have focused on management issues of farm firms: sole proprietorships, partnerships and closely held corporations.

I am married; my wife and I have four children, two girls and two boys. The "men" in our family are not outnumbered, just "outgunned".