Production figures reflect the team’s efforts over time. I helped with scheduling, training and coordination.
A CAREER THAT DOESN’T FIT ONE BOX
A hands-on leader who knows the work.
I started as a dishwasher, worked my way into restaurant management and ownership, then moved into manufacturing and project leadership. Today, I coordinate customer needs in a busy logistics environment.
Across those roles, I learned to understand the work firsthand, support the team and find practical ways to improve it.
From dishwasher to chef, general manager and owner.
For 27 years, I worked through nearly every layer of Charleston’s hospitality industry. That progression gave me a genuine understanding of how businesses operate, how teams develop and why even the smallest decisions affect the guest experience and bottom line.
Illustrative portrait: restaurant kitchen leadership, from hands-on work to managing the operation.
I learned the job before I led the job.
My experience developed through the kitchen and dining room into restaurant management and ownership. Along the way I became responsible for hiring and training, schedules, service standards, food and labor costs, purchasing, vendor partnerships, marketing and the daily operational decisions that keep a restaurant successful.
SOUTHERN SEASONS GRILLE / SUMMERVILLE
Creating and operating my own restaurant.
I built Southern Seasons Grille from the business concept forward, handling menu development and design, kitchen and dining-room planning, bar concept and offerings, repairs and remodeling, employee recruitment and training, supplier relationships, advertising, branding and promotions.
As owner/operator, I also managed purchasing, budgeting and P&L responsibilities, food and labor costs, point-of-sale systems, hospitality standards and the constant problem-solving involved in running the entire operation.
Illustrative portrait: the guest-service and business ownership side of hospitality.
THE CHARLESTON MARKET WAS MY CLASSROOM
Waterfront restaurants, major venues and events of every size.
Restaurants & venues
Worked at Water’s Edge on Shem Creek and Morgan Creek Grill on the Isle of Palms. Supported concerts and Family Circle Cup tennis tournament catering at the stadium now known as Credit One Stadium. Ran a Daniel Island Grille satellite restaurant at Blackbaud Stadium for Charleston Battery soccer events, and supported major Park Circle St. Patrick’s Day celebrations.
Catering, parties & mobile operations
Planned and delivered weddings, oyster roasts, private parties, festivals and other catering operations. I also operated a food truck for multiple years, managing menus, food preparation, staffing, equipment, inventory, service, setup and guest expectations in constantly changing environments.
Illustrative portrait: mobile food service, staffing and customer-facing event operations.
Illustrative Lowcountry catering scene representing weddings and special events.
Cost control
PURCHASING & INVENTORY
Managed costs through purchasing, inventory and daily oversight.
Catering
EVENTS & SERVICE
Built catering business through service and customer relationships.
30+
TEAM LEADERSHIP
Worked with roughly 30 employees and three managers.
Experience also includes menu design, photography, advertising, marketing, inventory, vendor negotiations, POS systems, budgeting, front- and back-of-house leadership, and improving training and employee retention.
Hospitality portraits and event visuals are illustrative concepts, not documentary photographs of particular past workplaces or events.
HOW I WORK
A practical approach to difficult work.
01 / CLARITY
Understand the real problem.
Find what’s slowing people down. Identify the constraints, the stakeholders and the outcome that matters.
02 / ALIGNMENT
Build a workable plan.
Coordinate teams, communication, schedules, systems and resources around a clear set of priorities.
03 / DELIVERY
Make improvement stick.
Document what works, train people to own it, measure the results and improve the process.
A PRACTICAL EXAMPLE / FARM MANUFACTURING
Helping a growing team build farms more consistently.
THE CHALLENGE
As orders increased, our builders and electricians needed clearer schedules, better instructions and smoother coordination with engineering and software teams.
WHAT I CONTRIBUTED
I helped organize production schedules, improve build instructions and materials lists, train team members and work through issues with engineering and software staff.
THE RESULT
Over time, the team moved from approximately one farm every two weeks to producing as many as three in a week. We also made the build process more consistent.
FROM
About 1 farm / 2 weeks
Earlier build pace
↓
TO
As many as 3 / week
At peak production, as a team
Team effort
BETTER COORDINATION & REPEATABLE BUILDS
This was a team accomplishment. I contributed through scheduling, training, documentation, materials planning and build coordination.
Building a new kind of farm required building a better operation.
I joined the company as a builder and advanced into build management and production operations leadership. These hydroponic farms brought together mechanical and electrical systems, growing technology, proprietary software, people and deployments. My role was to keep those pieces working together.
Original photo: controlled-environment production with multi-level hydroponic growing racks.
From the production floor to cross-functional leadership.
Led daily priorities for a team of seven builders and five electricians while collaborating with engineering, farm operations, warehousing, logistics, software development and external vendors.
Oversaw schedules and simultaneous builds, coordinated parts and procurement, supported hiring and coaching, helped resolve QA problems, and worked with teams preparing farm systems for customer deployments.
Where process met technology.
I developed standard operating procedures, Bills of Materials, visual work instructions, production documentation, onboarding manuals, engineering revision records and an organized knowledge system.
I also partnered directly with software developers and DevOps personnel to validate farm-management software settings, investigate equipment/software connections, communicate operational needs and support rollout troubleshooting.
Original photo: a farm unit and team members at night, reflecting the coordination involved in deployments.
Build pace
Helped coordinate work as the team progressed from one farm about every two weeks to as many as three per week.
Cost control
Worked with others to control costs through clearer instructions, materials planning and production improvements.
Growth
Supported building farm systems as the company expanded into additional states.
Original photo: a complete farm unit being transported after production.
Original photo: leafy crops growing under artificial lighting inside a farm.
Original photo: people gathered around the agricultural technology operation.
When plans change, coordination becomes the most important skill.
Operating in real time.
As a Logistics Coordinator II, I manage time-sensitive communication and execution across customers, carriers, brokers, appointments, schedules and changing service needs. Every day involves multiple priorities, documentation, operational tradeoffs and service exceptions.
Coordinate customer and carrier requirements, pickup and delivery appointments, and continuously changing transportation schedules.
Resolve communication, capacity, scheduling, documentation and service problems while balancing cost and customer expectations.
Maintain accurate follow-up and clear communication among internal and external stakeholders.
Build AI-assisted administrative and analysis workflows to help organize information and improve efficiency.
The transferable value: calm problem-solving, accountability and organized execution when many moving parts must stay aligned.
Logistics photography is illustrative, not an Allen Lund site or an image of actual company activity.
Entrepreneur at heart. Builder by nature.
Digital Design Creations gives me another outlet for problem-solving, from branding and web design to visual marketing and hands-on production. It reflects the same business ownership mindset I bring to professional work: take initiative, understand the customer, and make ideas real.
CAPABILITIES
Flexible experience. Focused execution.
Employers may know me as an operations manager, project lead, client coordinator, or implementation partner. The common value is bridging people and processes.
Advanced from builder to manufacturing and project leadership across controlled-environment agriculture.
Led seven builders and five electricians; coordinated engineering, warehouse, logistics, farm operations and software teams.
Contributed to production scheduling, training and standardized processes as the team grew from building about one farm every two weeks to as many as three in a week.
Created SOPs, Bills of Materials, work instructions, onboarding documentation, engineering revisions and a centralized operations knowledge system.
Worked directly with developers and DevOps to implement proprietary farm-management software, validate settings and resolve software-to-equipment integration issues.
Charleston Hospitality | Dishwasher to Owner/Operator | 27 years
27-YEAR CAREER
Charleston hospitality and restaurant business
Chef · Kitchen Manager · General Manager · Owner/Operator
Career progression from dishwasher to ownership, encompassing restaurants, catering, food trucks and high-volume events.
Led approximately 30 employees and three managers across front-of-house and back-of-house operations.
Managed hiring, training, employee retention, scheduling, purchasing, budgets, vendors, food and labor costs and P&L responsibilities.
Managed food costs through purchasing and inventory oversight, while developing catering opportunities and customer relationships.
Developed menus, advertising, branding, photography, point-of-sale systems and customer relationships.
Founded and operated Southern Seasons Grille; handled concept, kitchen, dining room and bar design, repairs and remodeling, recruiting, training and management.
Worked at Water’s Edge and Morgan Creek Grill; catered weddings, oyster roasts, festivals, Family Circle Cup-era stadium events, concerts and Park Circle events; ran a food truck and a Daniel Island Grille satellite at Blackbaud Stadium.
Digital Design Creations | Entrepreneurial work
ENTREPRENEURIAL WORK
Digital Design Creations
Founder / Creative Business Services
An additional outlet for practical business-building and customer-focused design.
Design and develop branding, websites, marketing materials and visual communications for small businesses.
Manage project scope, client communication, concepts, production and delivery.
EDUCATION
Trident Technical College
Coursework toward an Associate Degree in Entrepreneurial and Small Business Operations.
Coursework in Digital Communication and Media.
Coursework only; no completed degree is represented.
TECHNOLOGY & PRACTICAL CAPABILITIES
Software, systems and communication
Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, CRM and virtual collaboration tools.
AI-assisted workflow development, SOPs, scheduling, knowledge management and technical documentation.
Branding, marketing, graphic design, photography, digital media and web operations.
Team leadership, cross-functional coordination, problem-solving, customers and vendors.
This page contains fuller detail than the downloadable condensed professional summary.
BEYOND THE RÉSUMÉ / FAMILY & VALUES
The most important part of my life isn’t a job title.
Family is my starting point.
I’m a husband and father. My wife and daughters are at the center of everything I do. We love camping, traveling, exploring nature and spending time together outdoors.
Family gives me perspective. It is why I care about meaningful work, dependable relationships, integrity and building something lasting.
Rooted in the Lowcountry.
Charleston is where I spent decades serving guests, building businesses and developing teams. It’s also the community where we are building our family’s future. Away from work, the best days often involve a campsite, a trail or a new place to explore.
THE NEXT CHAPTER
Let’s turn your next challenge into progress.
If your team needs someone who can organize complexity, develop people and move projects forward, I’d welcome a conversation.
