Background - My Journey

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In 1996, I began my career as a business consultant with Andersen Consulting (now Accenture).  It was a rigorous four rounds of interviews with over 300 candidates looking to fill only six spots available.  Despite earning my degree in Petroleum & Natural Gas Engineering, I elected to move to Houston, TX and build software for Oil & Gas companies.  During my time at Andersen, I quickly began running teams and learning how to manage projects.

In 1998, I took a chance on a much smaller consulting firm called BSI.  There I not only expanded my business acumen, but I got the opportunity to work with start-ups and business incubators during the dot-com era.  I continued to build strong project management skills.

In 2001, Reliant Energy was the biggest start-up in town as the state of Texas was going through electricity deregulation and Reliant was spinning off from its parent company (now CenterPoint Energy).  I was recruited to start-up a Project Management Office.  I took a brief departure to join the executive team for a small start-up called CovalentWorks (there appears to be a pattern of start-ups here).  But things change quickly in the start-up environment, and I came back to Reliant in early 2003.

In 2004, I created my own position at Catapult Systems, launching an Enterprise Project Management consulting practice.  In just 5 years, I grew a multi-million-dollar national practice, increased our team size by 10x, and established a foundation for practice development within the firm.

In 2009, I joined the Wall Street-based firm UMT Consulting.  At the time, there was little to no business in the South Central region (TX, OK, AR, LA).  I grew our multi-city team and project portfolio management client base to turn the South Central region into one of the best performing P&L's in the company.

In 2015, UMT was acquired by Ernst & Young (EY).  I spent the next 6 years growing our Management Consulting practice, specializing in Project Portfolio Management and Complex Program Management across a variety of industries.

At the beginning of 2021, I took a chance on a small consulting firm as a member of the Executive Team.  It was a fun learning experience, but it mostly reinforced that my real passion lies with being an entrepreneur.  Later that year, I elected to focus on my own businesses full-time.

I officially began my side-hustle in real estate back in 2014.  I will never forget how excited I was the night I formed my first company, Novo Investments. For the first 4 years, I was buying and holding single-family rental homes.  

In 2018, I jumped headfirst into multifamily apartments by purchasing Somerset Apartments, a small (20-unit) property that I invested independently, learning the apartment business.

In 2019, after learning about multifamily real estate syndication, I purchased a 60-unit property that we rebranded to Agave Heights. It was the first time I raised money for a deal ($1.4MM from 26 investors).  Simultaneously, I formed Novo Multifamily Group, which has become my flagship multifamily business.  We have raised over $6.3MM across 65 unique investors and have been invested in close to 900 units to date. 

In 2022, we launched Novo Vacation Villas, our short-term rental business.  We currently own and operate a luxury mountain vacation rental in Park City, Utah.

And in late 2022, I launched Grit to Growth, a transition & performance coaching business for entrepreneurs.  This is a business I am highly passionate about because it allows me to give back and help others.