Board Member since 2018
Job Title & Company
Business Development Consultant at Storch Cooperative Development
Location Duende at Silo City
Hometown Hamburg
What is the significance of the location where you chose to meet?
“The owner [Rick] started with all these silos right here and he sold some of it to someone else who developed it. That’s the whole idea of what we’re trying to do, is bring more people down to the Buffalo waterfront. Rick is the guy who is really trying to make a go of it. Silo City has been a tough project but they’re going ahead, and it’s on the Buffalo River! It’s all about the history and the industrial past, it’s cool!…We’re trying to clean up the environment, but…cleaning up the environment costs money, so now there’s a positive impact of getting it clean and doing things down here. Businesses opening, employment, housing, that’s all the positive stuff.”
What is a favorite memory you have while on the BNRLT board?
“I can’t say there’s one particular event or anything, but it’s been very interesting watching the evolution over the last 7 years…how this board has matured into an organization… Now we have a variety of different people with lots of different skills, and they’re fun to work with! It’s a good group to work with, and we are starting to finally get more things accomplished.”
What is your favorite outdoor activity?
“I’m a water person. At one time in my life I was a water skier, I was a fisherman, I’ve been sailing in the Caribbean… I’ve been on the water or in the water my entire life. I can just go sit by the water and I’m fine.”
“I do like wins, whatever they may be. In my former business life, when I was doing business development and we got a big project. It didn’t bring me more money, it didn’t bring me fame, but it does bring you a sense of accomplishment… I like when my football team does well or when my hockey team does well, if the land trust gets another property. Those kind of wins.”
What brings you joy?
“September/ October when it starts getting cooler at night, you can open the windows again, football season starts, the weather is so good. It’s definitely the fall. Everything seems to be a little crisper.”
What is your favorite season?
If you could have any superpower what would it be?
“I’d probably want to have all the processes we go through, make more sense…To make things run a little bit smoother as we go through the processes. With what the land trust does, or to get a building permit, I wish I could just smooth those things out so things could move along easier…I like to see things get done.”
Future projects or anything you’re working on that you want to promote?
“I’m just trying to do the acquisition portion for the land trust. Finding appropriate properties, and moving forward… I would like to see us gain more properties. There’s no shortage of need, for what we’re trying to accomplish.”
