About Mark
Born in Jersey City, New Jersey, I spent most of my life in the Garden State. I attended parochial schools through high school and graduated St. Peter’s College with a BS degree in Psychology. It is also where I met my wife – Annette.
I pursued graduate degrees in Management Science and Statistics at Stevens Institute of Technology and Rutgers University.
We have been residents of Manatee County since 2008.
We have three sons. Two of our boys still reside in New Jersey. Our oldest lives in the area with his wife and two children. Both grandchildren attend Manatee County schools. Providing the best possible education for all Manatee County children underlies the motivation for my campaign.
A Career In Technology
I spent my entire career in technology. Probably, the role most similar to the school board was uniting conservative Dell with liberal Microsoft over the common goal of creating excellent offerings and driving joint revenue. I actually received 5 consecutive “Enterprise Partner of the Year” awards for this feat simply by listening and then refocusing the people on their goal.
I am an innovator. I developed this leadership skill by successfully creating 2 technology startups both of which were sold to publicly-traded corporations.
Civic Involvement
For years I have been active in a number of community and political clubs. Most recently I was the organizer of the Victims of Communism, Manatee Scholarship fund to commemorate Victims of Communism Day signed into law last year. This organization awarded $8,000 in scholarships to four high school students in Manatee County for their projects describing the evils of Communism. I am actively involved with my church and the Knights of Columbus. I also help out at Feeding Empty Little Tummies and I am a mentor in the “Dive Into Reading” program for kindergarteners learning to read.
Why Vote For Me?
With over 6,000 employees, 52,000 students, and a budget approaching $1.4B, the Manatee County School District is a large, complex enterprise. As such, the District can benefit from my background, experience and successes in a number of important ways.
Business Experience
From startups to billion dollar corporations, I have a wide range of experience needed to align the processes to support the people to get the job done.
Consensus Building
If I can get Microsoft and Dell to work together successfully for five years, I can get the board and administration together to support our schools in uniting the parents and teachers.
Enterprise Transformation
I understand that within any enterprise their People, Process and Technology must be in alignment in order to succeed. Failure is imminent otherwise.
