Macon Magazine

August/September 2025 | maconmagazine.com 43 Tell us about your calling. What brought you to your career field? I've always been fascinated by how things work, which led me to study engineering at Mercer University. My first job out of college was working on aircraft for a defense contractor. After several years, I took an opportunity at Blue Bird that allowed me to move into the automotive industry without leaving Georgia. I quickly became motivated by the company's purpose, keeping our next generation safe as nearly 500,000 school buses carry over 25 million students every day. I "geek out" about how much technology we can pack under that yellow paint. I recently completed my MBA at Georgia Tech and moved into a more strategic business role at Blue Bird, working cross-functionally with leadership to shape future product lines. What other activities are you involved in where you contribute to your community? Mention what you're most excited about. I've been fortunate to serve on several boards around town, including the Hay House, Bragg Jam, Theatre Macon, and most recently as chair of Historic Macon Foundation. I've been on the Blue Bird School Bus Foundation board since 2018. After a hiatus during and post-COVID, we reinvigorated the Foundation and recently gave away over $50,000 to local philanthropic organizations. I love seeing how these groups enrich students' lives. Additionally, I serve on Mercer's National Engineering Advisory Board and am leading an effort to help the School of Engineering gain well-deserved national recognition in the U.S. News & World Report rankings. As you look to the future, what are your professional and personal goals? Currently, I'm leading Blue Bird's journey into a completely new market. While our core business is and will always be school buses, we're developing a commercial chassis that will tap into a different vehicle segment. We're designing a platform that could build a delivery van (think UPS/FedEx) or a motorhome. Because we are creating this business segment from the ground up, it is similar to leading a startup – but with the resources and expertise of Blue Bird. My goal is to build this "startup" into a key driver for the company's future. Blue Bird will be celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2027. Less than 0.5% of companies make it to that milestone, and I'm excited to help position Blue Bird for the next 100 years. Right now, what is the best thing going on in Macon? Macon does an incredible job of matching motivated people with the coaching and resources they need to be successful. Between grant-funding entities such as Peyton Anderson Foundation and Knight Foundation, to other private loan funders, there is a willingness to take strategic and calculated risks on a big idea. This sense of possibility creates an energy here that is unlike any other town. NewTown Macon's Developer's Academy and Entrepreneur's Academy are great examples of taking a community member with an idea and providing the technical knowledge and funding to turn them into a business owner, landlord, or creative entrepreneur. Josh Rogers was one of my best friends, and I always admired his mastery of this model. Our downtown is more diverse, vibrant, creative, and interesting because of his legacy and programs like these. What do you consider your greatest achievement? Outside of raising two beautiful, precocious girls with my wife, Heather, I would have to say leading the charge (sorry for the pun) to develop an electric school bus. I remember sitting at the office late one night finishing the grant to submit to the Department of Energy. Months later, I received a call the day before Christmas Eve letting me know that our application had been approved. That $4.5 million grant kicked off our EV program that put some of the first modern electric school buses on the road in 2018, and more than 2,500 electric, zero-emission school buses to date. I was able to attend a meeting and press conference with Vice President Harris when she announced the Enviornmental Protection Agency's Clean School Bus program, committing $5 billion to getting the oldest, dirtiest buses off the road. In every role I've held at Blue Bird from engineering to procurement to operations to strategy, I've been fortunate to work with talented teammates to be able to advance our EV program. What does it mean to be a good leader? By the time you reach middle age, you have seen both good and bad examples of leadership. The best leaders I've known are strategic, forward-thinking, and knowledgeable, while also maintaining their sense of humanity. Qualities like empathy and ambition are not mutually exclusive. "The best leaders I've known are strategic, forward-thinking, and knowledgeable, while also maintaining their sense of humanity. Qualities like empathy and ambition are not mutually exclusive." O N H O W W E C A N I M P R O V E I've always been passionate about attracting and retaining talent in Macon. I consider myself a Macon ambassador when we have new employees, customers, or suppliers come to town. We've had difficulty in the past recruiting younger employees, and still struggle at times because we "aren't Atlanta," but it has gotten easier with everything going on here. I take great pride in showing off our city.

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