Bio
Pete’s Biography
Pete was born May 16th, 1978 in Kansas City. He went to a small private Christian school from kindergarten through high school. After graduating Salutatorian of his high school class in 1996, he began working for Herff Jones, Inc. At the same time, he began the Communication Design track at Johnson County Community College. After almost 2 full years of design school, Pete realized, with the help of his teachers, that he was a talentless hack - so he decided to rethink his plan.
Pete continued at the community college to finish out his Associates in Liberal Arts (”Nothing”), taking an abundance of photography classes as a creative outlet. He finished his Associates in 2000, making him the all-time slowest student in history. At the end of his time at the community college, Pete was promoted and became a loathed manager at his company, known to many as “Pete the Hatchet.”
Pete realized that he really enjoyed management (or rather, enjoyed making people’s lives miserable), and decided to get a Bachelor’s in Business. He enrolled at the Bloch School of Business and Public Administration at the University of Missouri, Kansas City in the fall of 2001. Pete found his passion when he discovered probabilistic modeling, estimation, and project management.
Rather than spend 8 years getting a Bachelor’s, Pete decided to fast-track his education by taking full academic loads while working a full-time job. This allowed him to graduate with his Bachelor’s in Business and Economics in May, 2004. With the end of the Bachelor’s degree looming fast, Pete bought his first house in March 2004. He immediately rolled into the Master’s program at the Bloch school in the Operations Management track.
At the end of 2004, Pete took the position of Director of Operations for a Kansas City consulting firm, where he is responsible for all day-to-day operations of one of the fastest-growing companies in the Midwest. Although the focus of the firm is leadership, Pete often acts as senior consultant on highly technical or manufacturing-related consulting projects. He has been recognized for his accomplishments in Who’s Who of Professional Management and is a member of Omicron Delta Epsilon - Zeta Chapter of Missouri, an honor society in Economics.
In 2007, Pete completed his Master’s of Business Administration at the University of Missouri, Kansas City with a primary emphasis in Operations Management and a secondary emphasis in Leadership & Change in Organizations. Although the school does not have Latin honors for graduate degrees, Pete graduated amongst the top of his class, and was recommended by numerous professors as a potential lecturer for the college.
In January, 2008, Pete began lecturing at the Bloch School (UMKC), teaching a Master’s level course in service operations management. In February, 2008, Pete was appointed to the Bloch School Alumni Board of Directors at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, where he will serve his first term through June, 2011.
Since 2005, Pete has been operating an overwhelmingly successful (in the sense of popularity, not in the sense that it’s making him wealthy) web design and hosting business, IHS Web Solutions. In addition, since 1996, Pete has worked as a photographer running Barrett Graphics. He is a member of the Professional Photographers of America and the American Society of Picture Professionals.
In addition to shooting pictures, Pete also enjoys shooting guns, and has trained in defensive shooting, practical shooting, and handgun marksmanship. Pete is a 2nd Amendment activist, lobbying Kansas politicians and raising awareness at both the state and federal level.
Pete lives in his Olathe, Kansas home with his wife, Jenna, our cat Chasey, our two wonderfully destructive dogs, Abby and Olivia, and Traci, the African Grey parrot. Pete and Jenna got married in Bar Harbor, Maine in September 2008. To read more about the “blessed event,” go to http://jennalovespete.com.
As for the future, Pete plans to continue working in the consulting field, because the only thing better than making people miserable is having people pay exorbitant fees for you to make them miserable. He plans never to run for public office, for fear of the many skeletons in his closet being dug up. You all know who you are.
