Chairman of The Board

As Chairman of the Board, I carry overall responsibility for the direction and health of a 600-member organization. That means setting strategy, but just as importantly, it means building a team around me that can execute it — recruiting volunteers, delegating across committees, and making sure the right people own the right things. Leading a volunteer organization has its own particular challenges: you can't manage people through hierarchy or financial incentives, so you learn quickly how to motivate, communicate, and build genuine buy-in. It's taught me more about leadership than any formal role I've had. What I enjoy most is the generalist nature of it. In a small organization you own the full picture — there's no separate strategy team or marketing department. You think it, you build it, you execute it. And when something doesn't work, it's on you to figure out why.