In addition to my work in real estate, I have worn many other hats in my life:

• Manager of public relations at Intelligent Electronics, a Fortune 400 high-tech company, where I also served as executive editor of numerous high-tech B2B magazines, and led the team that created the company’s e-commerce website, just two years after Amazon launched.
• Deputy press secretary to then-U.S. Senator Tim Wirth.
• Reporter, editor, and co-owner of a newspaper, The Wood River Journal in Sun Valley, Idaho. The newspaper was losing money when I joined with two other employees and two outside investors to buy the paper. We made money our first month and remained profitable. We also started a television station from scratch, where I served as news director. I was vice president of the company in addition to my role in the news departments.
• Editor of The Colorado Independent and of The Texas Independent, two sites run by the nonprofit American Independent News Network. I supervised all staff at both sites as well as reporting my own stories.
• Senior associate at consulting firm Joining Vision and Action, where I led business development and worked with many government agencies on branding, strategic planning, and other initiatives.
• As an independent consultant and freelance writer I have worked with such companies as Transamerica, Ford, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, Sun Microsystems, Exabyte, and Comcast.

All of that work is germane to running a large government agency. Working in high-tech taught me to innovate, to look ahead. Tim Wirth taught me to always take a moment to step back and consider the unintended consequences of every action before taking that action.  Working as a journalist taught me to always get the facts right.