Raised an army brat, I went to 18 different schools in Germany and the USA. As a kid, I wanted to be an artist/architect when I grew up. However, when I finished high school, reality interceded and I enrolled at Colorado School of Mines, where six years later, I graduated as a mining engineer. Over the next ten years, I worked for large coal companies in the USA and Australia. 

In 1985, my family and I migrated to Australia where I joined a Sydney based investment bank which specialised in mining. In 2005, I shifted back into the coal industry where I was involved in the creation of Excel Coal and Whitehaven Coal. 

I've been involved with the contemporary glass scene in Australia since 1991, when I started taking short courses in glass forming at Sydney College of the Arts (SCA). In 1994, along with Maureen Cahill, I co-founded the Ranamok Glass Prize which for twenty years promoted Contemporary Glass in Australia and New Zealand.

I retired from the business world in 2012 and returned to my passion for art, design and glass. My home and workshop are located near the small town of Federal, NSW in the Byron Bay Hinterland.