Education

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In 1975, I graduated from Quincy Senior High School. I received my Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management from St. Louis University in 1979. I then received my MBA with a specialization in finance, also from St. Louis University, in 1981.

 

My wife Sharon and I have been married since 1981. We have three sons: Michael Jr. (and wife Breanna), Blaine, and Jensen. All three of our children, including our daughter-in-law, were born and raised in Quincy. They each attended the Quincy Public Schools.

 

After graduating with my MBA, I returned to Quincy and began working for Quintron Corporation as a financial analyst. In 1985, I was promoted to Vice President - CFO at the age of 28. A Canadian company, Glenayre Electronics, purchased Quintron. I was then promoted to Executive Vice President - CFO of Glenayre Electronics, where I oversaw the company’s accounting, finance, and management information systems departments for this international company. These positions allowed me to build the teams in these departments. I also oversaw all corporate banking and investor relations, in addition to the routine monthly financial and accounting reporting. I was responsible for the establishment of a vendor financing program for our customers which allowed continued growth in sales for the company. In 1993, I resigned from Glenayre. I accepted a position working with an entrepreneurial family that had four businesses in Illinois (Quincy, Aurora, West Chicago, and Naperville). By the end of 1993, we decided to establish a new company to bring cellular telephone service to Moscow, Russia. This Russian company had sales of $27 million in 1994, $100 million sales in 1995, and approximately $200 million sales in 1996. This was one of the few cellular companies to be profitable since its inception. We decided to take our company public through an IPO process, and on November 15, 1996, we took our Russian company public on the New York Stock Exchange. This was the first Russian company to ever be publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange. In 1997, after selling our U.S. company’s stock in the Russian company, we distributed the cash to our U.S. investors. I resigned from the entrepreneurial family’s businesses at the end of 1997.

 

In 1998, I began work as an independent consultant for business owners. In this position, I prepared business appraisals and assisted owners in the private sale of their business.

 

In 2003, I established an independent general insurance agency, offering full lines of insurance products. I am licensed in Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, Texas, North Carolina, Massachusetts, and Florida. In 2019, I consolidated the business brokerage services into this insurance agency which I continue to operate.

 

Throughout my career, I have served on various boards including the following not-for-profits and government entities:

 

Adams County Board Member - 5 years (including serving as Finance chair)

 

Adams County Ambulance and Emergency Medical Services Board - Chair, 10 years

 

Great River Economic Development Foundation (GREDF) - Executive Committee Board Member, 11 years

 

Quincy Public School Board Member - currently serving in my 6th year as Vice President of the Board and Co-Chair of the Building and Grounds Committee

 

This year, I decided to run for Mayor of Quincy after current Mayor Kyle Moore decided not to run for a third term. Many people encouraged me to consider running for Mayor so that Quincy would have a proven leader in this position.