Tell us a little about yourself. You can include your personal background, family, outside interests that are important to who you are as a person and a candidate.
I have lived in Lexington for nearly 20 years: one decade in East Lexington and now near Lexington Center (precinct 4). I have two children, both of whom attend Lexington Public Schools. My son goes to Hastings Elementary School, and he is active in the Cub Scouts—growing up, I was an Eagle Scout, and now I’m an adult leader in his Cub Scout pack. My daughter goes to Diamond Middle School, and she plays a lot of sports, particularly basketball—growing up, I was not very good at sports, but I now coach her teams as best I can! My wife and I met in graduate school at Stanford, where we both earned our PhDs in chemistry. Currently I work for a large company in the oil industry, and for the past decade I have worked to transition the company toward the clean energy industry. Professionally, I am the founder and director of a division that measures and mitigates greenhouse gas emissions.
Why are you running for Town Meeting?
I was active in the public discussion regarding the new high school, attending and speaking at many of the open meetings. I was concerned about several aspects of the project and spoke about multiple topics, but I focused on how to minimize disruption to the students who would attend LHS during construction. Lexington Public School Superintendent Dr. Julie Hackett noticed my engagement throughout the process and invited me to join a town committee focused on this issue. In the committee, I was able to work with several town officials to come up with a few solutions to minimize disruption. After that experience, I became a strong supporter of the high school project and volunteered for the Yes4Lex campaign. More importantly, I saw firsthand how working constructively on issues important to the community can lead to real results that make Lexington an even better place to live. That experience inspired me to run for Town Meeting.
How has your past experience — whether in your professional life, elected office, or as a community leader — prepared you for a role in Town Meeting?
Successful Town Meeting requires collaboration among a large group of people—up to 203 members! I have experience working with large groups to arrive at consensus agreements to guide different organizations. Professionally, as a venture capitalist, I have sat on the boards of several companies, mostly startup companies developing clean energy technologies. In town, I have been a board member for several youth organizations, including Lexington Little League and Cub Scout Pack 137.
In my professional life, attempting to transition an oil company to a clean energy company means that engaging with someone with an opposing view is almost a daily occurrence! In my experience, even people with opposing views have similar goals: we all want the company to succeed or the town to thrive. Instead, I find people often differ on how to achieve that goal (for example, by focusing on the short term or the long term) or on what future scenarios we are likely to face (for example, whether the MBTA Communities Act will result in lots of people moving to Lexington or not that many). I think effective collaboration starts with defining and agreeing on what we want to achieve and what scenarios we are planning for. After aligning on the big picture, discussing the tactics to achieve that goal is usually less contentious.
What is the most important issue in this election to you personally, and what ideas do you have about how to address this issue?
Let me discuss my top three priorities. First is education. My family and I moved to Lexington in large part because of its public schools, and the quality and inclusiveness of the Lexington schools continues to set our town apart. I believe our teachers should be fairly compensated for the value they provide to our children and for our town. I also believe our children’s increasing exposure to social media represents a substantial risk to their development and wellbeing, and I would encourage the schools to be even more proactive about working with parents to ensure our children experience the right amount of digital technology at the right age.
Second is affordability. With a child still in elementary school, my family is going to be in Lexington for a while. Town Meeting is primarily responsible for appropriating funds and must ensure that families can afford to live in Lexington for the long term—including families who do not have school-aged children.
Third is environmental sustainability. Recently, many organizations have started to backtrack on their environmental commitments. As someone whose profession revolves around sustainability, I disagree with that approach. Emerging technologies frequently make the sustainable approach the lowest cost approach, particularly with proper planning. I believe Town Meeting should ensure that Lexington remains an environmental leader and resists external pressure to reduce our ambitions.
All three of the issues coalesce around the new high school. It remains to be seen what surprises—and what requests for additional budget—will emerge once construction begins. I will prioritize constructing a facility that serves our town’s educational needs, without making Lexington unaffordable, and without sacrificing the clean energy features in the current design.