I’ve been in the auction industry since 1992.
Today I serve as Partner and Chief Marketing & Technology Officer at Grafe Auction Company, a nationally recognized leader conducting nearly 300 commercial and industrial online auctions annually across retail, hospitality, healthcare, and manufacturing. Before Grafe, I spent 16 years as VP of Operations and Auctioneer at Schultz Auctioneers Landmark Realty.
I served as the 76th President of the National Auction Association (2024–2025) and currently serve as Board Chair. Before that, I served as the 60th President of the Minnesota State Auctioneers Association and was the founding President of the Minnesota State Auctioneer’s Foundation. I hold the CAI (Certified Auctioneers Institute) designation and serve as Lead Instructor for the AMM (Auction Marketing Management) program.
I live in southern Minnesota with my wife Billie Jo and our daughter Anna Claire.
What I Write About
Leadership and decision-making in small, high-trust organizations
Authenticity and vulnerability as competitive advantages, not soft skills
Pattern recognition across history, business, and everyday life
Technology and AI applied practically to traditional industries
The gap between knowing and doing, and what it takes to close it
Everything here started as handwritten thought cards, index-card-sized observations I jot down after conversations, books, or long drives. Some stay as thought cards. Others grow into essays when the ideas connect in ways I didn’t expect. When enough thought cards circle the same theme, I compile them into concepts, living overviews that trace how an idea evolved across sources and time.