It all began on a snowy, March night in 1969 (though I suspect it really began nine months earlier). I’m talking, as you might have guessed, about my life. Here’s a quick highlight reel:

• I’m the father of two smart, funny, talented and beautiful girls.

• I’m married to a saint.

• I’ve been told I look like Andre Agassi…if he got stung by a swarm of bees.

• I live in Doylestown, Pa. in the United States, former home to literary icons as James A. Michener and Pearl S. Buck, as well as Son of the Beach star Timothy Stack.

• I grew up in Hackettstown, NJ, where I had cows in my backyard, rode my single-speed Haro BMX bike around Mountain Lake, fished nearly every day of the summer with my best friend, and learned the value of having a strong work ethic. It would take John Cougar Mellencamp five albums to capture my childhood.

• My work ethic was instilled by two of the best parents a kid could have. My mother worked in a fast food restaurant during the day so she could see my brother and me off to school and then attend every after school sporting event we participated in (I was all-conference and all-state in soccer). My dad worked shifts in a glass factory and a second job as a studio photographer. In one of the proudest moments of my life, he bought the photo studio when he got laid off from his factory job.

• I spent four years at Trenton State College, now called The College of New Jersey, where I studied communications and professional writing. I ran four years of varsity cross country and served as the vice president of new membership for the college’s Inter Greek Council. I am a brother in The Phi Kappa Tau Fraternity.

• I am an avid cyclist, aggressive skier and an acceptable rhythm guitar player (the F chord still eludes me). I ran a 4:34 mile in high school, completed the Chicago Marathon (my first) in 3:43 and the New York City Marathon (on two days of training) in 4:59. I can still climb a somewhat respectable, if still top-roped, 5.9. I’ve skied Tuckerman’s Ravine and climbed Angel’s Landing in Zion (and survived).

• I’m an amateur photographer with a lifelong dream of seeing my images in National Geographic.

• My musical tastes are all over the dial, but I gravitate toward the poetic lyrics and driving energy of The Boss and the pure escapism of Jimmy Buffett.

• I’ve been lucky to have opportunities to travel to places like France, Italy, England, Germany, Estonia, Finland, Spain, and the United Arab Emirates.

•  I once hung out with Chris Farley on the set of Saturday Night Live.

• I’ve been told I am a creative, fresh-thinker who can find a story where none exists. I’m obsessively externally-focused. I thrive on ambiguity and can adapt to rapidly changing environments. I believe in sparking change and driving it throughout an organization. I believe it so passionately, that I am a founding member of a global network of corporate rebels and part of a small guerrilla team recruited by the CEO of Alcatel-Lucent to not only build an API management business, but also inject web-oriented speed and agility into the company’s culture.

• I’ve worked with big, global corporations (Alcatel-Lucent, IBM, AT&T, Unisys), big honking agencies (Ogilvy, Grey, Saatchi) and exciting startups (MindTouch, Krugle, Mashery). While my passion is in technology, I’ve honed my skills running targeted communications programs for clients across a wide range of industries: the Hong Kong Economic Trade Organization (economic development), the New York State Low-Level Radioactive Waste Siting Commission (pubic policy, community engagement), Remington and Panasonic (consumer), Sandoz (pharma, crisis) and Freeport-McMoRan (environmental, issues management).

• I’m currently the head of influencer management at Alcatel-Lucent, where I lead strategy and execution for the company’s engagement with non-traditional influencers. The role wipes the current marketing and communications slate clean, reinventing the perennially separate disciplines into a blended role that combines the best facets of marketing, public relations, analyst relations, internal communications, community management and business development to communicate Alcatel-Lucent’s presence in new markets and among new influencers. In this role, I am also advising the U.N.’s Women Empowerment Principles initiative on social media strategy, an initiative I have a vested interest in as the father of two daughters.

• I’ve worked alongside some of the brightest minds in technology, including Dennis Ritchie, co-creator of Unix; John Patrick, one of the pioneers of IBM’s early entry into the web and Linux; Larry Prusak, one of the founding fathers of knowledge management; Jeff Taylor, founder of Monster.com; and Rob Malda and Jeff Bates, the brains behind Slashdot.

• Over the course of my 20-year career, I’ve launched a distributed operating system dubbed Plan 9 that was created by the team that built Unix; placed a byline in the Financial Times for Vint Cerf, the father of the Internet; developed relationships with top national and industry reporters that resulted in a half-page feature in USA Today on IBM’s Extreme Blue program and a Fast Company cover story on IBM’s advanced Internet strategy; written speeches for the heads of multi-billion dollar businesses; served as the Shell Answer Man; launched New Jersey’s first compressed natural gas filling station; and drove multi-company launches for industry-wide electronic check and DVD watermarking initiatives.

• I’ve had two programs nominated for the Holmes’ Report Gold Sabre (Superior Achievement in Branding and Reputation) award for business-to-business campaigns of the year (2003). I won a coveted Telly Award for an executive communications video I co-wrote. At IBM, I led an aggressive media campaign to wrestle mindshare from Oracle. I was awarded “Best Competitive PR Program” by IBM’s communication leadership.

• I serve on the advisory board of Mobile Monday Mid-Atlantic.

• I’m a graduate of IBM’s Accelerated Executive Leadership program (2002), IBM’s Basic Blue Management School (2001) and Unisys’ Six Sigma White Belt Training (2005).

• I’ve twice been selected to participate in Alcatel-Lucent’s Key Performer executive program, most recently nominated to play a role as one of the company’s top 200 leaders (77,000 employees). At IBM, I was selected to participate in Big Blue’s High Potential executive program.

• I’m an annual guest lecturer at Rutgers School of Communication and The College of New Jersey. Other speaking engagements include the opening keynote at the 2012 Social Media Business Life Conference, the closing keynote at the 2011 edition of SoMeBizLife, moderator at RCR Wireless/Mobile Monday and Gluecon, and a featured speaker at Marquette University’s PR + Social Media Summit (presentation featured as top presentation on Slideshare with 60,000 views).