I have been boating recreationally for more than 50 years. While growing up in Northern Utah, Northern New Mexico and Southern Colorado, he began boating at an early age with his father and uncles.
I have over 35 years of experience as a U.S. Department of Justice federal law enforcement criminal investigator and senior supervisory special agent as well as experience as a certified state of Colorado police officer. I earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in law enforcement and forensic studies. I also a graduated from the United States Marine Corps University Command and Staff College in Quantico, Virginia, where I was selected the Distinguished Graduate and valedictorian of his graduating class. I hold a certificate from the Johns Hopkins University for Executive Leadership and Organization, where my graduate level studies were focused on leadership and international studies.
I also worked as a Senior U.S. Diplomat, Legal Attaché and Senior U.S. Policy Advisor while assigned at the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada and the U.S. Consulate General located in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
From July 2009 until December 2015, I served as Unit Chief/Acting Assistant Special Agent in Charge at Quantico. There, I directed and instructed curriculum and activities of basic agent training for newly hired DEA Special Agents as well as international law enforcement managers and leaders in Undercover Ops, Surveillance Ops, HUMINT Ops, Practical Field Applications, Field Craft, and Field Enforcement Operation programs. I also directed and instructed the above curriculum and activities at five international law enforcement training academies in the Far East, Central America, South America, Europe, and Africa.
I was selected as chief of the New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources’ Boating Safety and Law Enforcement Bureau in December 2015. He succeeded Toby Velasquez who accepted a promotion.
“My first months on the job have been an incredible experience,”
When I first went to college, I was a Biology/Natural Resource major with a Law Enforcement minor. I had wanted to be a Park Ranger/Boating Officer since I was a small boy. The economy as well as a hiring freeze during the mid-1980s shattered his hopes of being a Park Ranger/Boating Officer. So I flipped his major and minor, and a few weeks after graduating from college, I took a job as a large city police officer and the rest is history.
As the state’s BLA, I want to get the word out to the public that wearing life jackets save lives. I also want to raise awareness about the increasing incidence of boating under the influence cases overall and the significant impact that these incidents can have of the Recreational Boating community.