The Owners' Manual Newsletter | Issue 23 | Winter 2022

Tell us about yourself! I am a Masshole at heart (descriptive choice of words) and grew up in a small town on the north shore of Boston called Nahant. I went to school at RPI (Rensselaer Polytechnic) and moved down to Connecticut after (which is now way longer than makes me feel happy to say out loud... 14 years). I live in Hebron, CT with my girlfriend Rachel and, as anyone who has been on a video chat with me knows, Gambit a 14 month old GSP (German Short-haired Pointer) who runs my life and a cat named Kade who is definitely the easy child. Matt Colson Meriden | Architecture August 2021 I joined the BL team because of the potential I saw for continued growth both for the company and for myself. The employee ownership culture has translated well into the working atmosphere where I feel, as an individual, I am truly part of tapping into that potential and am much more than just a cog in a machine. What do you enjoy doing in your free time? My free time has mainly been consumed by home and yard upgrades over the past few years... with little end in sight. However, there is a lot to enjoy in the transformation this year - it was a bathroom and tree clearing. Still have about 400 LF of pine tree trunks across my yard and 2 more 100 ft trees to come down this winter. What made you decide to come to BL Companies?

Do you have a talent or hobby? I would say my two best hobbies at the moment are mixology and gardening. My interest in mixology started with a love of Old Fashioned’s and a search for the best one (currently the Hilton Cincinnati Netherland Plaza, but no promises the bartender is still there). I started to take some notes and just make my own and it grew from there. Unlike some other hobbies this one pays as you go as trying out new drinks and perfecting them takes lots of iterations! Speaking of hobbies that don’t pay as you go, I’ve been building up the gardens at my home for 4 years trying to manage sunlight and a woodland setting. Lots of trial and error and some weird looks from the furnace repairman when he saw my pink grow lights in the basement. I offered him a tomato plant but think he was hoping they weren’t veggies and flowers.

What did you want to be when you grew up? In first grade we did a time capsule and the questionnaires were given back to us when we graduated high school. By that time when I got the paper my first thought was pro soccer or veterinarian or something more typical for a 6 year old but... it even surprised me that I wrote architect that early. So yes I was doomed from the start, haha! Although over the years my understanding that drawing slides into ball pits from the second floor of houses instead of stairs was highly likely to not make it into my Revit models, the passion has not gone away. And also if you want to replace your stairs with a ball pit slide I’d love to help!

Who’s your celebrity look alike? I’ve been told Jason Segel “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and “How I Met your Mother” time frame, mainly because growing facial hair is not something I have the genetics to do well, haha.