FAMILY
I am happily married to Valentine Cirano Vieira, whom I met in a trip she took from Rio de Janeiro to Sao Paulo. Valentine is very talented, with special abilities to drawing and acting. Being her husband is probably the best quality I have.

Together we have the richest treasures of our lives: Desirée, 4-years old, and Daphnée, 18 months. They complete our lives with love and happiness - and with all energy of this world!

Working or studying, together we have been in São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Asuncion (Paraguay), California, Idaho and Utah (USA). We enjoy the opportunity to learn and understand the differences between peoples and cultures. 

Such a background has allowed me to become familiar with many diverse racial, ethnic, and religious groups. The experiences I've had in Brazil, Paraguay and the United States have enable me to acquire an appreciation, sensitivity, and understanding of many different perspectives. This has been, and I believe will continue to be, an invaluable asset in my future employment and social activities.

Also I believe in having a healthy sense of humor. I love interacting with others and will always seek job opportunities that enable me to work interdependently with my colleagues.

HOBBIES
My hobbies and interests encompass a wide variety of activities. I feel it is important to become familiar with many different types of activities in a variety of disciplines. I have found that everything from playing competitive soccer to fixing motorbikes has enriched my life in some way.

(Above: A couple pictures of my summer personal project, when I rebuilt a Kawasaki 350 F9)

During this last summer I was engaged in a personal project fixing a old motorcycle. I got this bike in very bad shape;  the bike was parked in a backyard in the last 12 years. Finally, as showed in the right picture above, the bike was restored and ready to run! That was a lot of fun!

In addition, I love playing sports of any kind. I have always had a special affinity for soccer. I love mountain bike and swimming. Many of these hobbies have had to take a back seat to school and employment time constraints, but I look forward to more opportunities in the future.

VOLUNTEER
As a young man I worked for 8 years to earn enough money to pay for my two-year volunteer work, which I call mission. From 1991 to 1993 I postponed my educational and career goals to serve full time as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Brazil, in the states of Sao Paulo, Belo Horizonte and Mato Grosso do Sul to render service for these people, and share a message concerning my beliefs in Jesus Christ.

This extraordinary, life-changing experience was the simultaneously the most difficult and rewarding two years of my life to that point. At the young age of 19 years old, it was a challenge to adapt to a new culture and learn to "survive" in very different situations.

Missionaries work in companionships or teams of two. Living in the same residence and working with another 19 year old 24 hours a day for three or four months at a time necessitated that I develop a level of communication that I had not previously acquired.

Unfortunately, because of the nature of our message, many people did not care to listen. Consequently, I learned very quickly to deal with rejection. Such an environment necessitated that we be very creative in the ways that we presented our message.

Although I didn't know it at the time, all of these experiences have contributed to helping me develop management skills. Adaptation to a new environment, "learning a new language", sacrifice, hard work, perseverance, effective communication, and creativity, are all tools that a manager must learn in order to effectively lead in a dynamic business environment.