About Jareau

It’s been a long road; we’ve got miles to go.

My story

As I walked down the stairs of the World Trade Center on the morning of September 11th, 2001, I realized that life has a whole lot to offer. Today, not only am I happy to be here, I’m happy to be putting in the time and doing good work with good people. One thing I either got as a result of 9/11, or I inherited (the jury is still out), is that I don’t stop working. Every day is a step in some positive direction. Here are just a few things I spend my time on:

  • Being a dad to two boys and an 85-pound fur-child and an energetic puppy
  • Being a supportive husband to a rockstar wife who has her own incredible career
  • Volunteering as PE Coach for my kid's school
  • Enjoying the heck out of my own career

Professional Life

In my most recent role on the Global Commercial Operations team, I worked closely with software and data engineers, designers, and VP-level stakeholders across EMELA, APAC, and North America regions to design and deploy commercial operations insights solutions.

Methodically. From ideation & discovery, to requirements gathering & documentation, to design & implementation, on through to testing, launch and optimization.

Pretty simple, in fact: data centric decision making. Why make any decision if the data doesn’t support it?

A clear, open, and transparent feedback loop is imperative to success. Especially with cryptic topics.

With two young boys, I have at least 15 years ahead of me in which I need to provide for them. As my mentor once told me: that’s 15 years worth of gas in the tank, and a clearly defined road ahead.

Academic Journey

In just a couple of decades, my academic journey has taken me to two different states, one U.S. territory, an international residency, and four completed degrees. I promised my wife the Ph.D would be the last degree I get. She wasn’t amused when I joked about getting a J.D.

Information Systems, Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Here’s where I learned how to ask questions.

International Business, Florida International, Miami, Florida University

Great experience at FIU. It didn’t need to be that expensive, though.

Information Systems, Pace University, New York City, New York

Back in NYC, time to focus. Finished my undergrad degree in something I was passionate about: technology.

Accounting, Interamerican University, Aguadilla, Puerto Rico.

I tried to follow my mom’s footsteps into accounting. Alas, the Caribbean beaches were far more enticing.

I did half of my high schooling in Queens, New York, at Thomas A. Edison High School, and the second half at Patria Latorre Ramírez high school in San Sebastian, Puerto Rico. From the city to the countryside… that was quite a shift.

Funny story: My son received his kindergarten diploma in the same month and week as me, exactly 40 years later.

Hobbies

Over the years I’ve dabbled in various ways to spend my leisure time; some more emphatically than others.

I spent a decade or so heavily involved in the global latin dance community. Traveled the world, did lots of great things. Even met my wife through dance.

Most of my video work was done in the dance community, however I’ve dabbled with the occasional family action video, too.

A couple of sports cars, a handful of motorcycles (5 to be exact), and a dad trailer :) What’s a dad trailer?

We tried for this as a hobby. It was great, but time consuming. We’ll pick up again on this when the boys are old enough.

52 TB of data on a 70 TB NAS, 30 Docker containers, +10,000 lines of home automation code.

We got into this because of the boys. A 3 year old on the pump track the cutest thing.

My TEDx Talk: After The Dust Settled

In this TEDx Talk, I recount my 9/11 story and how that experience influenced a major part of my life. Take a look.