Swimming since he was two years old, Max can best be described as a water person. He has been surfing and scuba diving since he was 17. He also loves to stand up paddle, kayak, mountain bike, snowboard, and be out in nature. 

 

Intrigued by different cultures, Max enjoys exotic locales such as Indonesia, Fiji, Australia, Morocco, Mexico, the Maldives, China, Japan, India, Portugal, and South Africa. Travels in poorer countries have reinforced what a privileged life he leads and also increased his desire to give back to the community in a larger scale. Leveraging his computer and marketing degrees, he has contributed his time and skills toward improving efficiencies and increasing market awareness for several local non-profits. He's also been involved with national non-profits in other capacities.

 

Deeply touched by the experience of his first Ride a Wave event (www.rideawave.org) in 2001, Max held a vision of helping communities around the world provide similar services for children with special needs wherever there is an ocean. Since then he has been involved in most all aspects of that Santa Cruz-based program on and off the beach, and also holds a board seat. 

 

In 2008, he co-founded Best Day Foundation with Brooks Lambert to make that vision a reality, and took on the Exec Director and Program Director positions. Max feels fortunate to be able to apply his diverse skill set toward making Best Day Foundation a success. He’s been to all of Best Day’s events but 1, supporting each chapter as they grow towards becoming self-sufficient. Max is constantly touched by the kindness and generosity of each Best Day community, and he’s deeply inspired by how brave and incredible the children who participate in Best Day’s programs are.

 

In his business career, Max has held a wide range of technical roles from designing award-winning software to providing training to Fortune 500 companies. At Education Training and Research (ETR) Associates, a non-profit specializing in health education, Max's efforts helped them computerize and streamline manual and inefficient processes, paving the way for rapid growth and expansion.

 

Through his wide range of experience, Max excels in thinking outside the box. As Chief Evangelist for a local software startup, he helped design and market technology and software services that enabled the company to win numerous awards including Fortune Magazine’s Top 12 Coolest Companies, Network World Blue Ribbon, and PC Magazine Editor’s Choice. A skilled writer and publicist, Max also helped garner worldwide media exposure in outlets such as: Fortune Magazine, The London Times, CNN, HGTV, and even the Donny and Marie show.

 

Max excels at getting things done or figuring out how to involve those that can.