I launched VibrantNation.com after researching the lack of media geared towards women 50+.  As a marketing professional, I built IMC Licensing, a brand licensing agency that has represented major companies like Kraft Foods, S.C. Johnson, Wrigley, and Abbott Labs, and dozens of iconic brands like Dole, Valvoline, Philosophy, Milk-Bone, and TABASCO.  

I write frequently on Baby Boomers for MediaPost and brandchannel.com and has published articles in BRANDWEEK.  I have been a featured speaker at leading industry events including the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the National Retail Federation (NRF) Big Show, Book Expo America, M2W - The Marketing to Women Conference, and the American Society for Aging (ASA).  I consult regularly with companies seeking their own understanding of the Boomer woman, and am the co-author (with Carol Orsborn, Ph.D.) of Vibrant Nation: What Boomer Women 50+ Know, Think, Do & Buy.

I was raised in New Orleans by very strong women. My grandmother, Gladys Reily, was a substantial civic figure. In 1949, when she was 56, she was among the first women ever to win the Times-Picayune Loving Cup, an annual award from the local newspaper for the city’s most dedicated citizens. She helped reform electoral politics, started schools, launched public television, battled litter, and volunteered in her beloved New Orleans well into her 80s. She was always interested in what lay ahead and maintained friendships with many younger people as she grew older.

My mother, now 77, was widowed at 57. Since that time, she has gutted and renovated a house in the French Quarter, helped reform the corrupt state mental hospitals of Louisiana, nursed patients at a local AIDS hospice, and to this day feeds post-Katrina relief workers. She travels the world, sometimes with the men she dates; her best friend is a gay man her age; and she never forgets the birthday of one of her five children, three stepchildren, or 24 grandchildren. She is the woman most younger women hope to be when they get older.

Once you recognize the strength of individual women at this stage of life, you recognize the strength of all women at this stage of life. I’ve always known women over 50 could do anything, which is why I started Vibrant Nation.

How did you get to where you are now?

I graduated from Yale College, summa cum laude, and from Stanford Law School, after which I clerked for Justice John Paul Stevens of the U.S. Supreme Court. I live in Louisville, Kentucky, with my wife and three children.