Who I am

​

 

I grew up in New York City.  I lived there for 30 years.  I attended  Brooks School in North Andover Massachusetts for high school.  I graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, NY.   

 

In 1994 I moved from the northeast to Tennessee to work on an EPA funded technology using plants and organic microbes to breakdown toxic sludges in a Super Fund site near downtown Chattanooga.   This was a four year R&D grant.  At the time I was working for Ocean Arks International based in Falmouth, Massachusetts.  

 

With the exception of a brief 2 year stint in Dublin Ireland where I received a Masters Degree in Environmental Science from Trinity College, I have lived in Chattanooga nearly 23 years! Chattanooga is notorious for transitioning from one of the dirtiest cities in America in the 1970s to recently voted the Best City in America by Outside magazine in 2015!  

 

I am a proud a father of three sons, and husband to a magnificent woman from Chattanooga.

 

I currently live in a historic home in downtown Chattanooga, Tennessee, built in 1897, and once home to Chattanooga Mayor TC Thompson.

 

I am a musician, a writer, a pilot, a runner, a past and current Board member to a number of fantastic non profit organizations.

 

I am a licensed real estate agent and a serial entrepreneur, having started, owned and operated a number of properties and small businesses over three decades.  

 

For the past 20 years, I've focused a majority of my time in the environmental science and technology fields in both the profit and non-profit sectors. I have experience in business creation and development, fund raising, analysis, executive management, corporate governance, and consulting. 

​

I currently own a local real estate services company - the O'Neil Team, and I am also  Managing Partner at Consensus Energy. CE is an environmental services company located in Atlanta, Georgia that designs, installs, maintains, and finances retrofit and upgrade projects to improve the energy efficiency of commercial buildings and facilities. 

 

With an eye towards sustainable design, energy efficiency and costs control I can help clients identify and improve areas of inefficiency in commercial buildings and industrial sites as well as locate and negotiate the purchase or sale of fine residential homes throughout Chattanooga. 

​

Why I do what I do

 

I am -- at heart -- a nature lover.  I've hunted in the woods of south Georgia, hiked the deserts of Texas and New Mexico, climbed mountain peaks of Wyoming, skied wilderness areas of Colorado and Utah, snorkeled through coral reefs of the Galapagos, biked the San Juan islands of Washington, swam off the beaches of Connemara and been lost in the soupy fog in a small boat in the choppy waters of Fishers Island....to name a few.  Looking back on these experiences, I can honestly say they have defined who I am.

 

I am also addicted to a good business deal.  I take honest satisfaction assembling projects that make sense, economically, politically and environmentally.  Over the years, I developed a way to make a living and better the planet.  I do this work because it feels right.  It is right.  We can step much more lightly on the Earth while making a profit at the same time.

​

What I can do for you

 

After almost 25 years in the environmental field and as a leader in organizational management, I am able to efficiently define project needs, identify the necessary resources, execute implementation and quantify the results.  I have years of field experience in identifying valuable real estate, helping clients negotiate purchases and sales, as well technical work in various energy and water projects and environments around the country.