Michael Blimes:  

Life I have been a fundraising, marketing, and strategic management professional since 1972. From 1983 to 2006, I was a consultant with my own firm, The MIDAS Consulting Group, Inc., based in Denver. In 2006, I was named vice president for development of the American Humane Association, also based in Denver, which has been protecting children and animals form abuse and neglect since 1877. I served in that capacity until 2010. I was married 21 years before divorcing in 1992. My three children are now grown and on their own after I raised them as a single parent with 100% custodial role since the youngest was nine years old. I remarried in December 2009, after being divorced nearly 19 years and am enjoying married life with Karla Teresa, my Princess Bride. I worked my way through college, in part, as a professional clown, became a gymnast and cheerleader at Ohio State for three years, serving as co-captain of the cheerleading squad my senior year, earning my "Varsity O" award for athletics. I then graduated into a brief career as a newspaper reporter and editor before getting into fundraising as a staff member at the Ohio State University Development Fund. I studied interdisciplinary communications in grad school at Ohio State and international marketing at American Graduate School of International Management (Thunderbird) in the Phoenix metropolitan area. I have toured the British Isles, visited British Columbia, Canada, Mexico, Austria, and Switzerland. The latter two countries were visited when I served as vice president and chief operating officer of a New York City-based arms-control think tank in the early '80s. I love the mountains, the desert, the ocean, cooking, movies (at home and the theaters), a wide range of music, cultural events, museums, dancing, fine books, and travel, but also evening walks and quiet moments to balance the busy...Expand for more