Lucas Pieper

Background

About Lucas Pieper

When you're in your teens, and planning for life, you use some specific words. Path. Course. Track. Route. Direction. Hold to the straight and narrow, don’t cut any corners! However, my path through life always looked far more like one of Billy’s trails through a Family Circus comic.I started out planning to be a Negotiator for the FBI. I talked with recruiters, I took Psychology and Criminal Justice courses. I thought I had my path, but things diverted. I had been volunteering at the YMCA, working with at-risk kids, and I decided it was my new course. My first job after college was in a Preschool, teaching 3 year-olds. I was there for four years and enjoyed every day. I learned some handy lessons for later in life. Patience. Persistence. Training. Disaster Recovery! Most importantly, I saw the results of my efforts. Students came in as two-year-old kids and left as four-year-old people. My next job was retail sales. In a home improvement store. I spent five years there. I climbed the ladder into management, traveled the US, and trained in a Forbes 50 environment. I learned to be a leader. To organize personalities, not bodies. To focus on efficiency of work and quality of service. To find the root problem and apply the right solution. To focus on benefits to the user, not features of the product. It was then that I went back to school. I'd always been a computer geek and figured I.T. might be a good fit. The program I attended allowed me to get industry certifications, and helped me to find a career, not a job. My career kicked off at an MSP in Kansas City. My first position was as a field tech, replacing old Windows XP machines, and over my 8 years there, I moved thru multiple positions, Service Desk, Projects, Operations, and eventually Service Manager. I had found a role that let me hone my new computer skills, and flex my soft skills in customer service and leadership. I worked with Doctors, Lawyers, Entrepreneurs and Board Members, and learned the art of mediation and conciliation. During this time I met my wife. We bought a house, and had a child. My priorities were already shifting, and then 2020 hit. It was a trying and life altering period for many, filled with the pain and uncertainty of the pandemic, and social unrest. For us, it sparked a focus on family, and on community. We began searching for the next step. The path thru the summer of 2021 included a new job, a 200 mile move, and a new baby. Hopefully, headed towards being closer to family, and more involved in our community.