Todd graduated from the University of Missouri where he earned a degree in Business Administration and Marketing. He moved to Minneapolis where he worked in the building materials industry before earning his first sales position at Herman Miller. He left briefly to take a national sales position but quickly returned to serve at in local dealership roles as General Manager and then President before being recruited by the corporation to lead Customer Centers and Distribution for North America. He moved back to St. Louis to run his father-in-law’s manufacturing business and left there to work as COO for retailer, Artmart, for the past 12 years.
AM What drew you to Color Art?
TN I would say mostly the people. I knew that a lot of the good, quality people I’d worked with in the past were here so that spoke volumes to me about the culture. I also liked all the integrated capabilities that Color Art offers. I’ve never had access to all of this under one roof. To be able to talk to a customer about taking their space from A-Z is a pretty powerful story.
AM If you were ever to receive a Grammy, who would you thank in your acceptance speech?
TN God would be #1 because, right, that’s my top priority. And then I would say my parents my wife, Diane, and our daughters, Morgan and Abby, for always being so supportive of me.
AM If you didn’t sleep what would you do with the extra time?
TN (laughs) I’d return all my emails!
AM Any jobs you feel like you’d be terrible at?
TN Oh my gosh. So many, but probably the worst would be if I had to do any rote activity over and over, in the same setting, I would not do well.
AM Do you remember the name and type of your first pet for your kids? Are you guys big pet people? TN Oh yeah, my wife has always been into animals so we were always big dog people before kids came along. She also loves rabbits so we had a couple of those. Once we had kids and they were old enough to know what was going on we introduced a dog into the process. AM What was his name? TN Simon. He was a collie / shepherd mix that we rescued. They told us he was only supposed to be about 60 pounds but he ended up weighing more than 100. (laughs)
AM What’s the best way to start your day?
TN Just quiet time. Reading scripture. That’s what I do. Then a good work out.
AM What would you have as your last meal?
TN Oh that’s easy. A cheeseburger and fries. AM From any specific spot? TN No. People ask me all the time but I’ll go anywhere. I’ve never met a bad burger AM Ok so what’s ON your burger? TN Swiss cheese, bacon and an egg of course. Right on top.
AM What’s the first question you’d ask after being frozen for 100 years.
TN What happened?
AM What do you enjoy learning about?
TN I’m always looking to gain more wisdom by reading scripture. I also read a lot about historical figures. I’m fascinated by people who were able to have a big impact without the aid of modern technology.
TODDS FAVORITES
Sports Team Cardinals, Royals – ‘cause I’m from Kansas City. The Chiefs would be up there and Baylor since my daughter went there
Superhero Superman
Movie Oh that’s easy. It’s a Wonderful Life with Jimmy Stewart.
Holiday Christmas
Dessert (exhales deeply) Andy’s custard. I get the Snow Monster with strawberries, chocolate chip sometimes I throw bananas in there. It’s amazing.
Pineapple on your pizza? Sure. I can do that. I like that one with Canadian bacon and pineapple.
St. Louis Destination I really like pretty much anything in Forest Park. If somebody comes to town I’m taking them to Forest Park. It’s cool.