Jose was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. Motivated by a desire to escape the cold, Jose headed to Arizona State University, where he earned a BA in Business and Mass Communications. He was the first in his family to earn a college degree, a milestone that made the whole family proud. 

After a year & a half back in Chicago, Jose moved to San Diego and took a position with Farmers Insurance handling liability and bodily injury claims. A year later, he moved into the Marketing Department, helping district managers and agents grow their customer bases. Then the 2007 San Diego wildfires changed everything. The disaster brought an influx of catastrophe adjusters into the region, and Jose found himself working extensively with those teams at all the evacuation sites. He liked what he saw and seized the opportunity when Farmers offered him a role in catastrophe property claims.

For the next 18 months, Jose lived out of a suitcase, traveling for 21 days at a stretch, taking a week off, and heading right back out. He used the lifestyle strategically. With almost no fixed expenses beyond a storage unit and a cell phone bill, he cleared his debt and built up savings. It was productive, but it was also exhausting. When he finally burned out on catastrophic claims, he returned to the San Diego branch to work as a Property Claims Adjuster for two years. After six and a half years at Farmers total, Jose was ready for something entirely different.

Jose launched a clothing company which specialized in funny and, by Jose's own description, inappropriate t-shirts sold online. He spent a year dipping into his savings to develop and market the brand. By his own admission, the business plan was terrible, and it was not a sustainable brand.  But the company did help lead him to another chapter of his career.

Jose decided to celebrate his 30^th birthday in New Orleans.  One of his friends reached out to a Fireball Whisky representative hoping to score some freebies to make the trip extra special. The company sent a care package (shirts, flasks, minis, beads, the works…) and Jose sent a thank you email. That follow up and connection to the San Diego market landed him a job. For eight months he served as a Brand Ambassador for the San Diego area, then spent another year as Regional Engagement Manager covering California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, and Hawaii. His assignment: go to bars, connect with patrons, find a reason to celebrate, and buy a round of Fireball shots. He would invite a few people to join him at the next bar and turn it into a pub crawl. At no point was he to reveal that he worked for Fireball. The gig did not pay well, but it covered travel across the west coast and Hawaii and organically eliminated one of his biggest personal expenses: alcohol. Unfortunately, the lifestyle was not sustainable, and Jose eventually had to move on.

Jose interviewed with several insurance carriers before landing a Property Claims Adjuster role at Nationwide in the San Fernando Valley. Two years later, burned out on property claims once more, a network connection led him to BluSky Restoration Contractors*, where he has now been for ten years. BluSky provides commercial restoration services following fire, flood, storm, and structural damage. Jose works as a Regional Business Development Manager, focusing on multifamily, commercial, broker, and insurance relationships. When BluSky acquired HARBRO in 2020, the expanded network and capacity allowed Jose to focus exclusively on insurance and support offices throughout Southern California.

Jose and his wife, Cortney, have two boys: Kaleo (6 years old) and Kash (4 years old). With the change in priorities of a growing family, Jose put his entrepreneurial instincts to better use. A deep dive into real estate investment podcasts led to action: he purchased a 7-unit multi-family property in Des Moines, Iowa when Kaleo was 3-months old.  He renovated it, rented it out to 100% occupancy, refinanced, and rolled the capital into a 15-unit building. When Kash was 3-months old, Jose purchased an 8-unit. Then, with business partners and investors, he acquired a 74-unit complex. His long term goal is to have a 100+ unit generational asset to pass along to his kids.

Jose joined the SD RIMS Golf Committee this year and has fully embraced the role. He loves being part of the RIMS community, especially the networking. He is genuinely curious about how people find their way into the industry, knowing that almost no one had "insurance" on their original career bingo card. He loves asking that question, learning each person's path, and hearing what lights them up about the work. Given his own winding road from Fireball shots to restoration claims, Jose understands better than most that careers rarely go according to plan, and that the detours often make the best stories.

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* BluSky Restoration Contractors, headquartered in Centennial, Colorado, is one of the largest commercial restoration companies in the United States. BluSky provides emergency, restoration, renovation, and environmental services following property damage caused by water, fire, smoke, mold, storms, and other disasters.