age

33

born in 1991

Transylvania, Romania

Professional

Senior Marketer
Open for Work

Previously:
CMO @ Kabuki Strength
VPM @ Altis AI
Tech @ Nike
QA @ Corvel Corp

areas of work

Digital Marketing
Ecommerce
MarTech
Branding
Product Development
Data
QA
Paid Media
Strategic Social
Content Development
Copywriting
Creative Thinking
Leadership

previous Vocations

Director of Marketing & Tech
Senior Software QA Engineer
SRE/Config Engineering
Systems Administrator
Luxury Hotel Valet
Parking Lot Flagger
HVAC Installer
Waiter & Bus Boy

aspiring

Father
Husband
Man of Virtue
Business Owner
Strongman

sharing knowledge in

Socratic Thinking
Technical Proficiency
How to Use AI
Movement as Medicine
Strength Sports

PASSIONATE ABOUT

God
Country
Family
My Cats
Wisdom
Strength
People
Knowledge

The following is a brief narrative biography written partly in the 3rd person, with links for added context. For those interested in the more professional stuff - please request the CV. I’m also on the ‘gram and LinkedIn.

Andrei was born in the beautiful historical Transylvanian-Saxon city of Sibiu (Hermannstadt) a year after the fall of communism in Romania. He was left fatherless at 3 months old and raised by his mother, the bravest woman he's ever known. In 1998 by mere luck and through a lottery, Andrei and his mom were selected by the Diversity Immigrant Visa program and received an invitation to start a new life in the United States. Luci soon sold her car, apartment, and left her family and nursing career to move to a foreign country with her 7 year old son. She did this only so he could have a better life, and to this day it is the single greatest act of love and sacrifice he has ever experienced. 

Andrei learned English in 3 months by watching cartoons and reading books about planes, ships, computers, and Michael Jordan. He attended high school in the Portland area and studied Philosophy at Portland State University. Having held an assortment of jobs from age 13 - from bus boy, to valet, to HVAC tech, to computer repair wizard - Andrei settled into his first career role as an junior QA engineer at a national big-data healthcare company while he was in college. This unique cerebral-mishmash of studying academic philosophy and practical work in a “thinking” job created a QA monster. Andrei quickly became the senior-most test engineer and a central part of the software development lifecycle at Corvel, working on complex, enterprise-level projects and consulting with executive teams on high priority or critical code changes.

Around the same time as my QA career was developing, I started training as an amateur strength athlete at a local gym, Elite Performance Center, or more recently known as Kabuki Strength Lab. Here I developed friendships with the owners, working with them on several projects - from brand/product development, market research, to a successful subscription-based portal (Drupal anyone?) for housing strength education videos (before it was a thing). It is in this environment that my curiosities, passions, and skills started to mix and develop into a serious career trajectory.

In 2015, I was invited by the two owners of Kabuki, Rudy Kadlub & Chris Duffin, to leave my technology career and join the newly formed startup as a founding employee and head of marketing. I accepted the position and was motivated to take on the daunting challenge of building a brand from the ground up. Here I found the freedom to work independently and apply newly-earned skills and creativity in an industry I was deeply passionate about - strength and performance sports. During my first years at the company I implemented a social-first, owned media strategy focusing on value-added educational content as a primary growth strategy. Thanks to the diligent work of my incredible team, the gears of a novel brand-building machine that today reaches 10s of millions of people started turning, slowly, and then very quickly. It is here, during a decade of work and fun that I found my professional calling as a senior marketing leader, operator, and strategist. To learn more about my professional work in this role, please request the CV.

Kabuki Strength is a vertically-integrated company that design-engineers and manufactures innovative specialty barbells, strength equipment, educational content, and provides coaching and resources to athletes and beginners alike. In my strategic role, I was responsible for the growth of the business - from branding, comms, PR, bizdev, marketing, creative, to the development of free and paywalled original content like Kabuki EDU+, “the netflix of strength & fitness”. Kabuki Strength’s mission is "to make the world a better place through strength” through four core pillars: Education, Equipment, Coaching, and Charity. Beyond all the business success over the years, I am most proud of my work with the philanthropic arm of the business that partnered with charities to raise money and awareness for important, life-changing causes. So far, Kabuki Strength has had the privilege of working with the HomeBuilders Foundation of Metro Portland, Special Olympics Oregon, Alex’s Lemonade Stand (children’s cancer research), Specialty Athletic Training (physical training for individuals with mental disabilities), Doernbechers Children’s Hospital, and several incredible organizations that care for veterans and the homeless.

I greatly enjoyed my time (2016-2024) as the Chief Marketing Officer for an institutional juggernaut pushing the strength & performance industry forward with massive organic reach and impact on countless people pursuing a better life through strength. Learn more about Kabuki Strength’s why here.

On a more personal note, I am madly in love with Christina, a talented Physician Assistant and the most compassionate, graceful, and beautiful woman on the face of this planet. I am so lucky to call her my wife and best friend.

Together, we live near the river bank of the beautiful Willamette River in Portland, Oregon together with our three cats - Theadora, Frankie, and Mittens (rest in peace sweet angel cat).