Employee Spotlight: Aaron Ehlers
Welcome to our Employee Spotlight blog series, which features Q&A’s from Rook employees as a fun way for you to get to know our team.
Name: Aaron Ehlers
Title: Director of Client Services
Time at Rook: 1 year and 2 months
Current City: Westfield, IN
Hometown: Columbus, OH
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/pub/aaron-s-ehlers-pmp/51/60b/623
Before working at Rook Security, what was the most unusual or interesting job you’ve ever had?
I’ve had several jobs that would probably qualify as a good response to this question. However, THE most unusual job that I’ve had was a boat lift repair person back in my teenage years. The job itself involved lots of interesting tasks that didn’t always revolve around boat lifts. My most memorable task was using Chromatic Acid to clean the bottoms of boats prior to them being stored for the winter (this removed the algae, etc.). No one had told me what we were spraying on the boats and only when I looked down and my long sleeves had holes all over them did I ask. Not fun.
What is your family like?
I’ve been married to my incredible wife Jen for over 14 years now. We have 4 kids (yes 4): Luke just turned 9, Nathan is almost 7, Jacob is 3 ½, and Claire just turned 1. We also just adopted a 1 year old chocolate/black lab mix who is every bit as hyper and needy as my human kids are. To say that there isn’t ever a dull moment in our house would be understating it quite a bit…
What TV show/movie are you ashamed to admit you love?
I wouldn’t necessarily say that I’m ashamed to admit it, but lately I’ve been watching a lot of ‘The West Wing’. I didn’t watch it at all when it was originally on, but it’s a really great show! It makes me feel like I missed my calling as a White House ‘Staffer’. Plus, Netflix has all of the episodes (over 150!) that you can binge watch if that’s your thing.
If you could witness any historical event, what would you want to see?
I’d flash forward to the year 2200, which I (obviously) won’t live to see. I’d love to see how far technology will have brought us up to that point in time. I’d be willing to bet that the technology that we’ll have around then would seem like magic to us now similarly to how our technology today would appear to people who lived even 200 years ago, but more so. Who knows, maybe they’ll even have a material that repels algae, which can be used for the bottoms of boats.
If you had to eat one meal, every day for the rest of your life, what would it be?
I’d be happy eating a thick medium rare steak with a baked potato for the rest of my life if I could. A close second would be fried chicken. My body is a temple… :)
Do you have any hidden talents?
“Talents” might be a bit generous, but I know a bit of magic [read enough to entertain younger children for ~5 minutes]. I’m also trained in the ways of pizza dough tossing, which I learned in my teenage years after working for a national pizza chain. Note that this job was a lot more enjoyable than the boat lift repair job and also much less damaging to my sleeves.
What is an ability you wish you had?
I wish I had more natural talent when it came to art and music. While these skills never really interested me while growing up, as I’ve gotten older, I’ve grown to appreciate the talent that it takes to create these types things. That said, I’m so left brain dominant that I don’t feel that there’s really any hope that I’ll ever be even decent let alone considered “good” at either of these things.
If you were an animal, what would you be?
A Liger. “It’s pretty much my favorite animal. It’s like a lion and a tiger mixed… bred for its skills in magic.” -Napoleon Dynamite
What is the first thing you would buy if you won the lottery?
I’d pay off my mortgage as well as the mortgages of the rest of my immediate family including my in-laws. After that, I might buy a vacation home somewhere in the New England or Pacific NW area. In turn, my wife would want to buy a place somewhere tropical where we could vacation as well.
What did you want to be when growing up?
I can vividly remember being a young kid and thinking that it would be really cool to be a stunt man. While I still think it would be exciting, my fear of heights, fire, explosions, fast cars, piranhas, sharks, and anything else that’s dangerous would probably prevent me from ever making a career change at this point.
