After 15 years working in derivatives trading, a personal project to learn more about hockey strategy snowballed into Jeff Everson ʼ06 writing and publishing his first novel, “The Glue Guy.” When not trading, Jeff can be found bringing the fandom honed in Blake spirit to Vegas Golden Knights games or on one of Las Vegas's many golf courses. 

Q: What is your proudest achievement?
A: Publishing the novel, bar none. The project was a happy accident rooted in trying to learn more about the strategy and technical nuances of the game of hockey (always been a huge fan, but never played it competitively). Eventually, this provided an unanticipated backbone to some narrative concepts I had in my mind already, and a story came together. It started out a short story, and then I just kept building it out to what ultimately became a 370-page novel. 

It's my proudest accomplishment, not just because I completed something way outside my comfort zone or because I think I told a good story. I’m truly proud of the message—a celebration of teamwork, leadership and the unseen labor that holds the world together.

Q: What did you want to be when you were small?
A: A Major League Baseball general manager. Then I realized it's mathematically over three times easier to become a senator, so I shifted gears into finance. Both have the same overlaps of data-driven decisions while needing to understand the human element to truly succeed.

Q: What piece of advice would you give your 16-year-old self?
A: Time, life and experiences go by really quickly. People will come in and out of your life, and that's okay. Just make sure you appreciate those relationships and all you get to experience with them while you're living in it. The dumbest, smallest things will actually be deeply nostalgic one day. And, since I'd be giving this advice to myself in 2003, buy Apple stock.

Q: What are the top three items on your bucket list?
A: See a game at every Major League Baseball stadium (currently the counter is at 19 ballparks), meet a sitting U.S. president and shoot a hole-in-one.

Q: When was the last time you were nervous?
A: A career of trading financial derivatives has certainly dulled my ability to truly be nervous. But hitting “Publish” on Amazon to make “The Glue Guy” commercially available was definitely a gut check. I had mostly sent the draft copies to the safer bubble of close friends and family, so having it go to the world, which can be much harsher, was definitely a nervy moment. Fortunately, feedback has been overwhelmingly positive and kind thus far, so I'm hoping to keep riding those vibes. But the release day was about as nervous as I can get to click a button on a mouse.

Q: What do you miss most about being a kid?
A: Being able to be around your friends every day. In school and then college, you're constantly surrounded by your “pack.” It was extra special at Blake, being a small environment where I kind of knew everyone, and there were so many cool, smart people. Then everyone gets careers and moves all around the world, and it’s keeping up with texts and maybe getting together once a year. I truly miss that daily, consistent connection to the great friends I’ve made over the years.

Q: If you are outside, what are you most likely doing?
A: I picked up golf two years ago, and despite being objectively not good at it, a bad day on the golf course is better than most good days anywhere else. Vegas also has some great public courses with really good deals for locals, so I try to get out on them as much as I can.

Q: What’s your dream job?
A: I was at a bar once for the first day of March Madness, and they asked me to run their TVs to get the best games front and center in exchange for a free food and drink tab all day. I would have done it for free, so I won that negotiation, but I'd make that a career if it paid real money.

Q: What book has influenced you greatly? How?
A: "The Art of Fielding" by Chad Harbach was a direct inspiration for my own novel. It's a story about relationships, self-esteem and identity wrapped in a story about a Division 3 baseball team, and I took the concept of that novel (with different themes) and tried to wrap it through the sport of hockey.

Q: I was once mistaken for…
A: At least once a month I'm told I look like Seth Rogen, but one time in a Vegas casino these two guys would not be talked out of the fact that I am not actually the actor until I literally showed them my driver's license. It probably did not help that Drew Percival ʼ06, who is 6'9" and was wearing all black so he looked like private security, was with me. I learned that night that it is actually very hard to prove the negative that you are NOT someone.