Husband, Father and Sailor
Nick lives in Shorewood, Wisconsin with his wife Angela and their daughters Kate (15) and Elizabeth (12), all decorated sailors. The Hayes family campaign their B-32 sailboat Syrena out of the South Shore Yacht Club and sail together for fun as often as they can.

Advocate
Nick serves on the Board of Directors of the Milwaukee Community Sailing Center, chairing its Program Committee and teaching courses in crew development and advanced sail-trim. (Part of the proceeds from this book will go to help fund MSCS family sailing programs.) He is also active on the Youth Sailing Committee of the South Shore Yacht Club. He spent 4 years as a director and was the Fleet Captain of the Milwaukee Yacht Club.

Nick has studied sailing, sailors and sailing clubs for years, interviewing over 1,200 sailors worldwide since 2003 in preparation to write this book. He presented his research at the Sail America conference in 2008, was a keynote speaker at the 2008 International Sailing Summit (the ad-hoc development group of the International Sailing Federation), keynoted the industry breakfast at the 2009 Annapolis sail show, delivered the first keynote address at US Sailing’s 2010 NSPS (National Sail Programming Symposium), and he has talked with more than 6000 sailors on an extensive book tour since October 2009.

Researcher/Consultant/Writer
Nick is a partner at the consulting firm FiveTwelve Group where he helps businesses learn about markets, customers and value. Before that, Nick had a successful career as a business executive in technology. He has written for IndustryWeek, Biztimes, Control Magazine, and Manufacturing Week, The Journal of the American Marketing Association, Sailing Magazine, Sailing Anarchy, Sailing Scuttlebutt, Spinsheet Magazine and he blogs on business, media and politics on business and personal websites.