About Khary
Executive. Speaker. Advocate.
Nearly 30 years building companies, leading teams, and showing up for the work that matters. From the job site to the convention stage.
Nearly 30 years building companies, leading teams, and showing up for the work that matters. From the job site to the convention stage.
My mother died by suicide with a gun when I was 20 months old. For 36 years I didn't talk about it. When I finally did, everything changed.
That silence ran through everything. How I led. How I built businesses. How I showed up when things got hard. I carried it through a career that went from rooftops to boardrooms.
I founded Penebaker Enterprises in 2002, a commercial roofing and sheet metal company I grew to $15 million with 50 employees before it closed. From there I joined Metal-Era as Director of Product Management and then Director of Strategic Business Development, where I took their Roof Edge Systems line from $350K to $1.5 million. Then I became President of Roofed Right America and grew it from $6 million to over $35 million with 180 people across five states.
Breaking my silence about my mother Joyce opened a door I didn't know was there. A congressional run. Two speeches at the Democratic National Convention. A personal essay in TIME Magazine. Years of advocacy with Everytown for Gun Safety. None of it was part of a plan.
I'm now Regional General Manager at Great Day Improvements, overseeing four markets in the Upper Midwest. I speak to audiences about leadership, resilience, and what it takes to build something from nothing.
With my mother Joyce, 1978
Freshman year, Cincinnati
College track, late 1990s
Modeling days, early 2000s
Penebaker Enterprises days
Waukesha, WI
Presidential ballot
Vice Presidential ballot
These aren't corporate talking points. They're lessons from building companies, losing people, running for office, and showing up every day for something bigger than a quarterly number.
With Anne
Born in Cincinnati, grew up in Milwaukee, live in Waukesha now. Three kids: Josie, Kyan, and Sydney. Getting married to Anne Kirschling this November.
Life outside work is not really outside work. It's just a different kind of busy. Someone always needs something, and honestly that's fine. I bring the same focus to a Saturday with my kids that I bring to anything else.
Keynotes on leadership, resilience, and gun violence prevention. Standing ovations, not polite applause.
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