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Ernie and Cindy
Biography
Ernie Halvorsen
Age: 29
Hometown: Chicago
Connection to your teammate: Engaged
Current occupation: Project Manager
Describe what you do: I project manage new printing press installations for commercial and sheet fed printers in North America. I bring the sold contract to life by integrating project team members from design, manufacturing and installation, all while being the single point of contact for my customer.
How will these skills help you win The Race? I frequently delegate tasks and have the ability to optimize work by utilizing a person’s skill sets. The majority of my job is dealing with time-critical, problem solving tasks that require urgent responses and decisions.
Three words to describe you: Loyal, comical and energetic.
Favorite hobbies: Traveling, no glove 16” softball, graphic design and origami.
What famous person reminds you of yourself? Ty Pennington
What famous person reminds you of your teammate? Lucy Liu
What is the accomplishment you are most proud of? I moved to Germany by myself and lived for a year without ever traveling outside of the U.S. prior and without having any knowledge of the local language. I even joined a German baseball team and made some lifelong friendships.
What scares you most about traveling? Lawless regions where foreigners are not highly regarded.
What excites you most about traveling? Interacting with people and cultures different from my own. Also, getting to experience different sights, smells and tastes that you cannot reproduce outside of the specific country.
Biggest challenge you and your teammate will face on The Race together: I have a roundabout way of explaining my point and my direction can be vague.
Pet peeve about your teammate: Planning – Cindy loves to plan every aspect of our lives and sometimes it can be overwhelming.
What country and place would you most like to visit and why? DPRK/North Korea because so much is unknown about it. I’ve seen videos of the Arirang, which is a great gymnastics and performance display by more than 100,000 North Koreans. I feel this would be an incredible culture shock that I want to see and understand.
What do you hope to accomplish by running The Race (other then winning one million bucks)? I want to share this once in a lifetime experience of The Race with my fiancé. If we do win, we will have a nice footing to start our social business venture that will be intertwined with the needs that we see around the world.
Cindy Chiang
Age: 30
Hometown: Chicago
Connection to your teammate: Engaged
Current occupation: Brand Manager
Describe what you do: I lead a cross-functional brand team. This includes everything from brand strategy, new products, team development, financial management to sales and marketing.
How will these skills help you win The Race? Through my corporate job, I have been faced with challenging adversity, taking calculated risks and making quick informed decisions. My job is also highly competitive and you must have a strong desire to win with solid performance. All of these skills are vital to winning The Race and I’m confident I can bring it to win it.
Three words to describe you: Determined, dedicated and passionate.
Favorite hobbies: Exercising, cooking and planning. I like to plan anything and everything.
What famous person reminds you of yourself? I’m told that I’m a replica of Lucy Liu, but I would like to be similar to Lauren Conrad from “The Hills.” She is very entrepreneurial, highly accomplished, likeable and friendly.
What famous person reminds you of your teammate? Zach Morris from “Saved By The Bell.” Ernie loves to be the center of the action and he’s a big jokester.
What is the accomplishment you are most proud of? I was crowned Homecoming Queen at my undergraduate university.
What scares you most about traveling? Lack of control – I’m gluten-free and it can often be a challenge to find suitable foods in new locations, especially places where there’s a language barrier.
What excites you most about traveling? I love meeting local people and understanding more about their culture and daily rituals. I find it fascinating that we are all humans, but have very different ways of living a happy life.
Biggest challenge you and your teammate will face on The Race together: Ernie needs to be more direct with me. He is so easy going that he goes along with what I want, but I don’t know if that’s really what he wants.
Pet peeve about your teammate: He’s a really happy-go-lucky person with a positive attitude and outlook on life, but for some crazy reason he always gives me some round-about answer to any of my questions.
What country and place would you most like to visit and why? India! I love the rich culture and history of India. I would love to see the Taj Mahal, explore the ‘triangle’ and see the white sandy beaches of Goa.
What do you hope to accomplish by running The Race (other then winning one million bucks)? I hope we will learn a lot about each other through this process. Our goal is to become entrepreneurs together and The Race will give us a solid opportunity to test our working relationship and see if we can actually work together.
Age: 29
Hometown: Chicago
Connection to your teammate: Engaged
Current occupation: Project Manager
Describe what you do: I project manage new printing press installations for commercial and sheet fed printers in North America. I bring the sold contract to life by integrating project team members from design, manufacturing and installation, all while being the single point of contact for my customer.
How will these skills help you win The Race? I frequently delegate tasks and have the ability to optimize work by utilizing a person’s skill sets. The majority of my job is dealing with time-critical, problem solving tasks that require urgent responses and decisions.
Three words to describe you: Loyal, comical and energetic.
Favorite hobbies: Traveling, no glove 16” softball, graphic design and origami.
What famous person reminds you of yourself? Ty Pennington
What famous person reminds you of your teammate? Lucy Liu
What is the accomplishment you are most proud of? I moved to Germany by myself and lived for a year without ever traveling outside of the U.S. prior and without having any knowledge of the local language. I even joined a German baseball team and made some lifelong friendships.
What scares you most about traveling? Lawless regions where foreigners are not highly regarded.
What excites you most about traveling? Interacting with people and cultures different from my own. Also, getting to experience different sights, smells and tastes that you cannot reproduce outside of the specific country.
Biggest challenge you and your teammate will face on The Race together: I have a roundabout way of explaining my point and my direction can be vague.
Pet peeve about your teammate: Planning – Cindy loves to plan every aspect of our lives and sometimes it can be overwhelming.
What country and place would you most like to visit and why? DPRK/North Korea because so much is unknown about it. I’ve seen videos of the Arirang, which is a great gymnastics and performance display by more than 100,000 North Koreans. I feel this would be an incredible culture shock that I want to see and understand.
What do you hope to accomplish by running The Race (other then winning one million bucks)? I want to share this once in a lifetime experience of The Race with my fiancé. If we do win, we will have a nice footing to start our social business venture that will be intertwined with the needs that we see around the world.
Cindy Chiang
Age: 30
Hometown: Chicago
Connection to your teammate: Engaged
Current occupation: Brand Manager
Describe what you do: I lead a cross-functional brand team. This includes everything from brand strategy, new products, team development, financial management to sales and marketing.
How will these skills help you win The Race? Through my corporate job, I have been faced with challenging adversity, taking calculated risks and making quick informed decisions. My job is also highly competitive and you must have a strong desire to win with solid performance. All of these skills are vital to winning The Race and I’m confident I can bring it to win it.
Three words to describe you: Determined, dedicated and passionate.
Favorite hobbies: Exercising, cooking and planning. I like to plan anything and everything.
What famous person reminds you of yourself? I’m told that I’m a replica of Lucy Liu, but I would like to be similar to Lauren Conrad from “The Hills.” She is very entrepreneurial, highly accomplished, likeable and friendly.
What famous person reminds you of your teammate? Zach Morris from “Saved By The Bell.” Ernie loves to be the center of the action and he’s a big jokester.
What is the accomplishment you are most proud of? I was crowned Homecoming Queen at my undergraduate university.
What scares you most about traveling? Lack of control – I’m gluten-free and it can often be a challenge to find suitable foods in new locations, especially places where there’s a language barrier.
What excites you most about traveling? I love meeting local people and understanding more about their culture and daily rituals. I find it fascinating that we are all humans, but have very different ways of living a happy life.
Biggest challenge you and your teammate will face on The Race together: Ernie needs to be more direct with me. He is so easy going that he goes along with what I want, but I don’t know if that’s really what he wants.
Pet peeve about your teammate: He’s a really happy-go-lucky person with a positive attitude and outlook on life, but for some crazy reason he always gives me some round-about answer to any of my questions.
What country and place would you most like to visit and why? India! I love the rich culture and history of India. I would love to see the Taj Mahal, explore the ‘triangle’ and see the white sandy beaches of Goa.
What do you hope to accomplish by running The Race (other then winning one million bucks)? I hope we will learn a lot about each other through this process. Our goal is to become entrepreneurs together and The Race will give us a solid opportunity to test our working relationship and see if we can actually work together.
