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AXIS Capital data analytics executive David Grant has made a hobby of collecting hobbies.
The 43-year-old vice president works remotely out of his South Glastonbury home for the global Bermuda-based insurance and reinsurance company, which has a Hartford office.
During the day, Grant plies his trade working for the company’s chief information officer of data and analytics, storing, preserving and analyzing the company’s data and making that information useful so it can lead to better products and decisions.
But, Grant — a married father of three young children — has another side to him. He enjoys hobbies, many of which faded over time.
At one point, Grant played guitar in a band. He’s also brewed beer and dabbled in lawn care and photography.
Those temporary hobbies soon made way for woodworking, something he discovered about three years ago while perusing the internet and YouTube.
He said it’s a keeper. The investment alone is steep. Grant has spent tens of thousands of dollars on woodworking tools and equipment.
His 5,240-square-foot colonial home is a testament to his woodworking hobby, which has become a passion.
He built the Adirondack chairs that sit on his side and back lawns. He’s built multiple puzzles, including a dinosaur puzzle made out of an African mahogany wood called sapele, and a Batman bandsaw box for his son.
His most coveted and recent work is a credenza, the cabinet-style furniture piece that he spent about 60 hours working on over a three-month period.
Pending projects include additional furniture and the long-awaited bunk beds for his young sons, ages 5 and 7. He works out of his two-car garage, which acts as a woodworking shop.
“When I’m tackling a project, it’s pretty much an obsession,” Grant said.
Grant, a former U.S. Marine Corps, has been with AXIS Capital for about eight months. He spent the previous 20 years working for property and casualty insurer Travelers Cos., including about seven years in London and 13 in Hartford.
His last position with Travelers was as assistant vice president of data products.
In his current role, Grant said he’s responsible for reporting to the chief information officer of data and analytics. About 100 of Axis’ 2,000 employees worldwide work in data and analytics; Grant directly oversees about 50 data engineers, half are full time AXIS employees and half are from the company's strategic sourcing partner, he said.
The Fitchburg, Massachusetts native grew up watching the television series, “The New Yankee Workshop,” and said he always enjoyed watching others make something from nothing.
“Fast forward about three years ago, and I’d be watching people [on YouTube] making stuff, whether it was woodworking, printing or welding,” he said. “They’d make really interesting things and, over time, I soon realized … that I knew all of the steps and could do this myself.”
Grant soon got busy. He said he’s completed about 20 woodworking projects to date; his goal is to do about six new ones a year.
With his wife Emily’s support, Grant invested more than $30,000 building out his shop and buying equipment, primarily tools — including a child-friendly scroll saw, drill press and table saw — that cost between $1,000 and $3,000 each.
Grant also spent $1,300 on walnut boards to make his Credenza. But, it’s often the woodworking projects for his children that give him the most satisfaction, he said.
Take the Batman bandsaw box as an example. A bandsaw can be used to cut curves and irregular shapes.
“After watching someone do a Batman bandsaw box, I actually felt I knew how to do it,” said Grant, who joked that he “stalks the internet on YouTube.”
“I was able, in the case of the Batman bandsaw box, to do intricate shapes and glue them back together to make it look like it was carved out of a piece of wood,” he said.
Grant said his two sons and young daughter enjoy watching him work, but that also created safety concerns. Addressing the issue was an expensive but necessary proposition, he said.
“They come out in the shop with me a lot, but there were issues of dust control and noise,” Grant said. “There are a few devices that are just so loud.”
He spent $600 on a quiet air compressor and about $3,000 on a dust collector to make the garage kid-friendly, he said.
Grant said woodworking is the first hobby he sees doing decades down the road, including after he’s retired.
“There is an endless list of things I want to work on,” he said. “I see this, ideally, as something I would continue doing after I retire. I want to do woodworking for the rest of my life.”
Vice President, Business Intelligence Center of Excellence
Education: Bachelor’s degree in computer science, University of Massachusetts, Amherst; MBA, UConn
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