Chip is a native of the South Carolina lowcountry. He grew up on a working plantation and spent most of his youth hunting and fishing on the plantations and marshes of the ACE Basin and Santee Delta. Chip attended the University of South Carolina where he received degrees in Accounting and Investment Finance. He followed graduation with summer study at the London School of Economics before joining an international risk management firm as an analyst.
Deciding to make a move out west, Chip established a home base in Jackson, Wyoming. There, his love of the lifestyle from fly fishing to elk hunting evolved into a 5-year career as a professional hunting and fishing guide. Chip guided trophy whitetail and waterfowl hunts in Central Kansas for Cabela's endorsed K&K Outfitters successfully guiding clients on many Boone and Crockett whitetails. After the season in Kansas, he would head to the duck hunting capital of the world in Stuttgart, Arkansas to guide at the prestigious Cypress Island Lodge. For the rest of the year, Chip traveled the sport fishing tournament circuit in Maryland and the Carolinas, the Caribbean, Costa Rica, and Panama.
Developing an appreciation for the highest quality recreational properties and an understanding of the requirements to create and maintain such exceptional properties led Chip to pursue a Masters in Forest Resources from Clemson University. With a grant from Nemours Plantation Wildlife Foundation in the ACE Basin, he researched the seasonal effects of prescribed fire on plant communities and forage in coastal plain pine savannas. This project explored the feasibility of using cattle grazing as a vegetation management tool and a revenue stream for quail plantations and large tract landowners in the southeastern coastal plain. After Clemson, Chip began forestry and wildlife consulting and land sales for Private Land Management, LLC based in Bluffton, South Carolina, and in 2023, joined the Jon Kohler & Associates team.
Chip currently resides in Charleston and enjoys the sporting life that the South Carolina lowcountry offers. A dedicated turkey hunter, he is three-quarters of the way to completing the US Super Slam of harvesting a turkey in all 49 states that have a hunting season.
