Zach joined the military a week after September 11th.  He filled out a Reserve Officer Training Corp (ROTC) application and enrolled at Duke University to study mechanical engineering. At the height of the Arab Spring, Zach was stationed in Djibouti, Africa, managing large-scale military construction projects. His other billets include serving as the Resident Officer in Charge of Construction and Assistant Public Works Officer at the Naval Station in Everett, WA.

After completing his military service, Zach enrolled in Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, where he interned with Bechtel as an Assistant Area Superintendent at the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System and as a Project Controls Engineer at a copper concentrator in the Atacama Desert of Northern Chile.