Wade McDonald attended Lecanto High School in Citrus County, earning a 4.32 GPA as a dually enrolled student at the College of Central Florida.  Wade was a member of the National Honor Society, Kiwanis Key Club, Future Builders of America, and Phi Theta Kappa during high school.  He was also awarded President Obama’s Community Service Award, Eisenhower’s People to People Award, and the Boy Scouts World Conservation Award.

Wade graduated from the University of Central Florida (UCF) in 2017 with a Bachelor of Science degree (Cum Laude) in Mechanical Engineering.  He was a student leader committee member for the Engineering Leadership Innovation Institute (Eli2), UCF Founders Academy’s 2017 Entrepreneur Student of the Year for the Young Entrepreneur and Scholars (YES) Program, and a LEAD Scholars Program graduate.  Wade also interned as a performance materials/technologies mechanical engineer for Honeywell in Louisiana, an audio/video design engineer for ZIO in Florida, and a mechanical ride engineer for Creative at Universal Orlando Resort in Florida.

After graduating from UCF, Wade became a Florida and New England Commercial Lighting Engineer at ZIO in Winter Park, FL – and later the Commercial Lighting Manager. Wade is currently the Engineering Department Manager at ZIO – where his team designs/manages creative lighting and audio/video solutions for residential, hospitality, education, and entertainment markets around the United States.  Aside from striving to lead his team daily, Wade loves cooking, roasting, traveling, and learning!