Paul Gross

Paul Gross, MX for Children founder, is a dad, software executive, and novice motocrosser. He starting riding motocross after crashing his car during a performance driving school lesson and decided he needed a safer sport to pursue for his mid-life crisis. He founded MX for Children to give back to childrens’ hospitals across the country because he appreciated the impact that his local children’s hospital, Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center in Seattle, had had on saving his son’s life. He is currently the CEO of Seattle based startup called SampaOpen in a new window and active board member in the Hydrocephalus Clinical Research Network that he co-founded to help improve treatments and outcome for the condition his son has from the trauma of his birth. Paul can be reached at paul@mxforchildren.org.

Lead volunteer Brett Wise

Brett Wise became involved with the MX for Children in April, 2005 when he had the idea to put together a silent auction benefiting the Seattle Children’s Hospital. His first event went well, but he realized he would need help in order to make the next event even better.

Originally, Brett had dreams of making a career out of the motorcycle industry. He worked for a dealership for a number of years, working in the parts department and running the race team. He thought he got his big break when he landed a marketing job with a major apparel manufacturer in the industry. He soon found out that the industry wasn’t all that it was cracked up to be when trying to make a career out of it, so he moved into another industry and hasn’t looked back. This new career has rejuvenated his love for the sport, and has allowed him to focus on the MX For Children program. Brett can be reached at brett@mxforchildren.org.

Brett lives in the Lake Tapps area with his wife and two kids.  He enjoys coaching his kids’ sports teams, reading, and spending time with his family

Rex Backman

Seattle based Rex Backman has been a fan of Motocross and Supercross since the early 1970’s. At the time living in southern California, he watched some of the early great riders of the sport such as Bob Grossi, John DeSoto, Brad Lackey, and Roger DeCoster. Currently Rex spends his weekdays at Microsoft Corporation as a Senior Product Marketing Manager. On select weekends throughout the season Rex can be found photographing a SX or MX race somewhere in North America (www.rexbackman.com). Supporting MX for Children affords Rex a great way to give back to our community as well as to help children in need. Rex can be reached at rex@mxforchildren.org.