Jared Bridegan biography: 13 things about Microsoft design manager born in Warrensburg, Missouri

Jared Galen Bridegan worked as a senior design manager at Microsoft while living in Jacksonville, Duval County, Florida, United States. He was a Mormon and he has three daughters and one son.

Bridegan was born in Warrensburg, Missouri, USA to Gaylord Bridegan and JoAnn Bridegan. Gaylord and JoAnn have two other sons namely Justin Bridegan and Adam Bridegan and one daughter named Ashley Bridegan Jenkins. 

When Jared was young, he and his family moved to Jacksonville. He attended the Douglas Anderson School of the Arts in Jacksonville and Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah County, Utah, USA.

Jared worked as a Canopy senior user experience (UX) designer, Web.com UX director and Clean Simple Eats chief technology officer before joining Microsoft. Here are 13 more things about him:

1. In 2007, he graduated from the Douglas Anderson School of the Arts.
2. In 2014, he graduated from Utah Valley University with a bachelor’s degree in digital media with an emphasis in cinema production.
3. In April 2010, he and Shanna Lee Gardner got married at the Salt Lake Temple, a temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Utah. They initially lived in Utah and later moved to Wilton, Fairfield County, Connecticut, USA. They were financially supported by her parents Sterling B. Gardner and Shelli Goodfellow Gardner.
4. In 2012, he founded a location-based ephemeral messaging app called Mezy.
5. In 2013, Shanna gave birth to their twin daughter and son. Their son had a heart condition that required living at sea level so they moved from Connecticut to Ponte Vedra Beach, St. Johns County, Florida and later to Jacksonville Beach, Duval County.
6. In 2014, Mezy’s intellectual property was acquired and he started consulting for other product and UX teams around the U..S.
7. In February 2015, she filed for divorce from him. He accused her of locking him out of the master bedroom, installing surveillance devices in his car and their children’s bedroom and treating him in a disparaging manner in front of the children. She accused him of disturbing and abusive behavior, regularly interrogating and recording their children after actively coaching them on what to say and threatening to use their recorded statements against her. After their divorce, they shared custody of their children and he met Kirsten E. Vach Bridegan through a dating app.
8. In 2017, he married Kirsten.
9. In 2018, Shanna married Mario Enrique Fernandez Saldana. He and Kirsten lived in St. Augustine, St. Johns County while Shanna and Mario lived in Jacksonville.
10. In an interview with Web.com in June 2019, he was asked to give advice to small and midsize businesses. He said, “List out your goals on paper, and focus on what you want your website to do for you. Then work backward and find a solution that helps you accomplish those goals. The look and feel of your website can come after you’ve focused on your goals.”
11. In 2020, Kirsten gave birth to their first daughter.
12. In 2021, Kirsten gave birth to their second daughter.
13. On February 16, 2022, he was fatally shot in Jacksonville Beach in front of his daughter, then 2, allegedly by Mario’s tenant and handyman Henry Arthur Tenon, then 61. He was 33.