About Jared
Jared grew up in northern New Jersey, in Wayne, to parents who were the first in their families to go to college. Jared’s father, now deceased, taught him the importance of fiscal responsibility, education, and working hard to achieve your goals and the enjoyment of being an avid baseball fan. Jared’s mother taught him the importance of community engagement as she co-founded a community group focused on public education. At Wayne Hills High School, Jared was president of the school chapter of Future Business Leaders of America and started working early with newspaper routes and baseball umpiring by age 13.
Jared has an Environmental Engineering degree from Washington University in St. Louis and a law degree from the University of Maryland School of Law. Jared and his wife, Marlene Niefeld, are the owners of K&B True Value, an independent hardware store in the City of Annapolis with 25+ employees celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2024. Marlene is a native Annapolitan while Jared and Marlene have lived in Annapolis since 2010 where they’ve raised two children.
Jared enjoys sports including soccer, ultimate frisbee, tennis, pickleball, biking, hiking, and camping, card games and fantasy football.
JARED'S BACKGROUND
Jared went to Washington University in St. Louis and earned a degree in Engineering and Public Policy (the program was later renamed Environmental Engineering) where he served in multiple leadership roles in his fraternity. While in college, Jared spent a summer in Maryland working for the Maryland Department of the Environment, in a policy role, working on such issues as environmental justice.
After college, Jared came back to Maryland to get his law degree from the University of Maryland in Baltimore with a focus on environmental law. While in law school, Jared worked for one semester in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Environmental Crimes Division and for one summer in Anchorage, Alaska, working for the Trustees for Alaska, and was first Vice-President and then President of his class.
After earning his law degree, Jared worked as a lawyer for seven years, including a clerkship for Circuit Court Judge Ann Harrington and four years in the County Attorney’s Office for Montgomery County, Maryland, as an Associate County Attorney where he worked on environmental and electricity law issues, civil prosecutions, and legislation and procurements.
In 2004, with an entrepreneurship eye and a chance to buy a business, Jared shifted careers to work at his in-laws’ hardware store, K&B True Value, as Ken and Bobbie Niefeld were exploring ways to retire. Jared and his wife, Marlene Niefeld, purchased the business in 2007 and continued the ideals of an independent small business serving the community while adding a focus on environmental sustainability. Today, they offer thousands of environmentally friendly products and are the only business in Annapolis to generate all of their own electricity through an investment in over 220 solar panels.
During his hardware store career, Jared and his wife also co-founded another business in the liquidation hardware niche, was hired as a corporate director of the True Value Company where he also served as Board Chair, and was selected and then elected to serve the City of Annapolis, Alderman, Ward 5.
Marlene is a native of Annapolis while Jared and Marlene have lived in Annapolis since 2010. Marlene and Jared have two children, Isabel and Zach, who are in college and high school, respectively. Jared coached Isabel in soccer before she switched to dance and then coached Zach in soccer and baseball for 10+ years until he reached high school.
ACTIVE COMMUNITY MEMBER
