About Me

I'm the SVP of Engineering at a professional services automation company — which is a fancy way of saying I get paid to think about how software gets built, and I've been doing some version of that for the better part of two decades. Six years in open source, ten-ish in SaaS, and the last year in a seat I genuinely love, which is why I'm not out shopping for a new one. If a CTO or CIO role ever calls, I'll pick up — but right now I'm exactly where I want to be, building things with people I respect.

If you're wondering how I lead: I treat people the way I'd want to be treated, and I actually try to walk in their shoes — mostly because I already have. I did the job before I was managing the job, which tends to keep you honest. Growing up a Navy kid in Charleston, moving more times than I can count, probably had something to do with that too — you learn to read a room fast and adapt even faster. Being a parent finished the job. Nothing humbles a leadership philosophy quite like a strong-willed eighth grader.

Outside of work, I'm rarely at my desk. I'm on a golf course most weekends — sometimes twice — and recently took home my club's spring member-guest tournament, which I will absolutely find a way to mention again. I'm an instrument-rated pilot who likes flying fast, complex airplanes, because for me it's never been about the journey — it's about landing somewhere in a third of the time it'd take to drive, minus the TSA line. When I'm not in the air, I'm usually elbow-deep in something mechanical: I brought a neglected 2003 Harley-Davidson Fatboy back to immaculate condition, and I ride a 2019 Indian Chief Dark Horse whenever I need what I call "wind therapy." Winters, I'm on a snowboard. And because apparently that's not enough tinkering, I've got Raspberry Pis and Arduinos scattered around my house — one keeps an eye on our backup generator, and another drives an aviation weather map on my wall that lights up with live conditions and quietly tracks which North Carolina airports I have (and haven't) landed at.

Home base is Wake Forest, North Carolina, just outside Raleigh, where I live with my wife of 22 years and our two kids — our son just started at Penn State, following both of our footsteps, and our daughter's an eighth grader all-in on competitive year-round swimming. If any of this sounds like your kind of conversation, reach out — I'd much rather talk than have you read a résumé.