I'm a leader, researcher, and storyteller who's spent nearly three decades helping transform organizations.

Officially: I’m a former executive and consultant that spent more than two decades transforming and leading organizations through change. My work history spans a wide range of industries, from aerospace to digital platforms and everything in between. As a software engineer, my contributions to open-source software have included critical projects like Chromium, Visual Studio Code, and Eclipse. My practitioner experience lead to my interest in research on creativity and innovation in software development, where I am a Doctor of Management Design & Innovation Fellow at Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University.

Unofficially: I came up in the software business under NASA’s motto “Dare Mighty Things”, which I live to this day. I believe that our perceptions of creativity have been more lost to the businesses processes we’ve adopted that over the last decade have betrayed our ability to realize radical innovations. Individually, we box ourselves into corporate titles, losing not only ourselves but our creative soul.

Our stories are messy and more interesting than we assume. At the age of 8, my Mom taught me how to code while my Dad taught me how to weld (not age appropriate even in the 1980’s, but I loved it). Yep, I sold my first piece of software in the early 1990’s as a kid. I was also tossed out of Computer Science as an undergraduate for “hacking” (ask about me about it over drinks). True, I ran an experimental advertising venture that pioneered user-generated content advertising which was featured in an NHK: Japan documentary (mistakes were clearly made; hindsight is 20-20). My photography has made it’s way into a museum or two. I’ve been married to Monica for nearly 20 years, we have three amazing kids, Alli, Isa, and Eve. We have a tiny farm that results in hijinks.

I try to be grateful for my messy, authentic, multi-hyphenate existence even when it’s driving me crazy. I embrace the unknown.

A Bit of History

Often we define ourselves by professional lives, exclaiming our expertise in formal histories of positions, backed by dates and tasks, distributed through CV’s and resumes. Our lives are more than that; my life is more than that. As I go through boxes of old photos with smudged dates, I find the experience laced with memories that at times bring tears of joy and in others sadness. Below is a brief, incomplete, and growing history of me, of important people and interesting events in my life.

Possibly you find it interesting, or maybe not. But I won’t be reduced to titles and placards