At 12, I read an entire computer manual cover to cover so a video game could have a little more memory. Not much has changed. The manuals just got bigger. I’ve built websites, run video departments, made partner and hired great people (and kept them). Now I lead AI for an agency, which mostly means finding the slow, painful parts of how work gets done and quietly making them disappear. Off the clock: gamer, home chef, dance dad, and still the guy sketching on whatever paper’s nearby.
The tools keep changing. The instinct doesn’t: find the inefficiency, learn how it works and keep at it until it runs better.
The game needed more memory than the computer could spare. So I opened the manual, learned how to build a boot disk that skipped the operating system entirely, and went through a ton of trial and error until it ran clean.
A client with three product divisions needed to save money. Inspired by CSS Zen Garden, I built all three sites on the same markup and let CSS do the rest. That idea grew into a modular practice that cut development time 30% company-wide.
AI touched every medium I already worked in and let me take each one further. I could see how capable it was getting, and I wasn’t going to watch it fly past me. So I read everything, adopted it early and started building my own tools.
Built the agency’s AI function from scratch: generative pipelines, a RAG knowledge base, automation and the training to get people using it.
My own studio, run alongside my full-time role. A marketing partner for small businesses, from strategy and production to development and social.
Nineteen years, from writing the code to running front-end development and video at the same time as an equity partner. Strategy, roadmaps and SOWs for enterprise clients.
Custom CMS work and lead Flash developer and animator. Where code and motion first met.
Not slogans. Habits, each one earned the hard way.
When something breaks, nobody gets blamed in the first five minutes. Calm the room, hear every side and piece together what actually happened. Then fix it carefully, watching for what else it might touch, and keep the team and the client informed the whole way.
Early on, two senior managers told me my project estimates were ludicrous. I sat them down with the production team’s own estimates and the tracked hours from past projects, which showed what the work really cost. The numbers held. I still don’t walk into a room without the data.
People I’ve managed call me the best manager they’ve had. Their well-being, work-life balance and growth come first, and hard work gets rewarded. In return, we were the team that got it done, better than anyone, and went above and beyond.
Every process, tool and team I touch should run better when I leave than when I found it. Sometimes that means bringing in new technology. Sometimes it just means asking why we do it this way.
The stuff that keeps me curious, and keeps the work human.
Started out hacking boot disks. Never stopped pressing start.
Weeknight dinners get the same attention as a product launch.
Driver, cheerleader and front-row fan. Knows every shortcut to the studio.
Pencils and paint, whenever nobody’s asking for anything.