About
A technologist who became a leader, and never stopped being a technologist.
My career has moved up the technology lifecycle: from building systems, to designing how they fit together, to deciding which ones an institution should invest in, to leading the people who make it all work.
The arc
Four stages, one question
At every stage I've asked the same thing: what will this technology make possible, and how will we know?
Build
Software engineering and technical foundations
I started as a software integration engineer at Microsoft, where I learned that systems succeed or fail at the seams: interfaces, data, and the assumptions teams make about each other.
Connect
Enterprise architecture and systems thinking
In enterprise architecture across the State of Minnesota, the unit of design became the institution. The work was less about any one system and more about how dozens of them served shared missions, data, and constituents.
Invest
Technology investment strategy and program leadership
Leading technology investment strategy and large-scale programs taught me that the hardest decisions aren't technical. They're about sequencing, trade-offs, and what to stop. This period included multi-year modernization roadmaps and aligning technology decisions with statewide priorities.
Lead
CIO leadership in a complex, regulated environment
Today I serve as Chief Information Officer at Minnesota Housing, a public financial institution, after leading its information systems function since 2022. I'm accountable for modernization, operations, security, and the organizational capability to sustain them.
Technology should expand what people and organizations are capable of accomplishing.
How I lead
Start with the outcome. Define what will be measurably different before choosing the technology.
Govern for speed, not against it. Good governance makes responsible decisions faster and more transparent.
Build capability, not dependency. The lasting result of a program is what the organization can now do on its own.
Be honest about evidence. Report what changed, what didn't, and what we learned.
Current interests
What I'm working on now
I'm focused on moving AI from experimentation toward accountable, measurable performance: selecting the right workflows, designing human oversight, and building the data readiness that makes AI dependable.
I also serve on peer leadership communities, including the Twin Cities CISO Leadership Board and the Twin Cities CIO Governing Body.
I write about this work in The Digital Edge and in The RockStar IT Leader Handbook.