Since 2015 I’ve been a chief product & technology executive building remote, global technology organizations. I bring a unique balance of deep technical expertise and enlightened leadership that delivers results. I’ve earned a reputation for my transformative touch to transition companies from early-stage startup to IPO, series-funded companies.
Education
Masters Degree of Software Engineering
2007 – Seattle University
Research focused on industry best-practices regarding system qualities, also referred to as non-functional requirements.
Masters Degree of Aerospace Engineering
2001 – University of Washington
Research in computational fluid dynamics regarding inclusion of thermo-effects of three-body constituent flow over bluff bodies in hypervelocity flows.
Masters Degree of Interdisciplinary Engineering
2001 – University of Washington
Research focused on Japanese activities in developing its space infrastructure using primary sources from Japan.
Bachelors Degree of Aerospace Engineering
1998 – University at Buffalo
Skills
Leadership
Technology
By the Numbers
Experience
Scope & Growth
Team
Relevant Experience
CTO & Co-founder
presently
since Feb 20424 – ShiftHealth AI
AI-powered coach focused on helping people improve themselves through applied cognitive behavioral therapy leveraging LLM and agentic workflow to produce complex, conditional logic. Additionally, create digital fingerprint of consumer behavior to personalize and enhance AI coaching.
Singularly developed entirety of both mobile consumer experience (iOS/Android leveraging Flutter) and back-end (Ruby on Rails, API, Postgres, redis) inclusive of administrative functionality (multi-tenant, fully localized, OAuth2). Setup of SDLC including CI/CD, automated testing (90% code coverage), monitoring, alerting.
The Six App is a first-party branded app for both iOS and Android that addresses the needs of first-responders.
The Six has 48k+ hours working with first responders and veterans. Gain immediate access to elite coaching & programming to perform on and off shift. Professional athlete level performance training:
- Designed to challenge all musculoskeletal structures responsible for meeting the extreme demands of your job.
- See how your results match up vs. your peers
- Track your progress over time
- Schedule a physical therapy assessment or other rehabilitation services with our team
- Perform like the 1% at 1% of the cost
- Confidential in-the-moment coaching, available 24/7
- On-demand equipment free workouts
- Personalized coaching programs for all aspects of life including nutrition, sleep, stress & resiliency, PTSD, depression, anger, relationships, addiction, and leadership development
CTO, CPrO & CMO
Jul 2019 to Jan 2024 – RealSelf
Driving strategic shift from passive ad-tech to active multi-sided marketplace as we bring together consumers, providers and brands. Grew organic traffic 7x after massive site refactoring to address SEO headwinds.
Oversaw a globally distributed and broad organization inclusive of Engineering, Product, UX Design, Data Science, Analytics, and Consumer Marketing.
CTO
2016 to 2019 – Varsity Tutors
IPO: September 21, 2021 at $1.4B EV (NYSE:NRDY)
We went from 50M to 125M in revenue in three years, while transitioning from a predominantly in-person experience to a fully-online learning experience on our own platform.
We did all this while transforming a classic monolithic Ruby on Rails app to an enterprise-grade, services-oriented architecture (SOA) with robust eventing, lambdas, and hyper performant services.
Senior Director, Engineering
2015 to 2016 – Sears Home Services
Senior Product Manager
2012 to 2015 – Xbox One
I spear-headed the cloud-based console experience that powers all of Xbox One barring only a few services. From the home screen, to pinned favorites, to the online store; Xbox consumers interact: it’s all powered by these services.
I brought together the Console, Editorial, and Services teams to move Xbox away from firmware-baked experiences to ones powered by cloud services, allowing us to move away from 6 month iterations, to less than 2 weeks to change nearly any experience on Xbox One.
To this day, those services continue to power Xbox series and even some of the PC experiences for games.
Senior Software Engineer & Senior Product Manager
2008 to 2011 – AmazonFresh, Amazon Tote, and Retail Customer Experience (RCX)
I launched AmazonTote, a pilot program in Seattle, in a matter of months. As its product manager, I worked with UX design, engineering, operations & logistics to create the customer experience, “hacked” our existing systems to meet our needs, and even ensure physical tote bags were designed, printed and shipped to us; all in under three months. Even on launch day, I rented and drove a truck to ensure our first customers’ orders were delivered on time.
I was one of the original senior software engineers involved with AmazonFresh while it was still a pilot-program in the greater Seattle area. I was responsible for creating or modifying more than 80% of our bespoke warehouse management system (WMS). More than just writing code, we spent a considerable amount of time at our fulfillment center, working alongside folks to understand how the software we wrote impacted them, and therefore could be improved upon. I received 4 patents during my tenure on the program.
Aerospace Engineer & Lead Software Engineer
2001 to 2008 – Boeing
I was the brain-child of a new generation of software to help analyze all flight regimes of Boeing airplanes to support long-standing regulatory requirements of airlines.
The software was a radical departure from command-line tools to a comprehensive application that allowed airline engineers to do massive computational studies of airplane configuration, runway and atmospheric conditions.
Explore my philosophies
I often quip that the "T" in CTO stands for therapy, not technology; in so much that much of my responsibility is to promote collaboration amongst everyone in my organization and throughout the company.
Since 2015 I worked remotely as a technology leader. In that time I've built teams from scratch to growing them to span the globe with 100s of people.
I've a lifetime starting with my father learning about lean. I've worked as a Japanese interpreter with Shingijutsu, world leaders in lean consulting. And I've an early adopter of the agile manifesto. I know lean.
I have experience spanning multiple industry sectors from aerospace to retail to entertainment to education and now medical, which gives me a very broad view of adopting technology.
I've worked on every scale of growth from idea generation to scrappy startup right up to world-class enterprise, providing a unique vantage on how not only address each stage of growth, but navigate the transitions.
