About

In 1999, I offered to work for free just to be around technology. I wanted a chance to learn, get my hands on real systems, and find out what I could do. That offer led to paid work and eventually an internship at IBM. It was the beginning of a career built on curiosity and a willingness to start wherever there was something worth learning.

I grew up on a farm, where hard work was part of everyday life. That work ethic stayed with me, but my career taught me something just as important: knowing the technology and putting in the hours are only part of the job. Relationships matter. Listening, earning trust, and helping someone else succeed often make the difference between a good idea and a result that lasts.

My path has taken me from hands-on systems work into enterprise architecture and leadership. Over 13 years at Cox Enterprises, I progressed through six roles, from systems administration to leading enterprise architecture. At Quadax, I built the enterprise architecture program and led an eight-architect team through its cloud transition. Along the way, the questions became bigger: not just how to make a system work, but which problems were worth solving, what the business needed, and how to help a team move forward.

I still enjoy getting into the technical details. My work spans cloud, security, identity, APIs, data, application development, and emerging technologies. That breadth helps me connect business goals with the decisions underneath them. I want to understand both the strategy and what it will take to make it work in practice.

Some of that learning has happened outside traditional architecture roles. I co-founded MT Mining Company in 2021 and Creative Social NFT Inc. in 2022, contributed to work on a healthcare blockchain patent, and participated in hackathons where an idea has to become something you can demonstrate. I enjoy that combination of research and building: exploring what is possible, testing an approach, and finding out where the assumptions break.

Mentoring and volunteering are another part of that story. I have mentored startups through Project Runway in Atlanta, and helping someone turn their career around remains one of the things I am proudest of. Someone gave me an opening when I was starting out. I want to help create those openings for others.

Today, I lead enterprise platform architecture at Sherwin-Williams. My interest in AI follows the same practical instinct that brought me into technology: how can we use it to solve a real problem? For architecture, that includes keeping knowledge current and making it easier to use, while leaving review, judgment, and approval with people.

I think of myself as an architect, a builder, and a mentor. I like complex problems, but the point is not complexity or technology for its own sake. It is helping people see a way forward, make a sound decision, and build something useful. That is the work I want to keep doing.