Start with operating reality.
Process maps, systems, policies, and metrics matter, but they have to match what people are actually doing.
About
I’ve spent my career figuring out how complicated work gets done.
Most of that work has lived where operations, systems, people, and execution come together.
The problems are rarely confined to one function. They usually involve some combination of people, process, technology, information, and competing priorities.
I tend to gravitate toward operating problems that are cross-functional, messy, and difficult to solve from inside a single department.
I like understanding how the work actually moves, where information breaks down, why people work around the system, what the data is really saying, and which changes will improve execution rather than just add another layer of process.
Titles have never told me very much by themselves. I’m more interested in what someone was responsible for, what changed, and what happened as a result.
Executive seatGeneral Manager / COO · 2006–2021
Operating scaleThree manufacturing sites · 17,000+ SKUs
EducationM.S., Operations Management · University of Arkansas · B.S., Management · Troy University
CredentialProject Management Professional (PMP®)
Career through-line
Different roles. The same underlying work.
Four decades of work make more sense as a progression than as a list of functions.
011986–2001Engineering & systems
021999–2006Manufacturing & operations
032006–2021GM / COO leadership
042005–presentConsulting & ventures
052022–presentTeaching, writing & applied AI
Over time, the same way of working took different forms. Engineering taught me to break problems down. Manufacturing and operations taught me that technically correct answers still fail when they do not fit the way work actually happens. Executive leadership expanded the problem from a process or system to the whole business.
Consulting applies that thinking from outside an organization. Teaching forces me to explain it clearly. Writing lets me examine the ideas at greater length. AI is another tool in that progression, useful when it improves how people analyze, decide, build, and execute.
Today
I continue to work across consulting, teaching, writing, and applied technology. The subjects vary, but the underlying interest is still the same: making complicated work function better.
How I tend to work
A few principles have stayed consistent.
Connect the functions.
Many operating problems live in the handoffs between engineering, operations, quality, supply chain, finance, IT, and customers.
Make technology serve the work.
Software, automation, data, and AI create value when they improve decisions and execution, not when they become the project by themselves.
Be precise about results.
I’d rather qualify a result than overstate it. Context and attribution matter.
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