My Story

I was born in Southeast Texas in a small town on a road named after my mom’s side of the family, who grew rice in the hot and humid climate. My dad was an electrician who worked in steel, and my mom worked at my grandfather’s rice dryers.

Most of my time was either spent roaming around outside or playing on our Tandy 1000 EX computer, bought at the local Radio Shack. Computers were rare at that time — especially in our small town — and while we didn’t have a ton of money, my dad caught the 80s computer bug. What he learned at home, he also applied on his job as he programmed PLCs at the mill.

I caught the bug as well. I’ll admit I was a bit of a nerd. I mean check out this photo, which my kids use as a meme with their friends when they say something nerdy.

My passion for computers and technology became the foundation for my education and my career. I graduated from Oregon State University in Corvallis with degrees in Computer Science and Business. During university, I was also working at HP where I met some really great people who gave me early guidance in my career. Looking back, I am profoundly grateful that my first real world experiences were with people who still mean so much to me.

At HP, I had the opportunity to work with a wide range of technology from mobile computers to IT to LightScribe disc labeling technology to inkjet printing presses designed to print books and more. I also had the opportunity to really get into leadership there.

Remember those mentors I mentioned? Well they helped me realize the passion I had for leadership by really giving me a nudge in that direction as I took on my first management role. I learned from some of the best.

During that time, my spouse and I started a family. We had our first daughter in 2006 and now have three wonderful children.

After HP, I decided I wanted to branch out on my own and work at a startup that was more modern in its approach to software delivery. I saw a video of engineers working at New Relic who truly loved what they did every day. I wanted to be part of that and decided to make the leap.

While at New Relic, I learned so much about how to deliver great software that helped other people deliver great software. This was also my first experience at a high growth startup. I was lucky enough to join the company during a period of growth as we headed towards an IPO. Again, I got to work with a lot of really smart people who loved their craft and who helped me get better at mine.

I also learned a lot about building empowered teams. About autonomy and about leading and developing leaders.

During my time at New Relic, my personal life also underwent a big change. We decided, of all things, that we wanted to own horses (and minis!) and run a small hobby farm. A far cry from living in the suburbs, but maybe not such a far cry from where I grew up.

After New Relic, I joined InVision where I was a leader in the Platform organization with a goal of creating a great developer experience inside the company. When InVision decided to build a new product, I was asked to build the engineering team and take the product to launch as the head of engineering for that org.

We started with a scrappy group of around ten great engineers and scaled the team to over seventy five in less than two years. That was an intense time as we navigated the challenges of a new product launch in a highly competitive market. I was fortunate to be part of the design tool renaissance that was occurring as we went head to head with Sketch and Figma. If you are familiar with those tools and that time period, you know what an interesting time it was. I learned a lot.

InVision led to Vetsource, where I gained my first real experience running an engineering organization as a VP. I learned a lot about e-commerce and about the veterinary industry. I also learned a lot about how more established startups ran their business and about how to focus on profitability vs growth at all costs.

After Vetsource, I joined Mural as the VP of Product Engineering which led to a promotion to SVP of Engineering across the entire engineering function when the CTO decided to pursue his passions. All of Engineering, including Product Engineering, Platform, Data, Security, and IT reported up to me. I joined during a period of high growth, and at our peak we were hiring 15-20 people per month. We often talked about being on a rocket ship and that’s what it felt like.

The biggest challenge at Mural was scaling our team and our processes while leading an all remote, cross-cultural company. My proudest accomplishment at Mural was establishing a leadership model that enabled autonomous, empowered teams. During a time of scaling, we made large cultural and process changes, too. We reduced shipping time from every six weeks to weekly with the ability to ship daily if we wanted. We improved quality and reduced tech debt. We had an amazing team.

While at Mural, my family made the decision that we wanted to try something really life-altering. We were fortunate enough over the last few years to host some wonderful exchange students in our home in Oregon for a whole school year each. We had students from Spain, from France, and from Sweden.

This was such an amazing experience that we decided we wanted to live it for ourselves. We moved across the world to the Netherlands!

This was obviously a big change for my family, but it also meant I was working hours that were unsustainable as I worked a lot with people in the Bay Area. I decided that it would be best to work for an EU head-quartered company, which brought me to Veed.

I joined Veed as a Series A company, which was a new experience for me. But at the same time, it was familiar. It was another case of working with great people full of passion and solving some of the same challenges every fast growing company faces. Their goal was to make video accessible to everyone, which is a great mission.

It was at this moment that I realized my true passion. During all these experiences at every stage of company, the thing that gave me the absolute greatest joy was coaching and advising people.

It’s about being of service to others. Helping them realize their potential by sharing what I've learned. Sometimes it’s as simple as asking the right question and enabling them to unlock the answers for themselves. And to truly grow and excel.

That has given me such joy and it's a joy I aim to experience over and over again. That’s why I started this company and that’s why I’d love to work with you.