Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States
As a CEO and proven leader, I excel in driving enterprise value through strategic, financial, and technology-driven thinking. Extensive experience in building and scaling technology and SaaS companies, utilizing advanced AI agents to impact daily and monthly productivity and automate tasks. Experience in strategy development, fundraising, product delivery and achieving exits. With a deep understanding of innovation, I capitalize on market shifts to drive growth, build world-class teams, and increase equity value. My track record includes guiding multiple companies from inception to multi-million-dollar valuations and exits. EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP & ACHIEVEMENTS - Founder & CEO of aerospace software company commercializing NASA patents in autonomy; recipient of NASA's Commercial Invention of the Year Award (2021). Secured $2.3M SBIR Phase II contract, $3.3M state aviation contract and millions more in other contracts. - Co-founder & CTO of the world’s largest academic digital library. Launched company as 1 of 3 co-founders and raised $150M on a $500M valuation. Developed a B2C SaaS platform now used by millions, managed 60 tech staff as part of a 300-person team; successful exit to Cengage. TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION - Extensively leverage AI and AI agents in DevOps, marketing, data collection and analysis and ongoing research and reporting, resulting in significant productivity and quality improvements. Specialization Certificate in Artificial Intelligence for Business from Univ. of Penn., Wharton School (2024). - As CEO of SaaS company, built and hosted award-winning enterprise geospatial data platform critical to large energy companies, utilities and government agencies including a $1 billion regional rail project. - As CIO of a financial auditing firm, designed and built analytics platform for large financial datasets, cutting auditing costs by 25% and doubling productivity. Led recovery of $90M in funds following a complex logistics company merger. - Built a high-security data hosting center in London serving clients in shipping and manufacturing as well as European Parliament members and Middle East peace negotiators. - Co-inventor on 5 technology patents. HIGH-IMPACT INVESTMENT & ADVISORY - Launched a successful seed fund and accelerator, backing 11 startups in 22 months; 5 companies achieved multi-million dollar valuations within 36 months, delivering 2X cash returns to investors. - Developed the due diligence process and advised on investments in nanotechnology, IT, and life sciences as a Board Member of the Houston Angel Network.
- Launched autonomous systems company developing industry-leading flight safety software, securing millions of dollars in contracts with NASA, the FAA, the Dept. of Defense and leading commercial uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS or drone) programs and facilities. - Lead patent licensing, tech transfer, product strategy, corporate administration, full P&L responsibility, Board reporting, recruiting, sales and marketing, product design and software development management. Raised millions in angel and VC funding. Licensed and control two critical NASA patents. - Built the company into a product category leader by focusing on the customer problem of drone flight safety and developing an open dialog with industry leaders, the press and government regulators. - Won NASA Commercial Invention of the Year Award 2021, boosting company visibility and increasing project pipeline. Won multiple FLC awards. - Help to write new technical standards at ASTM to meet regulations. Served on the FAA UAS BVLOS aviation rule-making committee (ARC). - Hire and manage high performing software development, operations and sales teams. Use Agile and Scrum principles in Jira for project management. Supervise SaaS architecture, UI/UX design and national flight-testing campaigns. - Require all departments to have a strategy to utilize AI in their job functions to improve efficiency and performance. - Delivered cloud-hosted SaaS product using Docker, Kubernetes and CI/CD through GitHub. Supervised development in Java with Spring Boot, Javascript, Geoserver, CesiumJS, Node.js, Webpack, and PostgreSQL. Hardware integration with multiple radar and RF sensors and federal data sources. Deployed to secure IL4 CUI and IL5 military hosting with NIST-800-171 and CMMC 2.0. - Manage sales and marketing departments. Developed successful inbound sales pipeline utilizing content, press and conference speaking. Invited conference speaker or panelist at all major UAS industry events from 2018 to 2024.
- Spearhead JumpPhase Ventures, providing venture development services and seed investment to early-stage startups in sectors such as IT, SaaS, IoT, AI/ML, FinTech, EdTech, energy, autonomy, and climate tech. - Offers services such as accelerator programs, venture development, M&A advisory, strategic consulting, interim executive leadership, capital formation, and turnaround consulting for growth-stage companies. - Key duties include executive leadership, strategy development, fundraising, contract negotiations, business development, P&L oversight, and program management. - Developed and implemented investment due diligence processes for the Houston Angel Network as Chair of the Due Diligence Subcommittee and member of the Board of Directors, improving decision-making for early-stage tech investments. Created a comprehensive, systematic approach to investment due diligence. - Led and organized investment syndicates for angel and seed investments across industries including nanotechnology, life sciences, healthcare, aerospace, and clean energy, deploying over $15M in early-stage seed capital. - Advised a cryptocurrency hedge fund on product development, investor requirements, validation, and market traction. Engaged in active testing of products. - Provided strategic advisory to an emerging venture capital fund focused on life sciences, deep tech and industrial technology, guiding strategy, fundraising, and partnership development. - Directed multiple M&A transactions, including a buy-side acquisition for a B2B IT company, integrating an advanced data integration firm. Also completed a challenging acquisition of a financial services firm's purchase of a competitor.
- Co-founded and led VentureSpur, a venture accelerator and venture capital seed fund, successfully launching 11 high-growth startups and quickly securing multi-million-dollar valuations for 5 of them. - Raised fund and built programs focused on identifying and developing early-stage, high-growth ventures in online education, online financial services and telecom and mobility software. Highly selective program attracting competitive startups from throughout the region. Offices in Dallas and Oklahoma City. - Provided scalable startup companies with seed investment and an intensive 12-week development program that included coaching, mentorship, office space, technical and business services, intensive workshops and seminars, investor introductions, pitch coaching and due diligence review. - Each program culminated in a series of multi-city Pitch Days during which startups pitched VC and angel investors. - Duties included fundraising, strategy, organizational and board leadership, corporate administration, P&L responsibility, team-building, program development, event management, multi-site operations, sponsorship development, portfolio benchmarking and investment management. - Launched 11 startup companies with outcomes including multiple angel and VC investments on multi-million-dollar valuations, resulting in VentureSpur's acquisition by RevTech in 2014.
- Founded and led R7 Solutions, delivering innovative GIS solutions and software and securing contracts for cloud and on-premises data and workflow applications with Fortune 500 energy companies and large government agencies worth millions of dollars. - Developed pioneering software-as-a-service solutions providing innovative geographic information systems (GIS) and software especially for data management and analysis, daily workflow and emergency response. Delivered solutions to government agencies and to energy, utility, rail, right-of-way, real estate and infrastructure companies. - Led company vision, product strategy, recruiting and team-building, contract negotiations, sales and marketing, corporate administration, P&L reporting, product design and software development. - Solutions increased customer project transparency, provided land and location visualization, improved workflow efficiency, especially around land acquisition and management and oil and gas exploration, improved safety and emergency response and provided legal compliance. - Led complex projects to deliver and host mission-critical software. Grew company through focus on high-value, strategic clients while developing on-demand solutions that met specific, emerging enterprise needs. - Assembled and led high-performing software engineering team that developed GIS data analysis and workflow applications for mapping, document storage, incident response, dispatch and land management. Products included the GeoIntelis (tm) and the ExpressGeo (tm) on-demand web-based GIS systems. - Developed products using ArcGIS, ASP.NET, C#, JavaScript, SQL Server, PostgreSQL, PostGIS and Geoserver. Managed code in SVN and BitBucket. - Developed key partnerships with ESRI and Microsoft, winning the prestigious ESRI SAG Award in 2007 for the Port of Houston project, which boosted company credibility and led to multiple new contracts. Hosted Harvard University’s nuclear non-proliferation mapping system.
- Co-founded and served as CIO and Board member for financial consulting and forensic auditing company which recovered more than $300M in misapplied funds for Fortune 500 clients. - Led recovery efforts for a Fortune 500 logistics company, correcting $60M in quarterly AP errors, which resulted in a $90M recovery and revamped corporate AP processes, reducing errors by 15%. - Utilized advanced algorithms and statistical methods to recover over $100M in erroneous and fraudulent payments for clients such as Alcoa and Paramount Pictures. - Directed IT and data operations, modernizing applications and stabilizing IT spending, reducing operational costs by 25% while doubling auditor productivity. Developed data warehouses, payment processing procedures and statistical analysis methods for clients. - Used algorithms and statistical methods to identify, document and recover erroneous and fraudulent payments for large corporate clients. Supervised sensitive audits and financial investigations with a team of Certified Fraud Examiners (CFEs). - Established first 12-month IT plan and developed proprietary SaaS auditing tools for a mobile work force of auditors in 20 states requiring 24/7 access. Boosted auditor productivity by 2X and improved data security by migrating to centrally managed data and application hosting platform. - Utilized Microsoft SQL Server, Report Server, ASP.NET and C# to develop proprietary analysis and auditing tools and to securely manage large financial data sets. Established ETL processes and standards and data storage procedures for client data to improve processing efficiency, standardization and data security.