I work with a select group of C-suite leaders and growth-stage operators facing a consequential decision. The challenge is usually technology, growth, or organizational change. The actual problem almost always lives upstream of that.
I’ve worked inside institutions where a wrong decision costs real money, real time, and real trust. That experience doesn’t come from a methodology. It comes from having been in the room.
Experience includesThe White House·U.S. Department of State·The Atlantic
I led change inside institutions that cannot afford to get it wrong. At the Obama White House, I built the technology infrastructure for the presidency and co-created the We the People petition platform. At the State Department, I led a 140-person team through a fundamental shift in how a diplomatic institution uses technology. At The Atlantic, I served as CTO through a period of simultaneous editorial and commercial reinvention. In each case, the presenting problem was technical. The actual problem was always underneath the technology.
My foundation is engineering. I was the first engineer at Blue State Digital, the firm that powered $1.2 billion in grassroots fundraising across two presidential campaigns. That background gives me the judgment to know which problems technology can solve and which ones it will only amplify.
Each year, I work with a select group of executives who are navigating pivotal decision points. Some of these include: what reputational risk does AI pose to our brand? How does a news organization make money when consumers expect content to be free? How do we drive growth amid a saturated market? I have written on these questions for the Harvard Business Review, and earlier work on the cost of institutional communication habits is cited in Cal Newport’s Deep Work.
The most important question in the room is usually the one nobody has said out loud. That is where I start.
No pitch decks. No intake forms. We discuss the stakes: what is not being said in the room, who the decisionmakers are, and what options are on the table. Thirty minutes usually tells me more than an RFP ever would.
A focused engagement, typically four to six weeks. I work directly with the people closest to the problem, trying to understand what leadership believes is true and what the people doing the work actually experience. The output is an actionable brief: what I found, what it means, and what to do next.
Some clients retain me after the diagnostic. Others need one decision cleared and move on. Either way, I build the structure around what we find, not a predetermined model. There is no standard retainer. There is only what the situation actually requires.
A $300M PE-backed healthcare consulting firm that needed clarity on its growth strategy and marketing investment before a vendor was in the room, not after the contract was signed.
A global non-profit managing the risk and opportunity of AI adoption across its operations, where the question was not whether to move forward but where the risk of moving too fast outweighed the cost of falling behind.
A technology firm navigating a federal-to-commercial pivot, clarifying which markets to enter, which buyers to target, and how to build the relationship architecture to compete where cold outreach does not work.
A publicly traded global media company navigating a technology and resource allocation crisis, where the presenting problem was an outdated platform and the actual problem was a decision-making culture that had stopped the organization from acting on what it already knew.
The tools are already in use by your team, your vendors, and your competitors. Some of that is risk you haven’t mapped — operational for some organizations, reputational for those whose credibility depends on what they communicate publicly. The ones that get this right learn where to contain it and where to accelerate.
The model that got you here is straining. Whether the pressure is growth, disruption, or a market that shifted faster than your strategy did, the instincts and infrastructure that carried you this far are no longer enough. What gets you to the next stage requires systems and the relationships that get you into rooms your current network can’t reach.
Regulatory pressure is building. Legislative conversations are starting. Your industry is being defined right now by people who may not understand it. The same risk applies when the market you built expertise for shifts faster than your positioning — you become the cautionary reference, not the solution. The ones that shape the conversation define the standard. The ones that don’t inherit whatever comes with it.
A new investor, an acquisition, a leadership change, a decision to reposition or exit a practice area, or a restructuring is in motion. The decisions made in that window shape what the organization becomes. They happen fast, with incomplete information, and no room to revisit them. Incentives that look aligned going in have a way of diverging once the ink is dry.
I oversaw the digital infrastructure of WhiteHouse.gov and directed the team that built and launched We the People, the Open Government Initiative’s flagship platform for public participation. The work required navigating institutional, political, and technical pressure at the same time — often with no precedent to follow. That included the policy, the budget, and the politics, not just the technology.
I led a 140-person team and a $40 million effort to modernize the digital infrastructure of every U.S. mission abroad, a project planned for four years that finished in fourteen months. The change was not technological. It was organizational: I built the permission structure for people to take risks and accept that a wrong turn toward a better answer is not the same as failing.
As CTO, I was responsible for the digital infrastructure and culture of the entire organization — overhauling how the technology team operated, how fast it could ship, and how seriously it took security at a time when most media companies didn’t. The case for change had to be made internally before any of it could happen externally.
Keynotes and briefings for leadership audiences across more than 20 countries.
I take on a small number of engagements each year. Reach out before the scope is settled and before the vendor is in the room.
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