Home: Dallas, TX. Age: 38. Profession: Enterprise technology sales. Organization: Oracle Corporation. Alma mater: University of Texas at Austin (B.A., Government); Baylor University (MBA).
Current project: Building AI-powered demo capabilities for my sales team—LLM-driven skills that let us rapidly create working Oracle Database demos tailored to any customer use case. Recent recognition: Selected as one of 100 leaders nationwide for Oracle’s six-month Senior Leadership Development Program; also named Regional Manager of the Quarter three times in the past year and received a quarterly MVP award. Latest contribution to others: Training and consulting with hiring managers across Oracle through its STAR behavioral interviewing program to build stronger leadership benches and make better hiring decisions. What’s been your big (or biggest) leap? Betting my leadership brand on AI before it was fashionable in enterprise sales—learning to build applications, deliver Terraform scripts and hand customers containerized databases rather than waiting for someone else to figure it out. Hobbies: Chess, long thinking walks and reading everything I can about leadership, AI and geopolitics. Last book read: Project Maven, by Katrina Manson. It sits at the intersection of two things close to my heart: the Marine Corps and artificial intelligence.
Personality profile: Decisive, determined and dependable. Moral compass: Do the right thing for the right reason in the right way. What is your greatest joy? Spending family time with my wife, daughter and our two dogs, Cooper and Bella. What is your greatest fear? Spoiled milk. Yuck! What is your guilty pleasure? I’m 38 years old and still love playing video games! What word or phrase do you use far too often? Another day in paradise. What ingredient is essential to your perfect vacation? Beach, ocean and family.
What was your favorite childhood toy or game? Chess. I was a casual player as a kid, lost the habit for a while and rediscovered it during the pandemic. What book have you repeatedly read? The Wisdom of the Bullfrog, by Admiral William H. McRaven. What’s the best advice you received in your career? You can have empathy for your people and still hold an incredibly high bar—the two aren’t opposites. What modern technology innovation do you most appreciate? Large language models and generative AI. What company or organization do you most admire? SpaceX. The audacity of the vision, relentless innovation in service of something previously thought impossible and public sharing of failures—not just successes—on the way to the goal. What world event has had the greatest influence on your life? The dawn of the AI era.
What change are you working on to effect in your profession or field?
Making AI real in enterprise sales—not as a buzzword, but as a daily tool that creates value for customers and lets them see, touch and experience what’s possible.
What message do you want to send out into the world? Discipline equals freedom. What mega-trend most excites you? AI’s potential to automate rote knowledge work and free people to focus on the creative, strategic and empathetic work we’re uniquely suited for. What mega-trend most concerns you? The widening gap between the speed of technological change and the speed of human adaptation.
What title would you choose for the movie about your life? The Discipline of Daring. What actor would you choose to play you in the movie about your life? Tom Hardy. What advice would you give your younger self? Seek out discomfort. The times I’ve grown the most have been when I deliberately put myself in situations that challenged me, stretched me and forced me to adapt. What day in your life would you choose to re-live? The day my daughter was born. What period in your life would you do differently, if you could? None. Every misstep, failure and gut-wrenching decision has been a lesson that shaped me into the leader and person I am today.
Personal mission: To be the leader I wish I had when I was coming up—setting the highest standards and providing the highest level of support to reach them. Desired epitaph: He left every person and every place better than he found them.
