I’m currently the Chief Innovation Architect in General Motors’ IT Emerging Technology team. This evolved from my position as a Senior Architect Consultant at General Motors’, with the OnStar Division’s Research & Advanced Application Development Team. Before this I was the Director of Network Gaming Technology at WMS in Chicago, after a short stint at MediaTrust in Santa Barbara and much longer stays at EarthLink, LowerMyBills and Sun MIcrosystems.
My main areas of technical expertise were gained from years in eCommerce technologies, especially metrics gathering applications, low-latency data stores, A/B-Multivariate Testing platforms, and new and innovative ways of persisting data. Now I’m applying them in
People that know me would say that I have a passion for all things mechanical. I’ve restored 26 classic automobiles, but I now favor Italian Motorcycles (Parilla and Moto Guzzi especially). I rode just short of 30,000 miles in 2008, all on Italian iron. Chicago keeps me down to about 16,000 because of the weather. I wrote “Struts Recipes” with George Franciscus (Manning Publications) in 2004, one of the top books on the Struts Framework published in that period. I continue to write, speak and consult on Technology and eCommerce Development topics.
I’m married for 13 years now, and live in Oak Park with my wife, Sheila, daughter Kira and my Weimarainer and Pug. Sheila is about to launch an eCommerce site geared towards movie posters and their companion pulp novels. She is deeply interested in Fashion Design and a brilliant photographer, and my daughter is the light of my eyes. Chicago is a new experience for me and my daughter, and Sheila is returning there after attending Northwestern some time ago. I’m getting used to the weather, traffic and wonderful people.
I was born in July 1961, and grew up in Miami, Arizona, where my father owned a small chain of Best Western Hotels and enjoyed a close friendship with John Wayne. I graduated from Claremont Men’s (McKenna) College with a bachelor’s degree in economics. While in college, I played rugby, cricket and was a member of the Ski Team.
After college I worked as the Northwest Region Sales Manager for Best Western before starting my own company that provided automobiles and various “Picture Vehicles” to the Television and Film Industry. This business gradually morphed into a Film Support Organization, where I acted as a Unit Production Manager and First Assistant Director on various commercials and film projects. Check IMDB! I’m in there!
With the advent of the Internet, my college-learned computer skills (COBOL and Fortran) were dusted off and as I got better at it, I focused on moving swiftly forward into a new-found career in engineering, as I respect this profession more than all others.