Thirty years helping operators navigate operational change — from manual to digital, analog to app, human-staffed to AI-augmented. When the next wave hits your operation, the difference between winning and getting stuck is the person sitting across the table.
Right now I'm leading the commercial launch of a Robotics-as-a-Service platform deploying autonomous workforces in healthcare and hospitality. Before that, I built a hospitality staffing platform and walked into hundreds of properties to sell it. I helped four Fortune 500 companies stand up workforce infrastructure before they had online presence. I've seen this movie before. Every chapter of it.
AI and robotics are arriving in your operation whether you're ready or not. Vendors are pitching solutions to problems you may not have. The math in their slide decks doesn't match the math on your P&L. Your team is asking what's changing. Your CFO is asking what it costs. Your competitors are quietly trying things. And you're the one who has to figure out what to actually do.
You don't want to be the operator who missed the wave. You also don't want to be the operator who bought the hype and got stuck with hardware nobody knows how to maintain. The right call is somewhere in between — and the path there is operational, not technical.
The first transition I worked through was the one from paper to digital, in the back offices of Fortune 500 companies that didn't yet have a website. Then it was the move from local to online. Then analog to app. Now it's human-staffed to AI-augmented. Every one of them looked confusing in the middle. Every one of them rewarded the operators who had someone in the room who'd been through the last one.
I've launched 17 Extended Stay America hotels from the framing stage of the buildings — hiring every staff member, training every manager, running every citywide awareness campaign before the doors opened. I've walked into hundreds of hospitality properties to pitch a platform I built. I built the staffing infrastructure that ran Amazon fulfillment during its hypergrowth years. I built RPO/BPO businesses inside companies that became unicorns — Zulily, Jet.com (when they were five people), BlueCrew. I built the workforce that built the Tesla Gigafactory and the Panasonic Gigafactory next to it. I know what your day actually looks like — because I've lived it from the loading dock to the boardroom.
And right now, I'm in the room when robots get deployed into real facilities. I see the operational reality of what works and what falls apart on day three. That's the perspective most strategy consultants and most robotics vendors don't have — they sell you what the technology can do. I tell you what will actually happen in your operation, in week one and in month six.
I'm PMP-credentialed. I've used Six Sigma, Lean, Agile, and Waterfall on real implementations — not in classrooms. I've designed and built RPO, BPO, and managed-service businesses from scratch. I've sat in the discovery seat across the table from operators in every vertical I name on this page. Pain, need, and desired outcome aren't a workshop exercise for me. They're how I open every conversation.
Each era looked different. The operator instincts didn't change. Discovery first. Math second. Technology third. Every time.
Headhunted at the launch of Extended Stay America — co-founded by Wayne Huizenga and George D. Johnson Jr. in January 1995. By the time I was building out their West Coast expansion, the company had two hotels open in Spartanburg and Marietta. I personally launched or ran 17 properties — typically taking over a property while it was still in the framing stage, hiring and training every staff member and manager, then running citywide awareness campaigns before the doors opened. ESA went public eight months after founding, grew to 475 hotels in 42 states over nine years, and sold to Blackstone in 2004 for $3.1 billion.
Started with direct contract work for Amazon.com in 2006. Was then hired by Integrity Staffing Solutions — Amazon's primary warehouse workforce partner — and ran the operation from 2008 through 2012. Integrated recruiting, production, and safety systems with Amazon's fulfillment infrastructure as both companies scaled. When Amazon got 10x bigger, the staffing infrastructure had to scale with it. That was my job.
Joined Intellisource when the team was 35 people in a building, figuring it out. Over the next five-plus years, I ran the Zulily account through its hypergrowth years. Landed Jet.com when they were five employees — before Marc Lore sold it to Walmart for $3.3 billion. Created FedEx's only outside-the-company peak-season transfer station infrastructure (and declined an offer to run five of their regional locations). Then I landed and ran the workforce at Tesla's Reno Gigafactory: 100% of the assembly and housekeeping workforce in a building that started with zero employees outside a handful of managers and engineers. Landed and built the Panasonic Gigafactory workforce in parallel. Also operated three construction-services companies during this period.
When my non-compete ended, I launched BlueCrew nationwide. At the time, the company was me as director, three founders, and two coders. The platform was quickly acquired by IAC. I stayed on as the most senior operator outside the C-suite through the integration and growth period — until a few months before COVID hit.
Pitched the BlueCrew-for-blue-collar idea to Poached — at the time a job board with about a million shifts on platform. They accepted. I built and launched Poached Shifts as the platform's gig-economy arm. Since then, advisory and operator work across additional ventures — plus a couple of my own startup attempts that didn't make it. Every one of them was a lesson worth keeping.
Currently leading the commercial launch of a Robotics-as-a-Service platform deploying autonomous workforces in healthcare and hospitality. Built the operator-language Service Solution framework. Designed the multi-vendor hardware strategy. Architected the subscription model, the pilot program structure, and the operator-facing sales motion. First clinical deployment scheduled summer 2026. The same playbook every era: discovery first, math second, technology third.
No pitch deck. No vendor playbook. No theoretical framework. Operational conversations, in your language, about your operation.
Forty-five minutes. I want to understand your operation, your team, your numbers, and what's on your mind. The questions I ask come from sitting across the table from operators in your vertical (and ten others) for thirty years. You'll know within the first ten minutes whether the conversation is worth your time.
I come back with a practical read on what I'd actually do — in operator language, on a single page. What's worth automating, what's not, what to build, what to buy, what to wait on. The math goes on your P&L, not in a slide. You don't sign anything to see this. If it's not useful, we part as partners.
Whether I'm in your operation hands-on or advising your team alongside other priorities, the work is operational, not theoretical. I work alongside the people who have to make it run. Engagements range from a defined sprint to ongoing fractional leadership. We figure out together what fits.
The functions you used to staff are running on a subscription. Your CFO understands what every line of new spend produces, in your own P&L language. Your team isn't replaced — the parts of their jobs nobody actually wanted to do are. Your competitors are still trying to figure out which robotics vendor to call.
You're already running.
The operators who win the next decade aren't the smartest. They're the ones who had a guide who had been through it before.
Every engagement draws from all three. The mix depends on what you're trying to do.
Translating the Physical AI hype into operator-language plans. Service Solution frameworks. Multi-vendor hardware strategy. RaaS and subscription business models. P&L impact analysis. Pilot design and deployment oversight. The math that has to work in your operation, not in a pitch deck.
Thirty years across 3PL, manufacturing, hospitality, distribution, restaurants, and healthcare. Process re-engineering. Six Sigma, Lean, Agile, and Waterfall on real implementations. PMP-credentialed project management. The disciplined operational work that turns strategy into running systems.
Recruiting and workforce transformation across four Fortune 500 ground floors. RPO and BPO design. HR, payroll, and engagement infrastructure that scales. And — most underrated — sitting across from operators and asking better questions than they've been asked before. Pain, need, and desired outcome are the entire game.
Different operations, same operator instincts.
If you're trying to figure out what AI, robotics, or automation actually means for your business — not in theory, but on your P&L — that's the conversation I want to have.