I started out making things look right. Twenty years later I make them run right too — networks, servers, local AI rigs, and the occasional website for a cause I believe in.
I didn't come up through a server room. I came up through graphic arts — layouts, branding, billboard graphics — where you learn fast that if something doesn't look and feel right, people won't use it.
That curiosity pulled me into building websites, then into the networks those sites lived on, then into the servers behind the networks. One layer at a time, I kept asking "how does this actually work?" until I was the person other people called when it didn't.
Today I run technology for a group of businesses. Some days that's long-range planning with leadership; other days it's pulling cable and racking hardware myself. I like it that way. The best way to understand a system is to have your hands in it.
Technology serves people, not the other way around. I start by understanding what a team actually needs before I touch a single setting.
Planned well, documented, secure. The best infrastructure is the kind nobody has to think about because it simply works.
Strategy matters, but so does knowing how the hardware fits together. I still build the servers and run the cable.
Outside the day-to-day, I'm deep into running AI locally — building the servers, testing language models in LM Studio, and containerizing tools with Docker to see what's genuinely useful versus just hype.
And I still make time for design. Branding and website work for charitable organizations keeps the creative side sharp.
Whether it's a project, a question about running AI locally, or a nonprofit that needs a hand with its site — I'm always up for a good conversation.