Autobiography
I started in the arts: a year at AADA in Pasadena, voice and movement and stagecraft. That training paid forward. I voiced a warlock in the Season 8 animated comic for Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I didn’t finish the second year because I was already working. That pattern (learn by doing, get promoted, move to the next problem) repeated for 35 years.
After AADA I built databases for a joint venture with the RAND Corporation, then produced a CD-ROM with Stephen Hawking. I founded Cloud 9 Interactive, designed franchise characters with Ren & Stimpy alumni, then spent two years at Disney Interactive where I delivered 101 Dalmatians under budget and early, day-and-date with the theatrical release, an industry first. Steve Jobs renamed one of my tools.
CarsDirect.com was the internet era at full speed: founding team, $3B valuation, $100M budget. Around 2001, as I started auditioning, I enrolled in the Groundlings Training Academy to hone my craft and sharpen my public speaking, poise, and ability to think on my feet. I made it to the Writing Program (Level 3 of 5), one step from the performance track that produced Will Ferrell, Melissa McCarthy, and Kristen Wiig. Then advertising (Chiat\Day, Saatchi & Saatchi), then a decade of agency and production work, hundreds of concurrent franchise campaigns.
The Reconnection was a masterclass in operations at scale: COO of an international wellness organization, 150+ week-long events across the globe, 750 to 800 attendees each. I inherited a business losing millions year over year, with cash payments, massive losses, no systems, no accountability. I upgraded to digital terminals, systematized the logistics (housing, food, venue, travel, VAT, merchandise, book publishing and distribution across multiple countries), built marketing campaigns that started five months before each event, and managed all staff. First year as COO: $11 million in new profit.
Tesla Energy was the longest single run: nearly six years, Solar Roof installer to Design & Engineering PM Lead. I transformed the PreCon department from a cost center into a profit center and built relationships with every major California utility.
Now I’m building AI companies: 1Plan, saor.io, Attorney Finder, HCFX. The degree I’m pursuing here formalizes everything I’ve already done. The next step is an MBA or a graduate program in AI/ML.