35+ Years Building Things That Work
I come from operations and infrastructure, not data science. That's why I think differently about AI for professional services.
I come from operations and infrastructure, not data science. That's why I think differently about AI for professional services.
I started in infrastructure and operations. For 35+ years, I've built, scaled, and fixed things—systems, teams, processes, companies. Along the way, I learned something critical: the best innovations never come from the lab. They come from watching where the pain actually is.
In the early days, it was Unix systems and network architecture. Then virtualization, cloud infrastructure, and DevOps. Later, automation and workflow orchestration. I've spent my career in the unglamorous business of making things run—and run efficiently.
When AI started maturing (really maturing, not the hype), I saw the same pattern repeat: firms were getting it backward. They were starting with ChatGPT and looking for problems to solve. That's always backwards.
So I shifted. I went back to what I knew: Where is the real waste? What's actually choking your throughput? What can you fix in 90 days? What's a 12-month play? What's too risky given your compliance environment?
That's where AI belongs—in operational reality, not in pilots that disappear.
Professional services firms are special. You're not manufacturing widgets. Your product is expertise and time. Every hour your team spends on intake, scheduling, billing, contract review, or document prep is an hour not billed to clients. Every proposal that takes 3 days instead of 3 hours is revenue on the table.
AI can fix that. But only if you approach it operationally—with discipline, clear ROI, and accountability. Not as a nice-to-have experiment.
My first book, Mastering Automation with AI (2025), put that discipline on paper. It has since evolved into the two books that now lead my work: AI That Pays for Itself, on measurable gains inside the business you already run, and AI That Rebuilds the Business, for firms changing the business itself. Together they are the standard I hold every engagement to.
AI That Pays for Itself and AI That Rebuilds the Business (2026) — the two ends of the spectrum, and the evolution of my first book, Mastering Automation with AI (2025).
Healthcare systems, law firms, engineering consultancies, accounting practices, creative agencies. Different industries, different scale, same operating principles.
Not a data scientist. Someone who has spent 35+ years building and running real operations — as an IT leader, a business owner, and today as co-founder and CTO of an AI implementation firm.
Finalist, Best in AI & Automation, CanadianSME Small Business Awards 2024. But the real award is when a client calls to say intake went from 45 minutes to 8.
Based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and remote-first, working with firms across North America and beyond. If you need an in-person engagement—workshops, kick-off meetings, or just to sit down across the table—I can travel. I work in English; Portuguese- or Spanish-language engagements run with a translator from our team or AI-assisted translation.
I don't do everything myself. When a project is ready to build, the implementation team I most often bring in is Olyra AI — and you should know my connection to it up front:
I'm a co-founder and the CTO of Olyra AI and hold an interest in the company. Olyra brings the architects, engineers, and integration specialists who build and run the systems.
Olyra's workflow automation and integration product. The connective tissue that makes everything talk.
What this means for you: when Olyra could be the right fit, I'll say so and remind you of my connection, show you at least one alternative, and hold Olyra to the same metric and stop criteria as anyone else. If you'd rather work with a team I have no connection to, your asking is reason enough. And most of what I recommend involves buying nothing.
I'm not here to tell you AI is magic. I'm here to help you find 2–3 high-impact use cases in your firm, validate them, implement them properly, and move your needle in 90 days. Then we do it again for the next wave.
That's the job. Not hype. Implementation.
Ready to talk?
30 minutes. No agenda except getting honest about where you are and what's realistic to move in the next 90 days.
Schedule a Discovery Call