About
From Data Consumer
to Executive Builder
My journey in data and analytics has taken me from detection analyst to executive, from inheriting systems to building them, from running models to building the organizations that run them. None of it happened alone.
For 20 years I was a data consumer before I ran the infrastructure myself. That perspective changes everything about how you build and what you prioritize. I have been on both sides of that table — and that is what makes the difference.
Every leader who gave me room to fail, every team member who trusted me with their career, every business partner who bet on a data organization that did not yet exist — they are all part of this story.
Leadership Philosophy
Culture Over Architecture
Protect the Culture
You have to protect the culture as aggressively as you protect the architecture. At Jenius Bank I designed and ran the team town halls. Not because it was required. Because culture does not maintain itself, and a distributed team will drift without a leader who shows up consistently, tells the truth about what is working, and makes space for people to do the same.
Ownership Over Execution
The method I have found most effective is giving teams ownership of their results. Not the tasks — the outcomes. When people define what success looks like, they defend it differently. That shift is the difference between a team that performs and a team that leads.
The Metric That Matters
The leaders I admire most are not the ones who built the biggest systems. They are the ones whose teams ran better after they left. That is the standard I hold myself to. Alumni of my teams now lead major data and analytics programs across financial services, technology, consulting, and beyond.
What I Build
I build data organizations that didn't exist before. Not just the tech stack — the people, the governance, the culture, the accountability. Hiring for technical skill is the easy part. The harder work is identifying the cultural components that multiply the technical skill.
Career Journey
22+ Years of Building
Executive Director, SVP — Head of Data & Analytics
Jenius Bank
Built a complete data & analytics organization from zero. Four-year journey: infrastructure, data, visualization, governance.
Sr. Director, Analytics
Ally Bank
Rapid impact. Built analytics capabilities and delivered results within the first year at a new institution.
Director, AI Product Development
USAA
Redirected the AI Lab toward life event detection and digital engagement, generating ~$15M in revenue impact. CSO50 Award recipient.
Director, Fraud & Enterprise Analytics
USAA
Led fraud analytics at enterprise scale. Invented a patented fraud signal consolidation method. Managed teams across detection, modeling, and reporting.
Manager, SOC
USAA
First leadership role. Began understanding the gap between what teams build and what the business actually needs.
Progressive Roles
USAA
Started as a data consumer, learning how organizations create, store, and fail to use their own data. This perspective became foundational.
Education
Ph.D., Human Capital Development
University of Southern Mississippi
M.S., Sociology
University of Texas at San Antonio
B.A., Sociology
University of Texas at Austin
Recognition
Keynote & Panelist
Machine learning & AI conferences — San Francisco, Boston, Iceland
CSO50 Award Recipient
Big Data/Agile Rules Lab: $4M in prevented losses
U.S. Patent Holder
Fraud signal consolidation — One Member, One Alert