In the beginning I was a web developer that would build and sell local business web sites just to make some cash to take monthly trips to Myrtle Beach. After that got boring, e-commerce became my obsession. Everything from building all sorts of online storefronts, ordering systems and digital marketing campaigns for almost everyone located in central Columbus - before we left cold for the warm beaches and brown water of South Carolina.



That's when things really started getting fun and I found my way into the world of hotel marketing management agencies. Websites, Booking Systems, User Tracking and Analysis platforms, digital advertising and dynamic re-marketing campaigns. There were only a handful of engineers in the Myrtle Beach dev and tech consulting scene - and we came up with some really creative projects - way before hardware hacking was even really a thing. Automated dog treat dispensers, Four Square Check-in and reward systems, Interactive Touchscreen Kiosks with randomly generated clouds as the wallpaper background, and an automated access/check-in/billing and membership platform for the local co-work.

You can only build so many hotel websites before boredom sets in. So after three years of sun and sand we ended up relocating back to Ohio just outside Columbus and I started consulting with a medium sized university where my contracts were focused around developing Drupal applications and integrating with their enterprise system written in Cold Fusion.

While under contract with the University, some particularly unique challenges were sent my way - like finding a way to seamlessly integrate an open source PHP based osTicket application inside the colleges Cold Fusion based School Information System - by stripping around 67% of osTickets UI and figuring out how to pass user authentication credentials between the two platforms. It was a fun challenge and worked really well - giving departments their first ever universal ticketing system.



At the end of my contracted time with the University, I was offered a full time position on their application development team of one... now two.

Over the next 8 years, my role has grown and changed drastically. Application Developer to Software Development and Digital Marketing Team Lead to the Director of Development and Business Applications and finally, ending my career as CIO for the past three years. The past 8 years have gone by so fast and our team accomplished an unbelievable number of initiatives, projects and improvements.

As CIO these past three years, I have learned more than I could have ever imagined and I could have not asked for a more loyal, dedicated and hard working group of people to lead.

It really has been an amazing journey these past several years however all good things must come to an end and it's time to find my next challenge, can't wait to see what's next...