Making Institutions More Capable

From public service to institutional transformation

I began my career in local government, working at the intersection of public policy, economic development, and organizational operations.

Eventually, I became Director of Economic Development for the City of San Diego, where I was responsible for re-establishing a department that had previously been disbanded.

Rebuilding an organization teaches you something important: before you can transform how an institution works, you sometimes have to rebuild its mandate, credibility, and ability to execute.

I later served as the City's Deputy Chief Operating Officer for Smart and Sustainable Communities, overseeing a portfolio that included development services, economic development, planning, mobility, and sustainability.

In that role, I helped lead transformation across a $1.4 billion-a-year municipal organization serving more than 1.4 million residents.

Much of our work centered on a challenge familiar to anyone who has worked in government: the gap between what an institution is expected to deliver and what its systems, processes, and organizational structures actually allow it to accomplish.

We worked to modernize service delivery, digitize processes, improve the use of data, and redesign how departments interacted with residents and businesses.

After leaving City Hall, I moved further into technology and entrepreneurship, becoming Vice President of Data Strategy at The Atlas and co-founding Metropolis IQ Technology.

I also invested in developing my own technical capabilities, training in data engineering and software development and becoming directly involved in architecting and building applications, including AI-powered systems.

That experience changed my perspective. I wasn't just evaluating technology from an executive's chair. I was learning firsthand what it takes to build and deploy it.

Later, as Head of Transformation at Cubic Transportation Systems, I helped lead the company's efforts to move artificial intelligence from individual experiments toward a coordinated enterprise capability.

Cubic operates transportation technology around the world, supporting systems where reliability, security, and operational continuity are essential.

Our challenge wasn't simply identifying promising AI applications. It was establishing the strategy, governance, technology capabilities, operational ownership, and measurement necessary to deploy AI responsibly and create measurable business value.

Across government and enterprise technology, I kept encountering the same underlying challenge: the technology often moves faster than the institutions trying to adopt it.

Building what I wish I'd had

I've returned full time to Metropolis IQ Technology, the company I co-founded, as its President and CEO.

In many ways, Metropolis IQ is an attempt to solve a problem I experienced throughout my career in economic development.

Government agencies, economic development organizations, workforce boards, chambers of commerce, and other community-serving institutions are constantly being asked to make important decisions about their local economies.

Where are businesses growing? What skills will employers need? Which neighborhoods are attracting investment? Where are visitors coming from? Are economic development efforts actually producing results?

The information needed to answer these questions often exists, but accessing it, connecting it, and turning it into useful analysis can be expensive and technically demanding.

Larger organizations can afford specialized data providers, analysts, and consultants. Smaller organizations frequently cannot.

With MIQ Studio, we're working to change that. Our platform brings together economic, workforce, and location data with AI-powered analysis, allowing organizations to explore their communities, evaluate opportunities, and generate useful insights without needing an extensive internal analytical team.

What excites me isn't simply what AI makes technically possible. It's the prospect of giving smaller organizations capabilities that were previously available only to those with substantial resources.

I believe this kind of technology can help level the playing field, particularly for institutions doing important work in communities that have historically been underserved.

Why economic opportunity matters to me

My interest in institutional effectiveness has always been connected to a broader belief about economic opportunity.

Throughout my career, I've been drawn to organizations that help close that gap, whether by expanding access to capital, supporting entrepreneurs, or creating opportunities for young people.

I serve as Vice Chair of the Board of Momentus Capital and chair its Governance and Nominations Committee.

Momentus Capital's family of mission-driven financial institutions helps finance small businesses, affordable housing, community facilities, and other investments that conventional capital markets too often overlook.

My role focuses on governance: helping ensure the organization has the leadership, structures, and discipline necessary to fulfill its mission over the long term.

I believe strong governance is an essential part of making opportunity sustainable. Institutions need to remain effective through leadership changes, economic cycles, and difficult decisions.

I also serve on the Executive Committee of Connect San Diego, an organization that supports entrepreneurship and innovation in our region.

I approach that work both as a former economic development director who understands the importance of entrepreneurship to a regional economy and as a founder who understands how difficult it can be to turn an idea into a viable company.

Early-stage entrepreneurs frequently lack the resources, relationships, and access that established businesses take for granted. Supporting them is an investment in the next generation of businesses, jobs, and economic opportunity.

Another experience that shaped my perspective was my involvement with Access Youth Academy during my time at the City of San Diego.

As Director of Economic Development, I made the decision to commit $5.5 million in federal Community Development Block Grant funding to support the development of the organization's permanent facility.

It was a significant professional risk because the City faced substantial financial exposure if the project failed.

But I believed in what Access was accomplishing through its combination of education, mentorship, and athletics, and in the long-term impact that expanding its capacity could have on young people.

Seeing what the organization has accomplished since has reinforced my belief that thoughtful institutional decisions can create opportunities that last for generations.

What I've learned about AI and institutional change

My experience across government, enterprise transformation, and technology development has shaped how I think about artificial intelligence.

AI has extraordinary potential to improve how organizations operate, but the technology itself is often the easiest part of the problem.

Below the AI are questions about data, architecture, security, governance, and technology infrastructure. Above it are questions about workflow redesign, organizational culture, leadership, incentives, accountability, and how success is measured.

Organizations that focus only on the model or the application often discover that a successful demonstration doesn't translate into meaningful operational improvement.

That challenge is particularly consequential for institutions that provide essential public services.

In government, transportation, utilities, and other mission-critical environments, technology must be introduced in ways that protect reliability, accountability, and public trust.

But I think the challenge facing institutions is becoming even larger.

Governments, in particular, face a dual responsibility. They need to figure out how to use AI to improve their own operations and service delivery while also helping communities navigate AI's broader economic and societal consequences.

That means thinking not just about productivity, but also about workforce disruption, economic inclusion, infrastructure demands, public confidence, and the rules governing increasingly capable technologies.

Even institutions that have mastered conventional digital transformation will face difficult choices in this new environment.

I believe the organizations that navigate this transition successfully will be those willing to rethink their operating models, develop new capabilities, and recognize that adopting AI is as much a leadership and institutional challenge as a technical one.

What I'm working on and thinking about now

Much of my current work sits at the intersection of three interests: building useful technology, strengthening institutional capacity, and understanding how AI will reshape the economy and society.

At Metropolis IQ, I'm focused on turning sophisticated data and analytical capabilities into practical tools that organizations can use to make better decisions.

Through my writing, I explore the challenges institutions face as technology advances faster than their ability to adapt.

I'm especially interested in the questions that don't have easy technical answers:

• How do institutions become better at adopting new technology without compromising their core responsibilities?
• How should organizations redesign work when AI changes what people and machines can do?
• What responsibilities do governments have in preparing communities for the economic consequences of AI?
• How do we ensure the benefits of new technology extend beyond the organizations and individuals already best positioned to capture them?
• What does effective leadership look like when change is happening faster than institutional decision-making?

I explore many of these questions in my writing and in The AI Transformation Field Guide, which follows the path from AI pilots to operational transformation.

My perspective is informed by having worked inside institutions, led efforts to change them, and built technology intended to make them more effective.

I don't believe technology alone solves institutional problems. But I do believe that, used thoughtfully, it can help us build more effective organizations and expand economic opportunity.

And that remains the work I'm most interested in doing.

If you're working on similar challenges, building useful technology, or thinking about how institutions and communities can navigate what's coming next, I'd welcome the conversation.