I spot platform shifts early and I've built through the last several. The current one is AI.
SSL on the early internet. The privacy management category. Machine learning for fraud prevention. Cloud-native core banking. Each time I was building the new platform while the market was still arguing about whether the shift was real. Today I lead a product and engineering org through the AI shift, and I build with the tools myself.
Six platform shifts, each from the inside
Each cycle rewards a different set of instincts. My first product job was building a new business inside a company, and every cycle since has rewarded that same move.
Scaled a PFC recycling unit, then founded a tool-exhaust analysis business inside the company.
Scaled the original SSL certificate line, the base of a $500M P&L.
The seal business was dying. Whiteboarded the second act and built the privacy management category.
Led product for an international fraud-prevention business with machine learning at its core.
The first cloud-native, composable core banking platform at scale.
SaaS pivot, acquisition by FIS, and now an AI-native product and engineering org.
Working in the AI shift
Building it myself
I designed and run a multi-agent operating system for my own job: agents for competitive intelligence, market analysis, SDLC transformation and the writing and analysis that used to eat the week. The product executive role is being redefined right now, and I'd rather shape it from the keyboard than read about it.
Changing how the team builds
Moving a product and engineering org to AI-native software development while the roadmap keeps shipping. Two company-wide AI hackathons so far; the July 2026 cycle ran 10 primary teams and a dozen more across SDLC automation, legacy code migration, and quality and security.
Changing what the product does
Putting agentic capability into live products, where the bar is higher than a demo: real customers, real workflows, and decisions someone has to be able to explain afterward.
Running product and engineering as one org
When the cost of building drops, the handoff between product and engineering becomes the bottleneck. I've held combined product and technology scope at Onfido, Amount and FIS, and I think that's where the role is heading.
What changed on my watch
Product management, design, engineering and technology for the lending and account-opening business FIS formed when it acquired Amount.
Integrating the platform and team into FIS while leading its shift to AI-native development and agentic products.
Joined as first CPO to reposition the company as a SaaS lending and account-origination platform; took on engineering and technology.
Strategy to public launch in six months, expansion into credit unions, acquired by FIS in August 2025.Exit
Ran a 200+ person global org from Amsterdam and owned the global roadmap across Europe, APAC and the Americas: product management, product marketing, strategy and M&A, partnerships, pricing, solution engineering and delivery.
Product at the first cloud-native core banking platform at scale. Ran the M&A strategy that named loan origination as an adjacency a core company should own, then went and ran one; a core company bought it 2.5 years later.
First US-based C-level hire at an international fraud-prevention company with machine learning at its core. Built the product, design and program team to 50+ and led the ML platform as the business expanded from the UK into the US and beyond.
ARR from $10M to over $100M. Acquired by Entrust for $650M in 2024.Exit
Hired to find the second act for a company whose non-technical trust-seal business was dying. Defined the Data Privacy Management Platform from a whiteboard, built the governance suite, sold it to Fortune 100 companies, and led the rename to TrustArc.
Created the privacy management category; the platform became the core of the business for the decade that followed.
Scaled the original SSL certificate business, organically and through the acquisition of the #2 competitor, and patented a new channel licensing product.
The business reached a $500M P&L and sold to Symantec for $1.3B in 2010.Exit
Across the table from CEOs and founders
The operating work keeps the advice grounded, and the advising keeps me honest about what a founder actually needs from a product and technology leader.