Advisory & Board
I take on a limited slate of board and operating-partner engagements outside of my work at Paragon and IREX. The right fit is a company at a real inflection point — a turnaround, a roll-up, a category build, or a transition between founders and professional capital — where the operating problem and the capital problem need to be solved as one thing.
01 — Who I Work With
Lower-mid-market and growth-equity funds with technology, SaaS, AI, or MSP assets that need an operating partner on the board or in the company. I have run the playbook on both sides — as the operator delivering 25%+ EBITDA inside twelve months, and as the chair receiving the reporting. The work is most useful at the 100-day, post-close transition, the mid-hold value-creation pivot, and the exit-readiness inflection.
Companies between founders and professional management. Companies between Series B and growth equity. Companies that have shipped a product and now have to build an operation around it. The role is typically a director seat or an executive chair, with active involvement in the operating cadence rather than quarterly attendance.
Energy, healthcare, financial services, public safety. Founders who are doing what I am doing at Paragon — running the product, the operation, and the capital structure as one practice — and who need a peer who has done it before. This is the smallest slice of my advisory work and the one I take on most selectively.
02 — Engagement Shapes
A formal director seat on a venture or PE-backed company, with monthly board engagement and active involvement in CEO support, operating cadence, and quarterly investor reporting. Typical term: two to three years. Compensation is the standard director equity-plus-cash mix.
Best fit: a board that needs an operator with capital fluency, not another investor or another generalist independent.
An operating partner role with a private equity firm, retained to support a specific portfolio company or thesis. The work spans diligence, post-close 100-day execution, mid-hold value-creation pivots, and exit-readiness preparation. Engagement structure is typically a retainer plus carry participation.
Best fit: a fund underwriting an asset that needs an operator who has personally delivered the playbook the deck claims — turnaround, roll-up integration, technical debt resolution, or AI/SaaS commercialization.
Interim or fractional operating leadership for companies between permanent CEOs, in turnaround, or post-funding restructuring. The work is hands-on — I run the operating cadence, work the executive team, and hold the P&L. I have done this at Sunset Technologies, Ivinex, and effectively across the AuthenticID engagement. Typical engagement: six to nine months.
Best fit: a board that needs the operating problem solved by a senior operator while the CEO search runs, or a founder transitioning out of the day-to-day.
A defined-scope advisory engagement around a specific decision: capital structure design, M&A diligence, product strategy at a major inflection, or AI architecture for a regulated-industry build. Smaller surface area than the roles above, but the same depth of work within the scope.
Best fit: a CEO or board with a specific decision to get right, looking for a peer who has made the same call before.
03 — What I Bring
Twenty years of quantified outcomes — 90% technical debt eliminated at AuthenticID, 71% at Ford, 8% EBITDA uplift across three merged MSPs at Sunset, $14M in new recurring revenue at Henry Schein. I have run the playbook the board memo is asking for. The numbers are on the Track Record page, not in a pitch deck.
QSBS, § 1045, ITC/PTC transferability, multi-entity structuring, JV economics, and exit math. I structure my own deals at Paragon. In a board context this means I can read the cap table, the term sheet, and the operating plan as one document — and tell the board which one is constraining the others.
I write production code. For boards overseeing AI infrastructure companies in regulated industries, that is rare and useful. I can sit across from a CTO, look at the architecture, and form an independent view of whether the technical strategy matches the commercial one.
I chair three boards and read board materials the way an LP would. Investor reporting, KPI dashboards, incentive alignment, change management — the work that makes a board effective rather than performative. I bring that same discipline to the boards I sit on.
04 — Roles
Anonymized or named per the engagement's confidentiality terms — full reference list available on request.
05 — Inquiries
Most inquiries reach me through introduction — from a fund I have worked with, a board I have served on, a founder I have advised, or a search consultant who knows my work. The form below is for the inquiries that arrive cold.
A good first message names the company, the situation, the type of engagement under consideration, and the person making the introduction (if any). I respond personally within two business days. If the fit is plausible, we schedule a 30-minute call to understand the situation; if it is not, I say so directly and try to point you to someone better suited.
I take on new engagements on a rolling basis with a hard ceiling on simultaneous commitments. The Paragon work is full-time, and the advisory slate is sized so that every engagement gets the attention it deserves.
06 — Inquiry