I help boards and executive teams tell the truth about where they actually are with AI, then build the culture and capability that make it real.
“This was the beginning of what I call A.I. wishing: the belief by company leaders that A.I. is magic, that you can wave its wand toward a hard problem and skip the work of solving it.”
Before you spend another dollar or cut another role in the name of AI, know which one you're actually doing.
The belief that you can wave AI's wand at a hard problem and skip the work of solving it. It's sincere, and that's what makes it dangerous. Leaders clear their calendars for demos, greenlight tools without asking what data or decisions they actually require, and mistake a working prototype for a working business.
Under pressure to show the board something, a chatbot becomes a "transformation" and a demo becomes proof of what's coming. The most damaging version is the AI layoff: cutting people before the efficiency exists, then quietly rehiring for the same work months later.
Skip step one and step three becomes theater. This is the sequence, not a menu.
Where AI actually creates value for your business, and which problems are actually worth solving. Most companies skip this and go straight to buying tools.
An honest read of three things: your people, your data, and the ROI math. That's what determines whether a pilot becomes a transformation or a stalled experiment.
Including the psychological safety that lets people tell you the truth about what's working. This is where the three pillars from Chief Impact Officer live, safety before scale, influence over authority, culture as infrastructure, and it's the work that outlasts any single AI rollout.
Not a framework consultant. I show up as a peer to your leadership, with the scars of having run it myself, and I tell you what I actually see.
A blunt, evidence-based read on which failure mode your company is actually in, and what it will take to close the gap. The starting point for most engagements.
Not pilots, not slideware. The hard questions about where AI changes the work, who owns the decision, and what your team has to learn before the tech lands.
I sit on three boards, and I've been the executive in the room briefing them. I know what good looks like from both sides of the table.
Building the psychological safety that lets people tell you the truth about what's actually working, before a rollout fails in public.
Org design, role clarity, and how decisions about AI actually get made at the top, so influence replaces mandate.
How to talk to your people about AI honestly, including what it means for their roles, without the spin that breeds sabotage and distrust.
“I don't show up with a deck of best practices and a junior team. I show up as a peer to your leadership, with the scars of having run it myself.”
Engagements run from board advisory and quarterly strategy work to embedded support through a specific AI rollout. When the work needs more hands, I bring senior leaders I've worked with for years, not a junior bench.
I spent nearly three decades proving that culture isn't soft. It's the infrastructure that determines whether transformation succeeds or fails, AI included. As Global CIO and EVP at lululemon, I led the technology that powered the company as it grew from $2B to over $10B in revenue over eight years, building world-class technology teams across four continents.
Today, through Gold Thread LLC, I advise boards, CEOs, and founders at the exact place most AI rollouts stall: the gap between what a company says it's doing with AI and what it's actually built.
The book behind the framework. Out now from 8080 Books / Simon & Schuster. The three pillars above, and the honest story of what transformation actually takes.
Order the Book →Whether you need a blunt read on your AI strategy, a board session, or an advisor who's navigated what you're navigating, I'd love to hear from you. I read every message personally.
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