I learned technology by being in the middle of it.
I came to Michigan from Daugavpils, Latvia, in 1994, ten years old, a few years after the Soviet Union ended, and grew up in the suburbs outside of Detroit. Political science degree at Michigan State, master's in public administration. Nobody would have picked me to write software for Apple or to run technology for a company. I did both, because I stopped waiting to be qualified.
Reynolds and Reynolds first, helping dealerships make their software work. Then DP Fox Ventures, where the reports I needed didn't exist, so I taught myself to code and built them. That took me to DataStax, then to Apple for five and a half years and 44 applications. In 2023 I came back to DP Fox Ventures as CIO to lead technology, data, marketing and AI for the Fox Motors group, and we built most of it ourselves.
Along the way I spent six months inside one dealership, answering phones and sitting in 7 a.m. huddles. It changed how I lead more than any system I've built. Today I'm Chief Technology & Product Officer at Clarivoy.
The path so far
- 2011Reynolds and ReynoldsSolutions Specialist
- 2012DP Fox VenturesSystems, then data, for the Fox Motors group
- 2015DataStaxSolutions Engineer
- 2018AppleSoftware Development Engineer (ICT5)
- 2023DP Fox VenturesChief Information Officer and SVP, over the Fox Motors group
- 2026ClarivoyChief Technology and Product Officer
2011
Reynolds and Reynolds
Solutions Specialist
Out of a master's in public administration and into car dealerships, helping owners make their software work. It's where I learned how a dealership actually runs.
2012
DP Fox Ventures
Systems, then data, for the Fox Motors group
Joined DP Fox Ventures, the company behind the Fox Motors dealer group, to run its dealership systems. Taught myself to code and built its first business intelligence dashboards from a blank page.
- people now use the BI platform I started
- 1,500+
2015
DataStax
Solutions Engineer
Distributed databases, proof-of-concept builds and high-availability systems: how software survives, and how it fails. Then back to DP Fox Ventures as director of data and systems.
2018
Apple
Software Development Engineer (ICT5)
Five and a half years building the tools Apple's US sales organization runs on, from quota planning to launch readiness.
- applications shipped
- 44
- code repositories
- 150+
- users across three regions
- 6,800
2023
DP Fox Ventures
Chief Information Officer and SVP, over the Fox Motors group
Back to lead technology, data, marketing and AI for dozens of dealerships across more than sixty brands, building much of it in-house rather than buying it: Fox Nexus AI, a conversational layer over the group's live data, and the security and FTC Safeguards program behind it, from MFA in every store to vendor due diligence and incident response.
- questions asked of the AI assistant we built
- 7,647
- fewer missed calls, in under 30 days
- 90%
- to analyze 2,000 customer reviews
- 15 min
2026
Clarivoy
Chief Technology and Product Officer
Leading product and engineering for an independent marketing attribution platform that shows dealers, agencies and OEMs which marketing actually sells cars.
On stage and off
I'm told I'm part data person, part storyteller and part comedian. I'd rather tell you what failed than show you a highlight reel.
Off stage I advise a few teams a year on what to build, what to buy and who to trust with it. If that's you, write.
I row every day. I've been a gamer my whole life. I speak Russian fluently, I've spoken in the US and internationally, and I live in Michigan.
The line on my LinkedIn banner is the one I try to live by: build the future, don't observe it.
Say hello.
If you want me on a stage, if you're stuck on something I've built before, or if you just want to talk shop, write to me. I read everything myself.