I’m not exactly sure of the moment in time and space in which I met Alex (at an event) several years ago. Given my background in the big data space, including at Apache Hadoop, Hortonworks, Cloudera etc. for more than a decade and a half I had no doubt in my mind that I had been at the forefront of the revolution that led enterprises to leverage massive amounts of data. At the time, the big data revolution had an unforeseeable impact. 

Yet, Alex blew my mind and gave me a new perspective on data - for the emerging world of computer vision in the context of autonomous vehicles. Since then, Scale and Alex have been synonymous in my head with being at the very forefront of AI.

I was privileged to take a long break post my stint in the big data space. I’ve wryly noted to friends that while I played my part in helping the Enterprise manage the entire lifecycle of data, I had a pole position in the entire corporate lifecycle too - from spinning out of Yahoo to found Hortonworks with my friends and being part of the team which built, at the time, the fastest enterprise software company to reach $100M in revenues, to going public in 3.5 years after founding, merging with its closest competitor, and taking the combined company private - the full circle.

I met Alex again at the end of last summer and was incredibly impressed with how far Scale had progressed. I had been working with a few startups and Alex kindly invited me to come over and pitch in at Scale - in any and every way. I was hooked immediately. 

As a technologist, the work at Scale is obviously appealing - especially when aligned with the incredible team here with folks like Elliot, Russell, Vijay, Kate, Riley and many, many more. Like the rest of the world, I was absolutely enamored with the promise and the proximity of AI’s value delivery. Much, much, more than big data, AI will impact every aspect of human endeavor and I could not believe my fortune in being this close to the opportunity epicenter to once again help enterprises realize value from this incredible technology. AI will impact our collective lives in every imaginable way, and in many ways that we lack the imagination to currently foresee.

So, at the end of my term straddling the new year, when Alex and the team at Scale offered me the chance to be a more permanent part of the company as Chief Product and Technology Officer - I absolutely jumped at the opportunity! I couldn’t be more excited, and thankful!