Advisory
Through my consulting practice, Innodative, I advise boards, leadership teams, and founders on artificial intelligence and emerging technology: separating genuine capability from hype, and deciding what to do about it. Three decades of applying computational methods to hard problems, from cosmological surveys to financial markets, now brought to the decisions organizations actually face.
Decisions I Help Leaders Make
Where AI is actually useful: which capabilities matter for your business, and which are mostly noise.
What to build, buy, or wait on: evaluating vendors, models, and internal capability against what the technology can really do.
What the board needs to understand: the strategic, financial, operational, and governance implications of adopting these tools.
Where AI does not belong: recognizing when the costs and risks outweigh the return, and saying so.
Philosophy
Effective technology advice begins with business problems, not technology solutions. The question is never whether to adopt AI. It is what specific problems these tools might solve, and whether the solutions justify the costs and risks. The goal is not to recommend technology; it is to help leaders decide where it belongs.
Ways of Working
Board and advisory roles
Board member, advisory board member, or startup advisor for organizations where emerging technology is central to strategy. I bring an independent voice to decisions that are too often made on vendor claims and headlines.
Executive advisory
Working directly with leadership teams weighing AI and emerging technology decisions: strategy and governance, use case identification, risk assessment, vendor evaluation, and the sequencing of technology investments. Particular depth in financial markets and financial data, the subject of my current research and writing. I also advise accounting and finance teams on AI and automation in financial reporting and audit workflows.
Talks and workshops
Tailored sessions for boards, leadership teams, and professional audiences. Every session is built around your context and the decisions in front of your team, not a generic AI presentation.
Relevant Background
Astrophysicist by training (Ph.D., Johns Hopkins; Caltech), with more than 150 published articles spanning astrophysics, data science, and business analytics. Chief Disruption Officer and Professor of Accountancy at the Gies College of Business, University of Illinois. Recipient of the 2021 ACM SIGMOD Systems Award for contributions to the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Member of the CNBC Disruptor 50 Academic Advisory Board. The full record is on the About page.
In the press: Poets&Quants · CNBC · AACSB Insights
Selected Engagements
University of Illinois Research Park, multi-year: Served for several years as data science advisor to both the Research Park and its member companies, helping corporate innovation teams take machine learning applications from idea to working practice, mentoring the analysts and interns who built them, and helping organize and run the Park’s Big Data Summit.
Diversified industrial holding company: Briefed the presidents of every operating unit on AI and its business implications, establishing a common baseline for technology decisions across the portfolio.
Energy utility: Advised the innovation team on machine learning applications, with results that improved sustainability and reduced energy use.
National organization serving older adults: Guided the innovation lab’s machine learning work in support of its members; the team went on to demonstrate its work at CES.
Education-technology company: Took the team from a first demonstration of AI avatars to building and deploying their own.
Selected Organizations
Organizations I have worked with across advisory, board, workshop, and training engagements.
How Engagements Run
Engagements are fixed-scope and run through Innodative, not billed as standalone hours. A typical engagement includes a planning conversation to align on your context and goals, preparation and materials tailored to your organization, the session or advisory work itself, and defined follow-up.
If a broader effort grows out of an initial engagement, such as ongoing advisory work or a program for your team, that is scoped separately as its own engagement.
Getting Started
Write to principal@innodative.com with a short description of your situation and what you are trying to decide. If it looks like a fit, the next step is a brief call to confirm scope and terms.