This move marks a significant new chapter for me. I’m making the transition from Choreograph, WPP’s global data and tech company—part of one of the largest advertising and media holding companies in the world—to Tealium, the independent and industry-defining leader in the customer data space.
When you make a move like this, many people ask, “Why?” For me, the “why” is crystal clear, and it centers on three core beliefs: Vision, Foundation, and Agility.
A Gracious Look Back
First, I want to express my immense gratitude for the decade I spent at WPP and Choreograph. As CTO of Custom Solutions, I had the privilege of working alongside some of the most innovative leaders in the advertising and data world.
That role gave me a rare opportunity: a front-row seat to the data ecosystems of the largest, most iconic brands on the planet. It was an invaluable experience in understanding global data challenges at an immense scale. I saw, firsthand, the massive, complex architectures and the urgent need to activate customer data responsibly and intelligently.
That experience is precisely what led me to my next step.
The Pivot: Why Now and Why Tealium?
We are at an inflection point. The buzz around AI, personalization, and customer-centricity isn’t just noise; it’s the new benchmark. But I’ve also seen that even the most ambitious AI strategies crumble if they are built on a fractured, siloed, or untrusted data foundation.
My search for “what’s next” was focused on finding the company best positioned to solve this fundamental problem. All roads led to Tealium.
Here’s why I’m so confident in this move:
- A Vision Beyond the ‘CDP’ In a crowded market, Tealium’s vision is sharp. While the industry knows Tealium as the leading Customer Data Platform (CDP), my experience revealed it as so much more. It’s a complete Data Orchestration Platform.
This distinction is critical. In the age of AI and rapidly moving data sources—from web to mobile, from IoT to in-store—brands don’t just need a place to store data. They need a system to collect, enrich, govern, and orchestrate that data in real-time to every endpoint that needs it. Tealium is focused on being the best at this critical, foundational layer.
- The True Foundation for AI. AI is the topic of every board meeting, but AI is only as good as the data it learns from.
This is where Tealium’s power as a data orchestration platform becomes clear. It provides the clean, correlated, comprehensive, and real-time customer profile that is the essential prerequisite for any successful AI initiative. You can’t build a predictive model, a generative experience, or a personalization engine on a data swamp. Tealium provides the data bedrock that inspires and enables—rather than limits—a brand’s AI ambitions.
- A Culture of Agility and Innovation. Having worked within a large holding company, I developed a deep appreciation for scale. But I also learned that true innovation often requires a different kind of structure.
I was drawn to Tealium’s culture of agility and its singular focus. As Global Field CTO, I have the flexibility to work directly with customers, partner with engineering, and help shape product strategy based on real-world feedback—all at a pace that the market demands. This nimbleness is a strategic advantage, allowing us to respond to customer needs and industry shifts far more rapidly.
What’s Next?
In my new role as Global Field CTO, I’ll be a bridge. I’ll be partnering with enterprise leaders to help them untangle their complex data ecosystems and build a true foundation for their AI-driven future. I’ll be listening to the market and working with our product teams to ensure our roadmap continues to define the industry.
I am incredibly energized to bring my experience from the agency world to a company that is building the very tools that world depends on.
If you’re a brand leader looking to make sense of your data strategy in the age of AI, please reach out. Let’s build something great.
