This is Thomas.

The first network I ever fixed wasn't in a data center. It was at Werner Hyundai, after a lightning strike damaged the network badly enough to need rebuilding. That was 2015. There was no cloud strategy yet, no platform team, just a network to rebuild, and it turned out to be excellent training for everything that came after.

A few support and IT roles later, I was building Baldwin Risk Partners' entire AWS footprint from scratch and migrating thousands of users onto it. Cloud had become the thing I actually do. I've spent the 9+ years building and scaling cloud infrastructureAWS, Azure & GCP (AWS, Azure & GCP) since, moving from hands-on support work through consulting and MSP engagements and into platform leadership. My path hasn't been the traditional one, and that's exactly what makes me effective: I've seen cloud from every angle.

Today, I lead a lean cloud platform engineering team of 5High-Performance Team (High-Performance Team) at The Baldwin GroupRegulated Insurance Enterprise (Regulated Insurance Enterprise), where we own the infrastructure that powers every application team in the organization. We're deep in implementing AI at scaleEnterprise AI & ML Ops (Enterprise AI & ML Ops) and driving API and integration strategyEnterprise Integration Architecture (Enterprise Integration Architecture) across the enterprise, building the systems that let a regulated insurance company adopt AI responsibly, connect its systems without falling apart, and move fast without breaking compliance.

In that role: $100K+ in annual cloud cost savingsFinOps & Optimization (FinOps & Optimization), disaster recovery reduced from 24 hours to 4Business Continuity (Business Continuity), and GitHub CopilotAI-Assisted Development (AI-Assisted Development) adopted org-wide to help developers ship faster. That disaster recovery number means more to me than it probably should. Years after a lightning strike damaged a dealership's network, I ended up building the system that makes sure nothing at The Baldwin Group has to wait that long again.

Before this, I cut my teeth at SlalomConsulting & Client Delivery (Consulting & Client Delivery) as a cloud consultant, shipping TerraformInfrastructure as Code (Infrastructure as Code), leading migration teams, and delivering for clients across healthcare, hospitality, government, and financial services. Before that, I was at Think|StackMSP & AWS Migrations (MSP & AWS Migrations) running AWS migrations, and before that, in technical support roles that taught me the fundamentals from the ground up.

But I'm not just about the tech. I think the best teams actually enjoy each other's company, so I make room for that: a session of Dungeons and Dragons, a rowdy happy hour. I also make sure the people on my team hear, specifically, what impact they're having, not just that they did a good job. I invest in the people as much as the platform.