What inspired you to join Brightspot in an operating role earlier this year after serving on the board for a few years?
It was a tremendous honor to join Brightspot as a board member, but stepping into an operating role was driven by something deeper: I believe in this product, I believe in the people who are its beating heart, and I believe in the promise of Brightspot. There’s a magic here that’s hard to replicate, giving Brightspot an edge in a very competitive field.
As a board member, you get the 30,000-foot view. That perspective is valuable, but I wanted more than observation. I wanted to be a co-pilot with Raleigh helping move the needle forward and fly this incredible plane we have. Brightspot already has all the right ingredients: a mature, battle-tested and secure CMS that’s trusted by some of the best companies in the world, and a customer base we’re privileged to serve.
And while we punch above our weight class against some of the biggest competitors in the industry, I saw the opportunity to add thrust, calibration, and focus — to help us gain altitude with the right attitude.
That attitude is best captured in a word I love: humbitious. We are, and must remain, humble, grounded, respectful, customer-first. But we must also be ambitious, hungry to lead, to innovate, to win. Those two qualities don’t just coexist; together, they define our culture and fuel our future.
As you look to the future, what excites you most about the future of the company?
I think about this a lot as a leader at the company. All of Brightspot’s leaders are thinking about it. What excites me most about our future is the convergence of AI and content. AI is rewriting the playbook for every company, but while many are scrambling to retrofit it into their stacks, Brightspot is uniquely positioned to lead. For two decades, we’ve understood how customers create, manage and architect content. That foundation allows us to embed AI not as lip service or piecemeal features, but as a core enabler at the heart of our platform.
What drives me is those moments when a customer asks, “Can I do this?” and we can say, “Yes, you can.” Seeing their eyes light up as they realize the possibilities — that’s the fuel. Great products are defined by subtle but powerful moments of delight, like when your iPhone just works or Netflix nails a recommendation. AI lets us deliver more of those intuitive, almost magical experiences.
At the end of the day, the future is about delighting our customers, helping them move faster, create more impact and unlock opportunities they didn’t think were possible. That’s what excites me.
Can you tell me about your role as President & Chief Product Officer at Brightspot? What is a typical day like for you?
My calendar probably thinks it belongs to three different people. There’s a lot of context switching in this role. On any given day, I make sure to carve out a couple of hours for deep thinking; without that, I’d be doing the organization a disservice. That time is essential for tackling the big questions: What’s our north star? Where do we want to be in two years? And how do we work backwards from that vision to the activities of today?
Beyond that, my day tends to fall into four big buckets: customer strategy, product prioritization, platform vision and go-to-market alignment. Then there’s operational calibration to help the organization get sharper and stronger, so we’re ready for the next frontier.
The specifics vary hour to hour. One moment I might be deep in a product trade-off conversation, the next helping a customer with a deployment, reviewing competitive teardowns, scanning Gartner reports to understand where the market is heading or digging into accessibility trends. Accessibility is a big focus for us, and we have a real commitment to making sure every site we power is truly inclusive.
The truth is, no two days look alike, and that’s what makes it exciting. But there’s a common thread: it’s not activity for activity’s sake. Every action is intentional, and every action pushes us forward. Someone once told me: don’t mistake activity for progress. I try to live that by making sure the busyness builds momentum and accelerates the company. That’s what a typical day looks like for me.
How do you think Brightspot CMS best benefits our customers?
The way Brightspot benefits our customers comes down to two things: speed and sanity. Too often, customers mistake haste for speed. They’ll come to us after a failed implementation that was fast but chaotic. Our approach is different; we execute methodically, mindfully and in alignment with their content strategy. That balance is what allows us to deliver both velocity and confidence.
From there, everything we’ve built in our CMS is designed to make life easier for customers. Our API is powerful yet simple. Launching on Brightspot is fast. Iterating digital experiences is frictionless. We don’t create barriers. We give customers enterprise strength with extreme flexibility.
That combination is rare. A lot of platforms grow more painful as they grow more powerful because usability takes a back seat. We’ve gone the other way: our focus on the customer journey ensures simplicity on the surface while keeping the full power of multisite, multi-language and multi-role capabilities under the hood.
At the end of the day, that’s our superpower: enterprise-grade power without enterprise-grade pain. Customers get the scale and security they need, but with the agility to move fast, adapt quickly and focus on growth.
What are the two to three most significant opportunities that AI will unlock for our platform in the near term?
For us, AI isn’t just a feature or a bolt-on capability. It’s an accelerant for everything we do. We’re embedding AI across our entire platform, in every form, every widget, every workflow. It’s not product plus AI; it’s product with AI at its core. That’s the real differentiator in how Brightspot approaches this shift.
Looking at near-term opportunities, there are two big ones.
One, intelligent workflow orchestration. Think of all the repetitive, cookie-cutter tasks that slow teams down. AI can handle those seamlessly, under the creator’s guidance. Importantly, this isn’t about ceding control to AI. It’s about AI working with you, doing the heavy lifting so you can focus on strategy and creativity. This orchestration is already in play on our platform, and we’re doubling down to expand it.
Two, hyper-personalized content delivery. AI unlocks the ability to truly meet audiences where they are. One article doesn’t have to be “one-size-fits-all.” With Brightspot, that same piece can be personalized dynamically for different cohorts, or even individuals. That kind of true personalization at scale is a game-changer for engagement.
Those two opportunities — automating the mundane and personalizing the meaningful — are what I see as the most significant near-term unlocks. Together, they make our CMS not just powerful, but transformative.
What’s the best piece of career advice that you have received or that you like to share with others?
I’ve had a lot of great mentors over the years, but the best advice I’ve received is this: run to the fire. Growth happens in discomfort, not when things are easy. Broken processes, tough stakeholders, scary P&Ls... avoiding the hard stuff doesn’t make it go away. It just festers and eventually ruins companies. The real progress happens when people lean in, talk about the tough things and solve them together. Startups may be built by heroes, but enterprises that scale are built by great teams solving problems together.
Another piece of advice I live by is to always assume good intent. If you walk into a room expecting the worst from people, you build walls immediately. But if you start from the belief that everyone’s here to collaborate and create a better outcome, it completely changes the dynamic. It makes tough conversations productive instead of defensive, and it builds the kind of trust that moves organizations forward.
Besides the people, what is your favorite part about working at Brightspot?
Besides the people, what I love most about Brightspot is the speed. We’re not a bureaucratic company. Our velocity is increasing, and you can feel it. We unlock processes quickly and act on ideas fast.
There are many examples of rapid implementation from idea to action, which is rare, and it’s energizing.
We have a strong bias toward action, and that matches me perfectly: less talk, more work. We don’t let grass grow under our feet. Brightspot has the spirit of a startup but the strength of an enterprise. If I had to describe it: we operate with the agility of a McLaren F1 and the power of a Bentley. That blend is what makes this place special.
What are your favorite activities or hobbies to do outside of work?
When I’m not at work, I spend as much time as I can with my family. We’re in Sarasota, Florida, so beaches and pools are a big part of our lives. I also love traveling with them now that my kids are older, including having the time and opportunity to engage in deeper, more meaningful conversations. My daughter and I talk about everything from morality to space, and the kids are finally at the age where board games are competitive. I don’t let them win (though, to be honest, I think they may be letting me win now!). When I had kids, their hobbies became my hobbies, their passions became mine and, honestly, that’s the best hobby I could ask for.
Outside of family time, I dabble in investing in and advising startups and entrepreneurs. It keeps me sharp and humble. My success is owed to so many people who were generous with their time, wisdom and connections, and now having the opportunity to pay it forward to help in some small but meaningful way, that really energizes me and feeds my soul.
The truth is, I’m a workaholic by nature, but I don’t really see my work as “work.” It’s my passion. If I didn’t get paid for it, I’d still be doing it.
You are frequently on the road traveling. Do you have a favorite airport?
It’s funny, but most frequent flyers do end up with a favorite airport. For me, it’s Incheon International in South Korea. The place is so spotless you could practically eat off the floor. Not a scrap of paper, not a thread out of place. Beyond that, it’s beautiful, thoughtfully designed and full of incredible food like bibimbap and Korean tofu soup. Yum! Plenty of airports could make my list, but Incheon is in a class of its own.
If you could have any superpower, which would you like to have? Why?
As you get older, you realize the most valuable currency isn’t money, it’s time. In your 20s, you don’t appreciate it. In your 30s, you rush through it. Now in my 40s, if I could choose a superpower, it would be time dilation: the ability to slow things down. Imagine turning 24 hours into 48. That would give me more time for myself, my work and my family. Not to live forever, not to fly, just to have more of the one resource that matters most. Even something simple like pausing for two minutes to learn a new language like Chinese would suddenly be possible. That would be my superpower.
