Good work is builtto stand, to weather,and to stay useful.
Making things for the web since 2001: hand-coded first, design-led always. That belief was on my first portfolio site, and it hasn’t changed.
My first chapter was a small but mighty nonprofit trying to move the world. At DATA and the ONE Campaign I was a team of one, designing and building every page of a global advocacy machine, work that ended up in front of G8 leaders and, with Live 8, an audience of over a billion people. I learned early that a small team and a well-made web page can carry global stakes.
Advertising came next. At Saatchi & Saatchi LA I led creative tech on Toyota’s flagship digital work, and learned what craft under pressure looks like: the deadline holds, and so does the quality.
Then eight years and four roles at Capital One. The work was making bank-grade security feel like nothing at all, and the identity platform behind it drove over $700M in new revenue. Big banking taught me to build teams inside a giant, and to justify every new role by what it shipped.
Meta was big tech at full speed: many teams, constant pivots, and org design practiced as a craft of its own. When AI arrived I didn’t wait for the wave; I founded the Creators org’s first AI design workgroup a year ahead of it. I’m an AI-native practitioner with a technologist’s mindset, the manager who still opens the inspector.
Through all of it, the way I lead hasn’t changed. I build trust, I stay hands-on enough to take the reins when that’s what moves the work, and I keep bringing large organizations new ways of working that meet their goals with fewer resources, inside cultures where people do the best work of their careers.
Here’s where I part ways with a lot of directors. I’ve designed and redesigned plenty of structures, and a good one helps. But structure has never been what decided whether the work turned out good. The right team in an awkward structure beats the wrong team in a perfect one.
A small nonprofit with global reach, big advertising, big banking, big tech: each room asked a different question of the work. Answering them is the preparation for whatever comes next. Home is still Virginia, with my family.
— lawrence · midlothian, virginia