Jonathan Openshaw

Technology has never been just a career for me. It's been a lifelong pursuit. It started in the late 1980s when it was still possible to build your own PC from parts and genuinely understand every component inside it. That hands-on obsession turned into a consulting practice supporting dozens of small businesses, keeping their networks, desktops, and printers running while helping them navigate whatever came next. When the internet exploded in the early 1990s, I was there connecting users and small businesses to something none of us fully understood yet but knew was going to change everything, and it did! The cloud transition in the 2010s was the next wave, and when my employer at the time shied away from adoption, that was the signal I needed to take a huge leap to another company with the vision to embrace the technology early. That bet paid off, eventually leading to the hospitality industry's first complete migration of its entire datacenter footprint into the cloud. Now AI is the wave, and the pattern is the same: learn it deeply, build with it, and figure out how to govern it before the risk outruns the value. My wife has graciously tolerated decades of late nights studying for certifications and the particular brand of restlessness that comes with chasing emerging technology. We're also avid hikers with a deep passion for national parks, and our family has served for the past 5 years as stewards with the McDowell Sonoran Preserve in Scottsdale. These days I'm supporting my wife's growing passion for teaching mahjong, which has become a wonderful way to build community. My current AI work spans open-source tooling, structured governance protocols, and active pursuit of the IAPP AIGP certification targeting mid-2026. The goal is the same one that's driven every chapter: understand how it actually works, then make it useful for the people who need it.