As Vice President of Innovation, Digital Solutions, and Data Analytics for Reece USA, a $4B wholesale distribution enterprise, I built the company's Enterprise AI & Innovation function from the ground up as Employee #1, scaling it to 50+ engineers, data scientists, and product professionals. My work spans the full transformation arc: modernizing legacy data on Snowflake, deploying production AI across sales, pricing, and warehouse operations, and shifting a 285-location organization from project-based delivery to a product-based AI-first operating model.
Complementing my operational experience, I am a Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) student at Texas State University, where my research investigates why frontline workers in established organizations adopt or resist AI tools. This work goes beyond technology deployment to examine the human, cultural, and structural barriers that determine whether enterprise AI investments actually stick.
Few executives are simultaneously deploying enterprise AI at scale and researching why organizations fail to adopt it. That combination shapes everything about how I lead, and it's the reason I don't just implement AI strategies, I build the organizational conditions that make them last.
Building AI-First Organizations from the Ground Up.
Areas of Focus
Enterprise AI & Platform Strategy: Designing the systems and governance that make AI deployable at scale, including responsible AI frameworks, data isolation standards, and enterprise-wide model governance.
Digital Transformation & Operating Model: Leading a 50+ person innovation organization representing 45% of total IT, spanning a Director, Senior Manager, and three Managers across engineering, data, and product functions; rebuilt delivery model including nearshore and hybrid execution.
Frontline AI Adoption Research: DBA student at Texas State University, studying why workers in legacy enterprises resist the tools built to help them and what organizations must do differently to make AI sustainable at scale.
Data Strategy & Intelligence: Turning distributed enterprise data into governed, decision-grade assets that drive measurable business outcomes.
“Few people have the ability to bridge rigorous business strategy and emerging technology the way Wallace does. I've watched him stay ahead of the AI curve for years, not as a follower, but as someone who shapes how organizations think about and deploy it. His analytical discipline, combined with a rare instinct for human-centered design, makes him the kind of leader who doesn't just implement AI strategies, he builds the conditions that make them last."
Chris Gloede, Chief Consultant & Transformation Officer, Ricochet
