ABOUT MIKE
A translator who keeps building things.
I work where professional judgment, operating systems, and technology overlap—and where ‘mostly correct’ is usually not good enough.
THE SHORT VERSION
I’m a CPA who learned code for the same reason practical people usually do: I got tired of doing the same annoying thing twice.
Most of my professional work sits in governmental and not-for-profit audit: Single Audits, ACFRs, GASB and FASB reporting, internal controls, testing, client communication, and the hundreds of small decisions that determine whether complicated work runs smoothly or turns into a swamp.
That work trained me to look for evidence, ownership, handoffs, exceptions, and failure modes. It also made me suspicious of any system—software or otherwise—that looks elegant in a diagram but cannot survive contact with the real work.
Curiosity and frustration pulled me toward Excel automation, scripting, Linux, APIs, Python, JavaScript, databases, Docker, and eventually AI agents and local-first software. I’m not interested in technology as decoration. I’m interested in whether it helps a human do better work.
HOW I THINK
Four systems. One operating style.
The technical domains differ. The habits underneath them are remarkably consistent: define the state, trace the evidence, design the handoff, and make failure visible.
TIMELINE
A career built at the intersections.
B.S. Accounting
University of Central Florida
Master of Accountancy
University of Central Florida
Public accounting
Began serving governmental and nonprofit organizations
Florida CPA
Licensed in the State of Florida
Senior
Expanded responsibility for complex engagements and teams
Audit Manager
Multi-state client leadership, training, and advisory work
Builder & translator
Finance, AI, software, systems, and professional education
A FEW THINGS I BELIEVE
Real work is messier than diagrams.
The demo is not the workflow.
If a process requires heroics, the process is broken.
Documentation is part of the product.
Training is the transfer of context—not just tasks.
Being usefully weird is a legitimate career strategy.