Zack Stor

I'm a technology leader who's spent fifteen years as the person accountable when things go wrong — not the person who recommended something and left before the consequences arrived. That's meant building data platforms, automating compliance, managing vendors, and leading teams across fintech, nonprofit, legal, and enterprise organizations ranging from 8-person startups to national networks.

Most of my career has been spent as a player-coach: writing the SQL and building the pipelines while simultaneously managing the team, negotiating with vendors, and explaining tradeoffs to executives. I've discovered falsified audit reports, hot-swapped critical vendors overnight, rebuilt data credibility after multiple failed attempts, and compressed a three-week profit distribution into one day. The common thread is bridging the gap between what the technology can do and what the organization actually needs — then doing the work to close it.

I write here about what I've learned: the vendor decisions, the compliance surprises, the metrics arguments, and the things nobody tells you until it's too late. If something resonates, I'd like to hear about it.

I occasionally take on consulting engagements. If something I've written resonates and you want to talk, email zack@zsstor.com.