Mike Kail
Chief Technology Officer at Everest.org
Mike D. Kail is the CTO at Everest.org, where he is responsible for the FinTech Cloud Platform and Engineering Teams. Previously, he served as Yahoo's CIO and SVP of Infrastructure and as VP of IT Operations at Netflix. Prior to that, he was VP of IT Operations at Attensity. He has been recognized widely for his insightful industry commentary on Twitter, and was named by the Huffington Post as one of the Top 100 Most Social CIOs on Twitter. He holds a B.S. in Computer Science from Iowa State University.
How did you get to become an expert in your key topics?
I started my career as a Unix SysAdmin with a Computer Science degree, so I have always taken a programmatic approach to automation. I started using AWS Cloud very early on and have never looked back. I have also been CTO at a DevSecOps startup and have spoken on the cultures of DevOps and DevSecOps a number of times.
What topic areas are you most passionate about?
Cloud Infrastructure and Architecture, Cultures of DevOps / DevSecOps.
Which influencers influence you within those key topics?
Mark Thiele, Rob Hirschfeld, Rich Miller, Amy Hermes, Lauren Cooney, Gene Kim, Jayne Groll
Outside of your key topics who else influences you?
Members of the #IDGTechTalk and #CIOchat Twitter chats are always quite brilliant.
How would you describe your offline influence?
Networking with peers/startups is quite strong from an influence perspective. I’ve done a fair amount of blogging in the past, but less so with Everest.org due to being extremely busy. Also I try to speak at a few high quality events per year.
If a brand wanted to work with you, what offline / online activities would you be most interested in?
I’d be most interested in video interviews, podcasts, webinars, and general speaking engagements.
What’s your best source of information for getting ahead of a story?
I use a combination of Twitter and Feedly with RSS feed aggregation from numerous sites
What brands have you worked with?
Constellation Research, IBM, HMG Strategy, Zylo.
Which non-paid activities would you be keen to take part in if the opportunity raised your profile or delivered value to your audience?
I would be keen to co-create long form content (blogs, white papers, ebooks, research), provide a quote for content or news article, share / create a social post, speak at or attend an event, participate in a podcast, webinar or online chat, or create video content.
What are your passions outside of work?
Staying physically fit by working out on my Peloton bike. Watching our oldest son play competitive soccer.
What would be the best way for a brand to contact you?
email: mdkail@gmail.com