About me

Hi, I’m James — welcome to my tech leadership blog. I’m a team lead, senior developer, and lifelong technologist with over 30 years of experience building software in finance, energy, and healthcare. For the past six years, I’ve been leading remote-first development teams, balancing deep technical thinking with a human-centered leadership style rooted in trust, empowerment, and reflection.

I didn’t set out to be a leader — I grew into it. My path has been shaped not just by code, but by people: colleagues who inspired me, managers who shielded me so I could flourish, and the team I now support and learn from every day.

I started The Reflective Lead to share the ideas, challenges, and hard-earned lessons that emerge when you try to lead with integrity in a fast-moving tech world. This is a space for thoughtful conversations about leadership, AI, remote work, and building resilient, people-first teams.

Outside of work, I live in Bulgaria with my wife, where we enjoy creativity, simplicity, and the occasional surprise from the countryside.

You can start reading my latest posts at my homepage or start from my welcome post.

Thanks for being here — I hope something in these posts resonates with your own journey.