Bio:
Paul has been doing AI for over 20 years. Before AI was a term, we labeled it Large Language Model (LLM), before that it was labeled machine learning, before that it was labeled Business workflow, before that it was labeled document management. Paul has 2 kids 9 and 11 that are his life. He has extensive knowledge on network engineering, database design and tuning, storage solutions and san, active directory, websphere, windows, linux, openshift, azure, cloud platforms,
Paul found his passion for computer systems at the age of 8 when his dad brought home a 386 dx2 and paul came home one day from school and took it apart. Every piece, hard drive, modem, memory, processor, everything but the motherboard. Paul’s dad Gary showed amazing restraint when Gary came home from work and discovered that Paul had taken apart that computer. Paul’s dad opened the door, his eyes got big, and all his Dad said was “You put that before you come up for dinner and it better work.”, and calmly closed the door and walked out to the garage. Paul thought “oh no, I’m in trouble now”. Paul successfully reassembled the computer and it still worked. From that point, Paul has always had a passion for computers. At the age of 12, when Paul’s dad realized his talent and realized that Paul had superceded his Dad's abilities; Paul’s dad took Paul to his Uncle Kevin, who worked at St. Mary’s college in Winona, MN as a computer programmer. Kevin, along with his friend Mark, challenged Paul to build a computer and install a linux (slackware) operating system. Kevin and Mark assumed that it would take Paul all weekend. In the end, at around midnight that night, Paul had it all put together and up and functioning with the OS installed around 1:00 am. I remember Mark making a comment to my dad and my uncle "That kid has a very bright future, keep him going."
Paul went on to graduate from Hutchinson, MN. Then he attended college at Mankato State University for electrical engineering and later moved to Gresham OR, where he initially sold cars for Ron Tonkin Toyota. While starting an his bachelors degree in Network Engineering and Administration with American Continental University. He eventually had a bad month selling cars, and his boss told him that he had to make a choice of either selling cars, or going to school. Paul quit immediately, found a new job working at best buy in Portland, OR. Paul eventually found a better job working at Signature Graphics in Portland, OR. Where they ran bulk mailings as well as vote by mail elections ballots where Paul was responsible for importing, inspecting the data, and then walk sorting the ballots. Paul also functioned as the mssql dba as well as vb6 programmer for that application.
Paul eventually found a better job back in Minnesota at US Bank at the riverbank location off of Shepard Road where he began his journey into enterprise content management (ECM). Paul Thompson (Paul’s boss) immediately recognized Paul’s ability, and Paul quickly ascended from junior developer, to eventually senior administrator. Along the way paul learned C#, .net, java, websphere, filenet p8, Oracle, SAN, WORM, and increased his network engineering skills. Paul would eventually leave US Bank seeking a better work/life balance to go to supervalue. Supervalue provided great work, but Paul found a better offer 6 months later with Hennepin County where he still works full time. Over the next 10 years Paul would start a family, and would suffer many family tragedies and he is forever greatful to Hennepin County for all of their understanding and support. Hennepin county provided Paul with further knowledge in IBM Business Automation Workflow, FileNet P8 , Websphere administration and Microsoft SQL server tuning.
