Management Consultant • CEO • Board Member • Passionate Professor • Technology Enthusiast • Music Lover • Amateur Geologist • Dedicated Dad
Chicago, IL
Joined July 2008
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I've spent a lot of my career watching modernization programs stall, and I think part of the reason is that we've been using one word for two very different problems.
Tech debt is a shortcut somebody chose, and it can be paid back. But the mainframe, the on-prem estate, the first cloud architecture, nobody cut a corner there. Those were good decisions that time overtook. That isn't debt. It behaves like gravity: you can't repay it; you can only escape it.
Once you see the difference, a lot of things start to make sense. Why the board keeps hearing the same number get bigger. Why the CFO trims the ask. Why funding most of what's needed gets you orbit instead of escape.
I wrote up the idea here. Curious whether it matches your experience.
💡 acceligence insights: Most of what you call “tech debt” was never a shortcut
Legitimate technology decisions, overtaken by time, behave differently from debt. Funding them as if they were debt is why modernization stalls.
🔗 Read the whole article at: hubs.la/Q04xvb-V0
☑️ AI can make an organization extraordinarily busy without necessarily making it more productive.
That may be the most important lesson for executives from Meta’s reported experience trying to dramatically reshape its workforce around AI.
In his latest Computerworld article, Evan Schuman examines what happened when ambitious expectations for AI collided with the realities of enterprise execution. The story offers three important takeaways for leaders:
1. 📊 Measure outcomes, not just AI activity.
More code, more analysis, more content, and more automated actions can look like productivity. But volume is a poor substitute for business value. Leaders need to connect AI investments to measurable improvements in revenue, cost, speed, quality, resilience, or customer experience.
2. ⚙️ Automation can create work as quickly as it eliminates it.
Every AI-generated output may require validation, security, integration, governance, maintenance, or correction. The productivity equation needs to account for the entire lifecycle of the work, not simply how quickly AI can produce it.
3. 🛠️ The opportunity is still enormous, but execution matters.
This is not an argument for slowing AI adoption. It is an argument for getting smarter about it. Organizations that establish clear outcomes, redesign workflows to leverage human and machine strengths, and scale proven use cases have an opportunity to create significantly more value than those that simply pursue automation for its own sake.
💬 As acceligence CEO Justin Greis told Computerworld:
“AI can make an organization extraordinarily busy without necessarily making it more productive. We have spent decades teaching technology leaders that lines of code, closed tickets, and launched projects are imperfect proxies for business value. AI makes that measurement problem much more acute because it can manufacture activity at machine speed.”
📌 The executive question is:
“What measurable business outcome improved because AI produced it?”
⭐ That is a much higher bar than asking how much work AI can generate. It is also where the real opportunity begins.
🔗 Read the full article here: hubs.la/Q04vx3f_0
🔎 Disaster recovery has a funny way of exposing risks you didn’t know you had.
Jeff Valdes, CBCP and I wrote about one of the biggest: the explosion of hidden third-party dependencies across SaaS, cloud, AI, communications, infrastructure, and increasingly, the systems that quietly keep the business running.
But the opportunity is bigger than better DR planning. A rigorous recovery exercise can become the forcing function to map critical dependencies, understand where control really sits, identify concentration risk, and make smarter decisions across cyber, resilience, compliance, and even M&A.
The best tabletop exercises don’t just ask, “Can we recover?” They help leaders understand what the business actually depends on, and that knowledge is incredibly valuable long before disaster strikes.
🤔 Why is disaster recovery always such a disaster?
💡 A new piece from Jeff and me in acceligence insights at: acceligence.com/insights/202…
💡 acceligence insights: Why is disaster recovery always such a disaster?
There are many reasons for the DR difficulties, but the most daunting is the staggering increase in hidden third-party dependencies. Few tabletops bother to meaningfully identify most of them.
🔗 Read the article by Justin Greis and Jeff Valdes at: hubs.la/Q04vgRYm0
Very grateful to be recognized by @CrainsChicago as a 2026 Notable Leader in Accounting, Consulting & Law.
More than anything, this recognition has me reflecting on the people who have shaped my journey over the past 25+ years. I’ve been incredibly fortunate to work with clients, colleagues, mentors, and friends (many of whom check all of those boxes) who have trusted me, challenged me, and helped me grow along the way.
And, of course, I’m especially grateful to my family, who have always been the “why” behind the journey.
Thank you to Crain’s for the recognition, and congratulations to all of this year’s honorees. I’m proud to be included among such an amazing group of Chicago business leaders.
🙏 A BIG THANK YOU TO...
Andrew MacKenzie • Angela C. Williams • Bob Patton • Brian Kelly • David Neuman • Dillon Dieffenbach • Edna Conway • Ian Schneller • Jason Lipschultz • Jeff Valdes, CBCP • John Orlando • Karianne Michelle • Kevin W. Farrell, Ph.D. • Mark Gerstein • Dr. Mary Kay V., SPHR • Michael Yadgar • Michael Casey • Mike Chibbaro • Neil Novich • Nidhi Luthra • Norman Lonergan • Patrick Hopkins • Paul Bierbusse • Pilar Dostal • Ramesh Venkataraman • Ryan Sparks • Stephan Nicklow • Tom Coburn • William Lin • Yuri Goryunov • acceligence • EY • McKinsey & Company • NACD (National Association of Corporate Directors) • Ravinia Festival • Indiana University - Kelley School of Business
...I would not be here today without you! ❤️
📣 acceligence press release: Justin Greis named 2026 Notable Leader in Accounting, Consulting & Law by Crain’s Chicago Business
Chicago, Illinois - August 17, 2026 - Justin Greis, founder and CEO of acceligence, has been named a 2026 Notable Leader in Accounting, Consulting & Law by Crain’s Chicago Business.
Crain’s Chicago Business’ 2026 feature recognizes 135 professionals across accounting, consulting, and law whose work shapes business, civic life, and the courts. The honorees guide clients through high-stakes matters involving transactions, regulatory change, growth strategy, and other critical business decisions. Justin Greis is among this year’s honorees.
🔗 Read the full press release at: hubs.la/Q04t8CP80
🎤 Wow, what a night! @chancetherapper was incredible, and it was amazing to see Ravinia Festival come alive and sparkle. Experiences like this remind us of the power of music to bring people together and turn an evening into a lasting memory.
👇 Check out one of my favorite photos below.
One of the things I love about experiences like this is the reminder that music is more than a hobby or interest; it's a universal community. Across generations, backgrounds, and tastes, a great performance creates a shared moment that stays with you long after the final note.
🎶 And the season is just getting started. Tonight (August 9, 2026) features Hugh Jackman with the Chicago Philharmonic, followed by Brian McKnight & Gladys Knight on Tuesday. The lineup continues with incredible artists like Joe Bonamassa, Ricky Martin, Bonnie Raitt, Brandi Carlile, Snoop Dogg, Rod Stewart/Richard Marx, Jacob Collier, and so many more.
Ravinia truly has something for everyone. Whether you love rock, jazz, classical, pop, hip-hop, country, or anything in between, it remains one of Chicago’s greatest summer traditions and a place where the musical omnivore can always find something new to enjoy.
🗓️ Check out the full schedule at ravinia.org/events.
🎶 One of my favorite summer traditions is spending evenings at Ravinia Festival.
Looking back through some of my favorite moments from last season, I'm reminded that Ravinia is about so much more than great performances. It's about time with family and friends, unforgettable summer evenings, and connecting through the universal language of music. Looking through my photos, there are far too many memories to fit into a single post.
As we count down to Saturday's season kickoff, the anticipation feels even greater this year. The beautifully renovated Hunter Pavilion is ready to welcome audiences, the lawn is lush, and the park is buzzing with excitement. I can't wait to create more memories at one of my favorite places to spend a summer evening.
I'm also incredibly proud that acceligence is a Mainstage Sponsor for such an important, mission-driven organization. Ravinia enriches our communities, brings people together, and makes the arts accessible. Supporting that mission is deeply important to us.
If you haven't explored this year's lineup yet, I highly recommend taking a look at hubs.la/Q04pb45Z0. Whether it's your first visit or your five hundredth, there's something special about discovering an artist you love - or a genre you've never experienced - packing a picnic, and enjoying an unforgettable evening under the stars.
🤘 Here's to another amazing season. I hope to see you there!
🙆♂️ "Human in the loop" only works if the human has accurate information. As AI agents become trusted participants in the enterprise, governance has to extend beyond model behavior to include permissions, trust boundaries, and accountability. Thanks to Evan Schuman and CSO Online for including my perspective in the discussion.
🤔 What happens when the "human in the loop" is making decisions with incomplete information?
Most conversations about AI security focus on what the model knows. The more pertinent question is what the model is allowed to do.
As AI agents move beyond generating code and begin interacting with filesystems, development tools, cloud platforms, and enterprise applications, every permission they receive becomes part of your organization's attack surface.
This week's research on AI coding assistants is a reminder that AI agents are evolving from productivity tools into trusted enterprise participants. That changes the governance conversation.
We need to govern AI agents the same way we govern privileged identities:
📂 What can they access?
🎛️ What can they change?
💻 What systems can they invoke?
✅ How do we verify what they're actually doing?
🔍 How do we audit their actions?
The future of AI security will be defined as much by governance as model capability.
Thanks to CSO Online for including acceligence's perspective in the discussion.
👇 See link to article in CSO Online below: "AI coding tool hole illustrates a big problem with human in the loop"
#ArtificialIntelligence #AIGovernance #CyberSecurity #EnterpriseAI #AgenticAI #ResponsibleAI
I enjoyed contributing to this @Computerworld piece on the growing governance challenges surrounding AI meeting assistants.
One of the things I find most interesting about this moment is that we're still talking about AI as though it's another APPLICATION to deploy rather than a PERSON who earned a seat at the meeting because they are trusted, trained, and understand the rules for participating. Those are all settings that need to be configured, and they can vary wildly by person, organization, geography, or topic.
The reality is that AI will increasingly participate in work alongside people, making governance, trust, accountability, and organizational design just as important as the technology itself. I suspect that, a few years from now, AI note takers will feel like a no-brainer, but for now, it still makes many people nervous, and for good reason! As I shared with Evan Schuman in the article, AI note takers are "...simultaneously incredibly valuable and outrageously risky!"
For me, they play a huge part in my daily workflow, but I am all too happy to turn them off and have a good old-fashioned 1:1 conversation.
How are you thinking about AI note-taking assistants? 👍 or 👎
🏷️ @acceligence • @JustinGreisCom
🤖 Today's AI note takers are simply the first AI participants in the enterprise.
Over the next few years, AI agents won't just summarize meetings. They'll extract decisions, assign work, update business systems, prepare follow-up documents, and collaborate with other AI agents after the meeting ends.
In many organizations, that shift has already begun, and that changes the governance conversation entirely.
Meetings rarely stay confined to the agenda. A routine operational discussion can quickly become a conversation about an acquisition, a personnel issue, pending litigation, or a cybersecurity incident.
Governance can't rely on a single decision made before the meeting starts. It needs to become adaptive, allowing organizations to adjust protections as context and risk evolve.
The bigger challenge, however, isn't technical. It's human.
If the governed experience creates too much friction, employees will naturally gravitate toward consumer AI tools outside enterprise oversight. The objective shouldn't be to prevent AI participation. It should be to make the governed path the easiest and most trusted path.
As Justin Greis, CEO of acceligence, shared with Computerworld, organizations should also begin treating AI participants as enterprise identities rather than software features. Every AI agent should have a verified identity, a clearly understood purpose, least-privilege access, clear policies, and complete traceability. Just as importantly, AI needs to be trained. Like any employee, contractor, or business partner, AI must understand an organization's expectations, acceptable use policies, and responsibilities.
The machine-readable workplace is arriving. Organizations that establish trusted AI identities, adaptive governance, and thoughtful user experiences today will be best positioned to scale AI with confidence tomorrow.
Thank you to Evan Schuman and Computerworld for continuing to elevate this important conversation.
🔗 Link to article here: hubs.la/Q04nsvJK0
#ArtificialIntelligence #EnterpriseAI #AIGovernance #DigitalTrust #CIO #Cybersecurity #TechnologyLeadership
✨ Last night was a special evening.
I was honored to be recognized by Consulting Magazine as one of its Top Consultants for 2026, surrounded by so many colleagues and friends I’ve admired throughout my career.
As I reflected on the evening, I found myself thinking less about the recognition and more about the profession itself, a profession I fell in love with long ago. Every major technological shift forces us to rediscover our purpose, and I believe AI is doing exactly that for consulting and professional services.
For a long time, many people thought information was our product. AI is reminding us that it never was. Our greatest value has always been insight, judgment, and trust. That is the irreducible core of what we do, and it matters now more than ever.
I’m grateful to the many clients, colleagues, mentors, and friends who have placed their trust in me over the years. Thank you to the acceligence family, our Advisory Board, Executive Advisors, Consultants, Alliance Partners, and Partners, and to everyone who has made this journey so meaningful.
I’m especially grateful to my kids, who remind me every day why the work matters, not just for them, but for the generations that follow.
Thank you to everyone who has been part of the journey as we build a truly independent, AI-powered, human-centered, expertise-driven management consulting firm.
The best is yet to come! 🚀
🚀 The world of consulting and professional services at large is changing like never before. For those with deep expertise and the humanity to make it stick, there has never been a better, more exciting time to be in these converging professions!
I shared my thoughts on the role of Forward Deployed Engineers, Consultants, contractors, and professional services - in the age of AI - in Evan Schuman's latest @Computerworld article.
🤖 💼 One of the most interesting developments in enterprise AI is how the professional services landscape is changing around it.
Forward-deployed engineers or "FDEs" are blurring the traditional boundaries between software vendors, consultants, and implementation partners. AI providers are moving closer to delivery. Consulting firms are moving deeper into engineering. Everyone is competing to help organizations turn AI capabilities into operational outcomes.
The question for enterprise leaders isn't whether to use outside help - most organizations will - it is whether that help leaves the organization more capable, more resilient, and more independent when the engagement is over.
acceligence CEO, Justin Greis, contributed to Computerworld's latest article examining AI vendor FDEs, vendor lock-in, capability transfer, and the evolving options organizations have for building and deploying AI at scale.
🔗 Link to article: hubs.la/Q04ljbc-0
⚠️ Cyber threats target people and exploit human emotion, not just system vulnerabilities.
📱 I received an SMS phishing attempt today (one of hundreds per week) impersonating the @ILSecOfState and using urgency, fear, and legal language to drive action. This is exactly how modern social engineering works - exploit trust, create pressure, and trigger a reaction before verification.
A few Wednesday-worthy reminders:
👆 Never click links in unexpected text messages
✔️ Verify requests through official channels
🚩 Treat urgency as a red flag, not a call to action
📨 These sorts of attacks extend far beyond email
Cybersecurity is no longer just a tech issue. It’s a leadership, operational, and human-risk issue.
What an amazing couple of days with the NACD and US Secret Service Cybersecurity Board Academy. It was a wonderful event with great discussions and insights from real-life superheroes, experts, and board directors. I was proud to facilitate the “Securing the Board” session and share how to keep Directors safe from cyber threats.
@JustinGreisCom @acceligence
🏎️💨 Speed is easy. Harnessing it safely is the hard part.
〰️The line between IT and the business is gone. Everyone can build. Few can do it responsibly.
📣 This is the new CIO mandate: enable innovation at speed without losing control.
🎚️We call it Safe Velocity.
💡Worth a read by my @acceligence colleague, Yuri Goryunov👇
💡 acceligence insights: The blurred frontier: why the CIO’s new job is safe velocity
Yuri Goryunov shares his perspective on why AI didn't just accelerate delivery - it collapsed the boundary between IT and the business, forcing CIOs to master a new discipline: enabling innovation at speed without letting risk run wild.
🔗 Read more at hubs.la/Q0473r9b0
🚀 Big news for @acceligence today!
I’m incredibly excited to share that David Neuman has joined us as Partner and Chief Operating Officer.
David has spent more than four decades leading cybersecurity and global operations at some of the most complex organizations in the world - from commanding the Air Force’s first cyber hunting unit to securing a $60B global supply chain. He’s also been serving as Chair of our Advisory Board, helping shape the firm behind the scenes.
Now he’s jumping in full-time to help scale the firm and lead our cybersecurity practice.
We’re living through one of the most significant technology shifts of our lifetime as AI reshapes how organizations operate, compete, and defend themselves. That kind of change demands leaders who understand both the technology and the operational realities of running complex enterprises. David is exactly that kind of leader.
More importantly, he’s someone I trust deeply and genuinely enjoy working with - which matters more than any resume line.
Also, after 40 years of leadership experience, he somehow still brings more energy to meetings than the rest of us combined. I’m still trying to figure out how he does that.
Excited for what we’re building together.
👏 Welcome aboard, David.
📰 acceligence news: acceligence appoints global cybersecurity and operations leader David Neuman as Partner and Chief Operating Officer
From commanding the Air Force's first cyber hunting unit to securing a $60 billion global supply chain, David has spent four decades leading organizations through complex technology and security challenges.
Read more at hubs.la/Q045-z1t0
Justin Greis retweeted
This week's market reaction to Anthropic's Claude Code Security rollout signals something bigger than product momentum. It reflects a belief that parts of the security stack may be reordered as AI-native capabilities mature.
Strengthening code security and the SDLC is a win. Models that can reason across large codebases and surface patterns that traditional tools miss represent real progress. But expanding one layer of the stack does not eliminate the rest. EDR, IAM, threat intelligence, and data protection (a few select examples) remain foundational.
What’s changing is the operating model.
AI is decoupling security outcomes from pure headcount growth. Coverage and speed to insight can increase without linear hiring. That shift will reshape strategy, workforce expectations, and competitive dynamics across the industry.
Governance must evolve just as quickly. When foundation models become embedded in development pipelines, elements of your security posture are influenced by systems outside your direct control. The opportunity is significant. So is the responsibility.
@acceligence CEO @JustinGreis shares his perspective with Evan Schuman in @CSOonline on what this means for security leaders navigating the next phase of AI-native defense.
How are you thinking about competitive pressure, workforce evolution, and governance as AI moves deeper into the stack?
🔗 Read the full article here: csoonline.com/article/413629…
👏 Big kudos to PayPal for phasing out SMS-based MFA.
📰 I had the chance to weigh in on this in Evan Schuman's recent CSO Online piece - and he did a great job unpacking the tension between security, cost, and user friction. Appreciate the thoughtful coverage, Evan.
📱 SMS was always better than nothing. But that's a low bar.
📵 SIM swapping and SIM jacking attacks are still rising, and when your second factor is tied to a phone number that can be ported, compromised, or socially engineered, you don't have strong authentication - you have a speed bump.
🥸 And for a brand as heavily spoofed as PayPal, that risk isn't theoretical. Judging from my inbox, PayPal, Norton, and Geek Squad hold the title of the most spoofed brands in my spam folder. 🏆
🏋 The real tension has always been convenience versus security. Leaders worry about friction, security teams worry about exposure. Meanwhile, phishing-resistant options like passkeys and FIDO2 (not to mention authenticators) have been sitting there, waiting for broader adoption 🚩. And while they are not 100% perfect, they are much better than SMS!
🧐 So here's the question: are we optimizing for convenience, or for resilience? Does it have to be a choice with today's modern authentication?
🛬 Curious where others land...
❓❓❓ Is SMS-based MFA still "good enough" in your environment? ❓❓❓
🚩 Reality flag: implementation and adoption of MFA is easier said than done on legacy systems...
🔗 csoonline.com/article/413425…
😱 Oh no! Did you miss the @bishopfox AI & Security Risks panel?
😎 No problem! Check out the replay on their website...
👏 Huge thanks to Andy Chou (Ventrilo), Christie Terrill (Bishop Fox), Kris Kimmerle (RealPage, Inc.), and Nick Selby (EPSD, Inc.) for a fun and insightful panel! And special shout-out to Rachel Chism and Gwen Murphy for orchestrating the whole thing.
🔗 Watch here:bishopfox.com/resources/ai-s…
🏷️ @acceligence • @JustinGreisCom
