A builder who ended up
running the building.
Rich Teachout is Chief Technology Officer at Ashley Furniture Industries, the world's largest furniture manufacturer, where he leads a global technology organization spanning platforms, infrastructure, data, architecture, software development, and emerging technologies.
He brings more than 30 years of hands-on experience across software engineering, data platforms, distributed systems, and applied AI — including patented, privacy-forward advertising technologies built along the way. Those patents are catalogued here.
A servant leader with a builder's credibility, Rich writes and speaks with candor about AI, data, and transformation as they actually happen inside a global enterprise — no vendor slides, no hype. Audiences and readers leave with frameworks they can use Monday morning.
Off the clock he is the #WanderingCTO — an avid off-roader and overlander conquering trails and documenting the journey. It's more than a hobby: it's where the talks on burnout, resilience, and balance come from. That half of life lives at wanderingcto.com.