About Serendipity Connection

Built on the Belief That People Come First

For over two decades, Serendipity Connection has been connecting visionary leaders with the strategy, talent, and technology they need to grow. We are a company of people who believe in people — and that AI is the best thing to happen to human careers in a generation, when approached the right way.

Our Story

Over 20 Years of Connecting Leaders to What's Next

2002

Founded

Serendipity Connection was co-founded by Haden Davis, a technologist and entrepreneur with a conviction that the best business outcomes come from connecting the right leaders to the right opportunities at the right moment. The company began as a focused advisory practice rooted in technology strategy and enterprise transformation.

2002–2019

Advisory Practice

Over nearly two decades, Haden advised Fortune 50 and 500 organizations across finance, healthcare, insurance, entertainment, hospitality, manufacturing, and retail. This period established the core model: fractional executive leadership that delivers enterprise-grade strategy and execution without the full-time cost — and always with a people-first orientation.

2020

Network Expansion

In 2020, Serendipity Connection expanded to offer a full network of executive advisors — bringing together experienced CxO practitioners across technology, operations, human capital, and marketing. This transformed the company from a solo advisory practice into a multidisciplinary collective, giving clients access to a bench of seasoned leaders who collaborate rather than consult in isolation.

2025

Apprenticeship Intermediary Services

Serendipity Connection expanded again in 2025 to launch its apprenticeship intermediary practice — helping employers design, fund, register, and manage DOL-registered apprenticeship programs for AI-enabled roles. This addition connects the company's executive advisory mission directly to workforce development: building the next generation of AI-capable professionals through paid, mentored, and credentialed apprenticeship pathways.

Apprenticeship Programs AI Career Tracks

Meet the Founder

Founder & Principal Advisor

Haden Davis

Technologist. Entrepreneur. Patent Holder. People First.

I help organizations turn complex challenges into measurable business advantage through strategy, governance, and delivery. I believe leadership is the act of taking the initiative to make things better than they started — especially when no one else has stepped forward.

Forbes Recognized Fortune 50 & 500 Veteran Patent Holder Fractional CTOx / CxOx
LinkedIn Profile Get in Touch
Haden Davis — Founder & Principal Advisor, Serendipity Connection
20+
Years Enterprise
Leadership

Core Philosophy

Companies Are Nothing Without Their People

"I don't just see systems — I see the individuals and personalities that shape them. Every transformation I have ever led started with people, and every one that succeeded ended with people who were more capable, more confident, and more valuable than when we started."

— Haden Davis

Over two decades advising Fortune 50 and 500 organizations across finance, healthcare, insurance, entertainment, hospitality, manufacturing, and retail, one truth has remained constant: the most sophisticated technology in the world is worthless without the right people behind it. Systems do not make decisions — people do. Cultures do not build themselves — people do. Companies do not grow — people grow them.

That conviction is the foundation of everything Serendipity Connection does. Whether we are stepping into a fractional advisory role, designing an apprenticeship program, or helping a board navigate AI adoption, the work always begins and ends with investing in the people who will carry it forward.

On Artificial Intelligence

AI Is Not Here to Take Your Job.
It Is Here to Upgrade It.

There is a vision of the AI future that looks like the Jetsons — humans sitting back, pressing a single button to approve whatever the robot already decided. That is not a future worth building toward. That is a future where people become irrelevant, and where the most important thing about you is your willingness to click "approve."

Haden's view is the opposite. AI is the most powerful career accelerator in a generation — but only for the people who learn to work with it. The professionals who thrive will not be the ones who let AI do their thinking. They will be the ones who use AI to think bigger, move faster, and deliver outcomes that were previously impossible.

That is the transformation Serendipity Connection is built to support — helping people take their next career step in a world where AI is a collaborator, not a replacement. Real skills. Real mentorship. Real credentials. Real careers.

Not the Jetsons Future

Passive humans approving AI decisions from a button. Work stripped of meaning, judgment, and human expertise. A workforce that exists to rubberstamp outputs it doesn't understand.

The Real AI Future

Professionals who wield AI as a tool — making sharper decisions, delivering better outcomes, and growing into roles that did not exist five years ago. Careers built on human judgment enhanced by AI capability.

How We Get There

Paid apprenticeships, mentored training, and real AI work experience — so the next generation of professionals arrives in the workforce already capable of leading in an AI-enabled environment.

The Origin

An Inventor's Heart. A Child's Curiosity.

Haden's perspective on leadership was forged in Harlem — immersed in a community of leaders and families connected to Riverside Church, Union Seminary, Columbia University, St. John's Cathedral, and the Upper West Side school systems. This upbringing surrounded him with a blend of spirituality, ethics, and grand intellectual experience that left a permanent mark.

That environment did not just shape his values — it shaped how he sees problems. He approaches every challenge with what he calls an "inventor's heart and a child's curiosity": the willingness to question assumptions, face opposition with courage and good intentions, the drive to build something better, and the humility to keep learning from the people around him.

Those same qualities carried him from hands-on engineering into enterprise-scale innovation, through billion-dollar outcomes, and ultimately to founding Serendipity Connection — a company built on the belief that the best outcomes happen when visionary leadership and invested people work toward the same goal.

Shaped By
  • Harlem, New York
  • Riverside Church community
  • Union Theological Seminary
  • Columbia University network
  • Cathedral of St. John the Divine
Peers Describe Him As
Entrepreneurial Curious Calm Under Pressure Technical Depth People-First Good Humor

Career Journey

From Engineering to Enterprise-Scale Innovation

A career built from the ground up — hands-on technical work evolving into leadership at organizations that shaped the modern digital economy.

Forbes Recognized

Early large-scale e-commerce innovation, recognized by Forbes Magazine before e-commerce was mainstream

Global Transformations

Led digital transformations for global brands spanning finance, healthcare, retail, entertainment, and more

Cloud Pioneer

Modernized international banking platforms through early cloud operationalization, ahead of the industry curve

Retail Innovation

Bridged digital and physical retail through innovative customer experience design at enterprise scale

Red Hat — Senior Leader, Software Consulting Services

Global Strategic Accounts · Financial Services Industry

Part of the $34B IBM trajectory

As a Senior Leader of software consulting services and sales for Global Strategic Accounts in financial services, Haden helped build the people, the culture, and the services methodologies that resulted in higher employee retention, higher customer satisfaction, and increased revenue and bookings. He found innovative ways to sell, contract, mentor, and deliver leading-edge consulting services for open source technologies at a time when open source in the enterprise was still a bold bet.

$0→$20M
Insurer bookings in 4 years
2,000%
YoY revenue growth peak
Top 1%
Leadership score, 19K employees
50→2K+
Amentra team growth
  • Orchestrated a first-of-its-kind portfolio planning methodology, driving exponential revenue growth (100%–2,000% YoY) and enabling a major insurer to scale from $0 to $20M in annual bookings within 4 years
  • Helped grow Amentra from 50 people to 2,000+ employees, becoming Red Hat's global consulting services division — acquired a second time by IBM in 2019 as part of the $34B deal
  • Managed teams of Principal Architects, achieving top 1% leadership satisfaction scores in a global survey of 19,000 employees
  • Collaborated with global finance and payments experts to evaluate emerging technologies (AI/ML, Web3, CBDCs, blockchain) for Fortune 100 financial services clients
  • Sponsored enterprise-scale SAFe Agile delivery programs, improving success rates, customer satisfaction, and delivery predictability across a global portfolio

Amentra — Senior Technology Consultant

2005–2008 · Enterprise Web Platforms

Became Red Hat's global consulting arm

At Amentra — which would later grow from 50 to 2,000+ employees and become Red Hat's global consulting division — Haden delivered enterprise platform transformations for marquee clients, building reputation as an architect who could handle both technical depth and executive-level delivery.

  • Marvel.com web modernization — led architecture and delivery of a full platform overhaul for one of the most iconic entertainment brands on the web, including the launch of an online comic book reader that brought Marvel's catalog directly to fans in the browser
  • GEICO "15-Minute Quote" platform — engineered the customer-facing digital quoting system behind GEICO's flagship marketing promise, requiring precision performance at scale
  • Contributed to sales governance and delivery frameworks that helped position Amentra for acquisition and exponential growth post-Red Hat integration

Evolvian — Director of Product Development

2002–2004 · Startup · Anti-Spam Technology

Provisional Patent Holder

As Director of Product Development at Evolvian, Haden led the design and delivery of a novel anti-spam platform at a time when email security was a Wild West. The work combined deep technical execution with product strategy — and ended with a provisional patent and a project delivered under budget and ahead of schedule.

Patent Filed
Anti-spam provisional patent
Under Budget
Delivered within financial targets
Ahead of Schedule
Early delivery on all milestones
  • Defined product roadmap and technical architecture for a commercial anti-spam solution targeting enterprise email systems
  • Filed provisional patent for core anti-spam methodology — demonstrating early instinct for protecting intellectual property alongside product development

Tallán / BDS / CMGI Solutions — Senior Product Developer

1998–2002 · Embedded at Barnes & Noble · E-Commerce & In-Store Technology

Part of the $1B+ CMGI trajectory

Embedded at Barnes & Noble across the Tallán → BDS → CMGI Solutions consulting lineage, Haden was a Senior Product Developer responsible for building retail technology that was genuinely new — both in-store and online. His work combined physical retail innovation with the emerging frontier of web commerce.

  • First in-store kiosk system for Barnes & Noble — designed and built the original kiosk platform that allowed retail customers to search inventory, look up titles, and access store information, at a time when in-store digital experiences were essentially non-existent
  • Data replication architecture — architected a system to keep inventory and catalog data synchronized across distributed retail locations and web systems, solving a real-time consistency problem central to Barnes & Noble's omnichannel ambitions
  • Operated across three companies through acquisition — BDS became Tallán became CMGI Solutions — gaining early experience in navigating organizational transformation without losing delivery momentum

CMGI Solutions was part of the CMGI Inc. internet conglomerate — one of the defining ventures of the dot-com era, with a peak market cap of $40B+.

Crutchfield — Early E-Commerce Pioneer, Architect & Web Developer

1995 · Before E-Commerce Toolkits Existed

Forbes Magazine Recognized

In 1995 — when the World Wide Web was barely a year old as a public platform and no e-commerce frameworks or toolkits existed — Haden designed and developed Crutchfield's website from scratch. He built the CGI application with database connection pooling and a Netscape Server plugin to track sessions, manage shopping carts and user accounts, confirm automobile fit for car stereos, and allow customers to purchase products entirely online. Everything purpose-built. Everything original. The result became one of the most recognized e-commerce destinations on the internet.

Forbes Magazine

Page 42 of the April 6, 1998 issue (ASAP insert) called Crutchfield "...a direct mailer executing to perfection on the Internet."

CNBC — #1 Electronics Shopping

A CNBC news piece on internet shopping named Crutchfield's website the #1 electronics shopping site — December 19, 1997.

ComputerWorld — #1 Ranked

ComputerWorld ranked Crutchfield the #1 electronics online shopping site — December 15, 1997.

BizRate® — Highest Dynamic Score

Earned the highest dynamic score of all customer-reviewed commerce sites listed on BizRate® — October 27, 1997.

What Was Built — From Scratch, in 1995

  • CGI application with database connection pooling
  • Custom Netscape Server plugin for session tracking
  • Shopping cart and user account management
  • Automobile fit verification for car stereo purchases
  • Full online product purchasing capability
  • No e-commerce toolkits or frameworks existed at the time
Read the Crutchfield Story — Chapter 3

Inventor & Early Innovator

Dozy Cozy patent red ribbon page Dozy Cozy crib attachment product

Dozy Cozy Crib Attachment

US Patent No. 6,799,337 · Issued 2004

Co-invented with Danielle Raphael, the Dozy Cozy is a patented system of decorative, padded panels that attach to the exterior of a baby crib — combining themed design with practical storage pockets at both adult and toddler height. An early example of Haden's "inventor's heart": seeing a gap, designing a solution, and seeing it through to a granted patent.

View Patent US6799337B1
Foodict Gourmet Food Dictionary App Foodict on the Apple App Store

Foodict — Gourmet Food Dictionary

Early iPhone App · The Serendipity Connection, Inc.

One of the earliest iPhone apps published under The Serendipity Connection, Inc., Foodict was a gourmet food dictionary containing over 2,100 culinary terms — definitions, countries of origin, and context — for everyone from the gastronomical newcomer to the seasoned foodie. No internet connection required. Built at the dawn of the App Store, it demonstrated Haden's instinct for spotting where technology could meet an everyday human need in a simple, elegant way.

2,100+ Food Terms No Internet Required Early App Store
BullShift Media — Tidal Wave cover

BullShift Media

AI-Curated News Intelligence Platform · Founder

Long before "AI news aggregation" became a product category, Haden built BullShift — a platform that placed citizen journalists, social media live posts, and mainstream news sources side-by-side for the same events and stories, enabling readers to compare narratives directly rather than consume a single editorial perspective.

Sources spanned Telegram, X/Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, 4chan, 8kun, and dozens of news outlets — ingested through a multi-channel pipeline including email feeds, data APIs, and custom scrapers. AI enrichment analyzed each piece of content for logical fallacies and opinion-manipulation techniques, surfacing those assessments alongside the content itself.

Citizen Journalism Fallacy Detection Multi-Source Feeds Email + API Pipeline

Contributed to Billion-Dollar Growth Trajectories

$1B+
Growth Trajectory
BDS
Tallan
CMGI Solutions — $1B outcome
$34B+
Growth Trajectory
Amentra
Red Hat
IBM — $34B outcome

Education & Continuous Learning

Never Stopped Learning

A computer science foundation from Virginia Tech, deepened over 25+ years by executive education, applied AI research, and entrepreneurial specialization.

Wharton School — CTO Executive Education

University of Pennsylvania · 2025–2026

  • Leading a student organization for CTO peers within the program cohort
  • Collaborating on Modern CTO's Handbook — an open-source resource for technology executives navigating the AI era

Carnegie Mellon — Deep Learning for AI Certificate

May 2025 · GPA 3.95

  • Built a PyTorch-equivalent deep learning framework from scratch — no library shortcuts
  • Completed with a 3.95 GPA, demonstrating hands-on mastery of neural network fundamentals

Wharton School — Entrepreneurship Specialization

University of Pennsylvania · 2020–2022 · GPA 3.88

Deep focus on venture launch, growth strategy, and entrepreneurial finance — earned while founding and building Serendipity Connection.

Virginia Tech — B.S. Computer Science

Minor in Mathematics

Foundational degree in computer science with a mathematics minor — the technical bedrock underlying 25+ years of platform architecture, product development, and executive leadership.

What He Stands For

Integrity, Accountability, and Steady Execution

Personal and professional trials have tested his resolve — and strengthened it. These are not just values he talks about. They are the way he shows up.

Integrity First

He brings the same honesty to every advisory role that he would to his own business. No overpromising. No overbuilding. No overhiring. Just clear-eyed counsel and accountable execution.

Investing in People

Beyond technology strategy, Haden invests in people. He builds culture and sustainable talent pipelines through mentorship, subsidies, and directed innovation — because the best ROI in any organization is a well-developed human being.

Clarity From Complexity

His signature contribution in every engagement: turning complexity into clarity — and then turning that clarity into execution. Strategy that cannot be acted on is just noise.

"I turn complexity into clarity, integrity, and execution."

— Haden Davis

Why He Built This

Serendipity Connection is more than the name of a company

After two decades watching organizations struggle to connect great strategy to great execution — and watching talented people get left behind by technological change they were never given the tools to navigate — Haden built the company he had always wished was available.

A firm that brings together visionary leaders with transformative advisors. That invests in people as seriously as it invests in technology. That treats AI as a human accelerator, not a human replacement. And that creates real pathways — funded, mentored, and credentialed — for the next generation of professionals to step confidently into an AI-enabled future.

Strategic by Design

Every engagement is rooted in business outcomes.

People as the Product

Workforce development is not a side service — it is core to the mission of building organizations that last.

AI as an Accelerator, Not a Replacement

The goal is professionals who wield AI with confidence — not workers who have been made passive by it.

Grounded in Integrity

Built on the same values Haden has carried from Harlem to the Fortune 50 — courage, accountability, and genuine care for the people involved.

Let's Work Together

Whether you need executive advisory, want to build an apprenticeship program, or are looking to start a conversation about your organization's AI readiness — Haden and the Serendipity Connection team are ready to listen first and advise second.

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